Red Tailed Hawk Robotics

College.... and the possibilites.

2007-11-10T19:56:00.000-09:00

Well the first month of college was so hectic that I didn't have time for anything. But now everything has calmed down, at least for now. I've been working on quite a few things, but the research project i recently started is dealing with coil guns, or electromagnetic projectile accelerators. I just got a 555 timer circuit up and running for the boost converter, the goal of which is to convert 12v to 120v; although i can settle for anything over 100v. more to come.....

2007-03-21T19:23:00.000-09:00

We've moved over to a sourceforge page located here. The full program is available for download on there, which includes the brand new, hot off the laptop release of the search function add on. Enjoy =)

-phil

2007-03-20T19:01:00.000-09:00

The second release of the program is now available Here. However the add on is not ready yet, you will notice a "open database file" function, this opens up the add on. When the add on is released you will just have to install it and the "open database file" option can be used.

Sneak peak

2007-03-20T18:36:00.000-09:00

Well heres a sneak peak of the latest and greatest addition to the program (ron rocks). This program is now fully integrated with the scouting application and can be run at the same time. It lets you search teams by filters. Check the Screen shot out. Also, the new release will fix the problem with typing team numbers into the combo boxes. It should be released either tonight, or tomorrow, it's being tested as i write this.

The wait is over!!

2007-03-19T15:37:00.000-09:00

The program is now live! on time too!(I'm shocked). You can download the "Beta" from this link . It's been tested, and seems to be stable, however we have not had time to fully test the program at competition. I assure you that it will not harm your computer, however until the SPBLI regional this program will not be "battle tested".

2007-03-18T20:24:00.000-09:00

I failed to mention in my last post the main reason we designed the program to store data in an excel spreadsheet. Well actually there are 2 reasons:

1. So you can print out your scouting information in a readable format (noone would be able to understand a comma delimited text file =P)

and 2. Because you can beam the excel spreadsheet over to a POCKET PC!! now people in the pits can bring the data up without having to call the scouters in the stand, or have them run papers down to them. You would simply have to have someone synchronize the PDA with the computer every few hours.

With that said I'm going to probably head to bed. Stay posted, this program is almost ready for release!!

2007-03-18T12:13:00.000-09:00

Well after a few weeks of work and many hours of frustration this years scouting program is finally done. well almost, this release does not have the search functionality that the next release will. As of now the search function is handled by another program, which allows you to search through teams using filters (IE. has a ramp, can score, autonomous, etc..).We are still working on integrating that program with this one. This program is easy to use, and parses data when the team number is chosen from the combo boxes. Which means that you can add/view data for a team simultaneously. Keep coming back as the program will be released sometime next week.

P.S. This SS was taken on my laptop, which is now running windows vista business =D

-Phil

2007-03-11T16:42:00.000-09:00

Heres a screen shot of the finished program. The program, as well as the instructions will be available shortly. Please keep coming back to check.

2007-03-08T17:14:00.000-09:00

Heres my scouting program as of 5 minutes ago. It's a last minute decision to make it so were rushing a little. Eventually it will take the data and add it to an excel spreadsheet, that way you can view the information without the program. I designed it so i can review the Information on my PDA as well. It has fields for team number, spoiler manipulation, type of bot(lifter, scorer, both), where they can get tubes from, and how many tubes per round. I'm thinking about changing "tubes per round" into "autonomous", or i might leave it and just add another category. Thats all for now, I'll upload more info when it becomes available, hopefully I'll have this ready in time.

Yes i know i'm lazy

2007-03-07T19:00:00.000-09:00

Between the robotics season, my internship, and school i haven't had much time to post a decent blog. I still don't. This year i'm getting that fuzzy feeling inside, the kind of feeling that were going to destroy the competition this year at the SPBLI regional =). I'm main operator (finally!) so we should be doing good. I don't want to give too much info because there are people from FIRST teams that look at this. I got accepted to stony brook! I'm so excited i can't wait to go, and finally learn stuff i can apply to real life.

Variable power supply

2006-09-19T09:44:00.000-09:00

Well i was originally going to mod an ATX power supply for a benchtop one. I need a power supply to run the PIC microcontrollers which require 5 volts. But after talking with some guys in the High voltage chatroom i decided to use the power supply for coilgun parts. So i went on a quest for a cheap variable power supply. I finally decided on the 0-12 volt one from Chaney electronics. It was small, and reliable. (http://www.chaneyelectronics.com/products/power-supplies/c6724.htm). here are some pics of the build. you can get an idea of what the finished thing looks likbe so i dind't include a final pic. I had a problem with the fan though, it was a 12 volt fan and i tied the power leads to the binding posts for the output. only problem was that at around 5 volts it would start to draw power. and would make the output voltage oscilate from 5 to 4.3 volts. If that happened while working ona pic the Pic would brownout every time the voltage dropped below 5 volts. so i had to add a switch to turn off the fan while working on PIC microcontroller. I'm not too worried about overheating the power transistor at 5 volts, but it starts to get hot at around 8 volts.

New blog

2006-05-04T10:43:00.000-09:00

Well it's been a while, The other blog was getting spammed so i created this new one.