Hello. I’m brand new to robotics. I work in IT, so I’m not completely lost. My daughter’s current coach is out for a while and the school needed someone to fill in to help finish building and programming their gen1 swish robot. It’s a bit of a mess and the kids are going to miss a competition if I can’t solve everything in 4 days. I’ve reviewed the build, noting a few things here and there to add/fix. Long story short and to the problem I don’t know how to solve: the pitch rope that attaches to the catapult arm keeps sliding off as the rope is tightened and the arms lower. Anyone know how to fix this?
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Make sure the pitch rope feeds into the spool, that little plastic thing needs to snap in and have the axle going thru it. Make sure the spool is centered under the arm attachment points.
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The arm end should be attached with a pin, I like the 0-2 pins, they have a flat cap so the clip won’t slide around.
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For the code (If you haven’t figured it out) check the files tab,and check the examples, scroll down until you find the swish hero bot one, and then download it into your brain. 
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it looks like the pin they used doesn’t have anything on the end, so they used a black cap that slides over the plastic part of the pitch rope. The tension pulls them both off the pin.
I haven’t even started the programming part of the build. I don’t know what it needs to do, I saw a video that there is an autonomous section of competition, but it didn’t really go into what it needs to do. The rubber bands seem far too tight to allow the rope to overcome the tension of the rubber bands, looks like the #170 7"x1/4" silicone bands… looks like I’ll need to order them as well.
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That should work. They should use one of the longer “ropes” so it gets a few turns around the drum first so it’s not pulling directly on the pin. Likewise on the upper arm that it’s pulling down, pulling directly on the pin isn’t good.
Score as many balls as possible with the robot driving everything.
So you are in luck. The most recent version of VEX Code for VIQ has a sample program that is the code you need for that robot to be able to drive it. It’s pretty well written and you should be able to follow what it’s doing in driver control.
Get your roboteers to draw out the movements that they want the robot to do. Then figure out the steps. “Turn on the loader, back up 6” and pick up the ball then move forward 26" to the goal. Stop, fire, back up 32", and repeat the pick up the ball, move, fire, backup sequence over and over."
Then work with them on the blocks of the program that does those steps.
#170 Rubber bands in red from Amazon. A pound for $10, next day delivery, more than enough for 5 robots for a season.
Good luck with your season.
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I’ve been able to get new rubber bands, which seems to have solved the tension issue. I’ve wrapped the pitch rope around the inside of the pin on the catapult arm, so that’s solved as well, but the issue I’m having now is that the catapult prematurely goes off as soon as I let off the button to pull it down. It’s almost as if the rear gears have a bit of bounce back after pulling down, which is enough to break contact between them, releasing the catapult. Sorry if I’m asking basic questions. I’ve let the kids and teachers know they’re not going to make their 1st competition, which is disappointing since they had a good season last year.
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Yes, that ratchet setup is a little touchy. I hope to have some time next week to come up with a better setup. Maybe someone will chime in here with their setup.
But as a stop gap the team can also make some adjustments to the rubber band to see if a different anchor (the other end of the band) position will work. There are three sizes of rubber bands to test with. Your team may not have them, but those black rings that are used with the pulley system can be tested to see if they work as a band. All of those experiments look good in the teams design notebooks. (Remember, they give you the parts, how they get USED is up to the team)
It’s fine, you are asking questions the right way “We have this problem, we have tried these things” in standard English (ie Noun Verb pairs and no made up words 
)
While early notice is good, sometimes the fix comes easier and you can make events. And while you may not be able to compete, it’s worth going to the competition to see other teams robots, watch matches for strategy etc. Plus is gives them some time together to build.
You can communicate with the Event Partner and say “our robot is broken, we are still coming, but if we don’t have it working, please pull us out of the match list”. The EP can do that and still leave you the ability to run skills if you get the robot to work.
Just a general aside, you use I / I’m a lot. I’m sure you want to write “the team” but it’s an awkward writing style to learn. Because coaches, even fill-in ones shouldn’t be building the robot. 
I know it’s the team, but others may not be as forgiving of your writing.
Good luck, keep us posted on how the team is making out.
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@wilsms01 Just checking in to see how you are making out. Hopefully you got all your build and programming issues resolved.
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