Mission Possible C

[davecutting]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

This really is beautiful work! Which two actions did they not count?

Thank you! I'm considering making the boards available for other teams next year at this point. We lost the quarter flip because while the quarter did trigger the next action, it flipped twice. We lost the water action because they didn't like how the water pushed on a ping pong ball that pushed on a lever that completed a circuit - they felt that the water needed to be added to a container with salt in it or something like that to count.

David

[cuber]

Anyone else from NY appalled by how this event was managed yesterday at states?

I ended up missing going up for my mousetrap medal because of the delay in judging. Two of my transfers did not trigger properly because of the time between setup and judging. Worst experience at state level event ever.

[cuber]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

Hey! it's the dude who awkwardly was talking about your mission behind your back lol. Just want to say again how impressed I was with the absolute thorough and elegant engineering that went into your mission, especially this circuit board. Hoping you can take whatever amazing creation you make next year to nationals.

quick q: Were the surface-mounts done by a service, or hand re-flowed? Or did you just manually solder them?

[terence.tan]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

Will you guys eventually post a video of your mission?

[unknownuser2]

Anyone else from NY appalled by how this event was managed yesterday at states?

I ended up missing going up for my mousetrap medal because of the delay in judging. Two of my transfers did not trigger properly because of the time between setup and judging. Worst experience at state level event ever.

What device were you? I was (supposed to be) in the 12:10 time slot, and was in the back corner by the spectator section farthest away from the competitor door. I heard at one point the ES trying to argue that an ice-cube melting wasn't endothermic. They just did not handle it well. As my coach said "It's a fun event but this takes all the fun out of it." As i think I've already said here I went form having a placing machine to a 30th place machine because I just didn't feel like arguing for points and my transfers went stagnant and didn't check my setup.

[davecutting]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

Hey! it's the dude who awkwardly was talking about your mission behind your back lol. Just want to say again how impressed I was with the absolute thorough and elegant engineering that went into your mission, especially this circuit board. Hoping you can take whatever amazing creation you make next year to nationals.

quick q: Were the surface-mounts done by a service, or hand re-flowed? Or did you just manually solder them?

Lol that was great... hearing someone obsessing over your machine without knowing you're there is a really cool feeling. I bought a laser cut stencil, pasted the board, installed the components, then reflowed all of it on a $20 skillet from target. All in all, because it was a one-off, I pumped about $200. Worth every penny for the hassle I avoided, and not once did I have a problem. Only problems were in code, and those are easy to fix.

David

[davecutting]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

Will you guys eventually post a video of your mission?

Yeah I should get some friends together and run it while taking videos of it from all angles. I'm also working on a wiki page. Since we're not going to nationals this year, I want to share out some of the info on my device - that's how we all learn.

David

[NilaiVemula]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

First, I would just like to say congrats on such a good job done on this event. The amount of work and thought put into your device really shows.

What was the purpose of having 3 100 uF capacitors in parallel between your V_BATT and GND? Also, what type of pressure chambers did you use? We weren't able to find any small/cheap enough.

[davecutting]

I got second at NYS last weekend... my score was 1340 and they took two actions - otherwise I had a 30s chem timer (it should have been 1 minute but I set it up wrong) and 12 working actions plus start and finish. It was pretty ridiculous how long we had to wait, but they let us drain the ice water from our device and then add back in fresh water when we were ready to go. I ended up finally getting to the award ceremony when they were already going through "s"... not cool.

I am in process of making a wiki page for my mission that details its construction, and I want to release some details about my PCB that I plan to update for next year based on how the rules go next year. Here's a quick photo.



There's schematics available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sqrSc4 ... sp=sharing

David

First, I would just like to say congrats on such a good job done on this event. The amount of work and thought put into your device really shows.

What was the purpose of having 3 100 uF capacitors in parallel between your V_BATT and GND? Also, what type of pressure chambers did you use? We weren't able to find any small/cheap enough.

Thank you!

Because of the high power draw of various heaters and solenoids on the device, I need to have capacitors on the board to prevent power spikes. There's those three capacitors, and then there's tons of smaller ones on the power supplies (ceramic 0603 packages). The final filtering is accomplished with little 0.1uF capacitors on each microcontroller. Power filtration is a pretty complex subject, so when in doubt the best practice is to over-filter.

Pressure chambers - 1 1/4" PVC tee with half inch threaded "tee" part. Then you glue a cap on one end with a piece of PVC in between and a threaded converter on the other end with PVC in between... then there's a threaded cap on the end. Then you can attach whatever (in my case a push-to-connect 1/4" OD tube fitting) to the threaded tee. Then there's a gear motor that flips the whole thing over around the tee's output. For that I designed and printed a custom part.

You're probably asking how chemicals are separated before mixing. I 3D printed a "table" with a small cup in the top, then when the chamber is flipped the chemicals mix.

David

[Ten086]

Would using a motor to turn a threaded rod and move a wingnut count as an electrical timer if it lasts more than 10 seconds? It seems like it would be electrical if the timing depended on the speed of the motor turning, but mechanical if it depended on the number of winds--any thoughts?