New Here

[josh_r]

Hello everyone,

My name is Josh and currently live in Wyoming. I am a junior here in high school and wanted to do something new for the school. Our school doesn’t have many big clubs because we come from a small town with a small school. Recently, I was on youtube and noticed so many videos on “VEX Worlds Reveal”, so I got really intrigued and wanted robotics to be part of my school. I have a few friends who are willing to make a team with me for the competition for next year but we have no idea where to start. I was wondering if anyone here can help us learn about each part, building, and programming. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Josh

[NyQuil]

For building, I would start with this
http://curriculum.vexrobotics.com/curriculum
For coding, if you already have experience, I would start with
http://help.robotc.net/WebHelpVEX/index.htm
If you don’t have any coding experience I would learn a simple language like Python https://www.codecademy.com/learn/all
Hope this helps.

[josh_r]

@Bruhh

For building, I would start with this
http://curriculum.vexrobotics.com/curriculum
For coding, if you already have experience, I would start with
http://help.robotc.net/WebHelpVEX/index.htm
If you don’t have any coding experience I would learn a simple language like Python https://www.codecademy.com/learn/all
Hope this helps.

Thanks! Also, do you know where I can find out information about the parts that go on the robot?

[lacsap]

@josh_r

Thanks! Also, do you know where I can find out information about the parts that go on the robot?

vexrobotics.com

[lacsap]

also look at the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation for information for creating a new team. http://www.roboticseducation.org
Your RECF Regional Support Manager is:
Bill Ryno
(920) 202-8245
[email protected]

[Powerbelly]

Your RECF Regional Support Manager is: Bill Ryno

I would contact him because many times the RECF will offer grants to teams who are at a school that has never had a robotics club/team.

Good Luck and stay active on the forum, it is a great way to learning everything VEX.

[kypyro]

@josh_r

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Josh

The most important event in the yearly VEX schedule is happening this week, so you won’t get the same level of help in the next couple of weeks that you would at another time of year. (VEX Worlds 2017 in Louisville.) Please stick around and keep asking. You might want to watch some match videos, which will give you a feel for how a competition proceeds. Also, ESPN2 had a show about last year’s VEX Worlds competition.
I’m sure you’ll be able to get enough help to get things moving.

Here’s a link to a youtube playlist that @TheColdedge put together from the US Open Green division finals in Iowa recently. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvz3NlItz6gTJZ1Y0Pg6g_zXCfsPJ6-C6

There were also some good match videos in the forum from some North Texas finals; you’ll just need to search for them.

Here is the ESPN2 show, now available on youtube: VEX Robotics World Championship 2016 on ESPN2 - YouTube

[FullMetalMentor]

@kypyro

The most important event in the yearly VEX schedule is happening this week, so you won’t get the same level of help in the next couple of weeks that you would at another time of year…Please stick around and keep asking. …

KYpyro speaks the truth. A lot of us will be busy these next two weeks, so don’t feel ignored if you’re not getting quick answers to your questions. The new game will be revealed on Saturday, I think, so after that, a flurry of ideas will pop up on the forum as students ponder various approaches to the new game.

[NyQuil]

Hey, I did find a link from an older forum that has a list of parts that one should have on their robot. If you feel that some of the parts are unnecessary then you can edit the list by downloading it (downloads as a simple excel sheet). I do not take credit for this list, I can not seem to recall the user who compiled it. Nonetheless, any questions feel free to pm me. Box

[TheColdedge]

here’s a playlist of last year’s game. (Indiana State Championship)

Not mine, but it’s shot in Full HD. (same camera I use)

[kypyro]

There were 3 events listed in Wyoming last year. Here’s a screen shot of them:

There were 15 teams in the Wyoming state final, sending the Excellence (6822B) winner to VEX Worlds. Here’s the team list:

Here’s the contact page for the school that held the events:

[jpearman]

@josh_r

I was wondering if anyone here can help us learn about each part, building, and programming. Any help is appreciated.

@Bruhh

Hey, I did find a link from an older forum that has a list of parts that one should have on their robot.

The design of the competition robots changes year to year depending on the game and what new products have become available.

Here is another old thread (from 4 years ago) with some detailed design information for an intermediate robot.
https://vexforum.com/t/open-source-robot/23454/1

The best way to learn programming is to jump in and start playing with it. RobotC is free for VEX physical robots and is one of several options available for programming. Start simple and then ask questions here on the forum, many members will be happy to help.

[Rick_TYler]

Welcome to the VRC world. Here are some other links for you:

• If you prefer programming Python, or if you aren’t already a robotics programmer and want to get started with a simpler experience using Google’s Blockly user interface, try Robot Mesh Studio. It’s free to try online – nothing to download, and the Team version can be downloaded for free.

• You will eventually have to buy robot parts from somewhere, so you might as well get free shipping on orders over $50 from Robot Mesh.

• Here is a direct link to the REC Foundation’s team grant page. If it’s open right now (with Worlds going on, it might not be), get your application in.

[kmmohn]

In addition to the robotmesh.com with their free shipping (all vex resellers have the same prices, by the way), look to robosource.net for good qualaity tools, plastics, and specialty parts like High Strength Lock Bars to keep your high strength gears from breaking at the hubs.

[HawkDad]

Depending where in Wyoming we have a few tournaments in Northern Colorado. We had the Triumph team out of Cheyenne come down to our tournament in Windsor CO.

[josh_r]

@kypyro

The most important event in the yearly VEX schedule is happening this week, so you won’t get the same level of help in the next couple of weeks that you would at another time of year. (VEX Worlds 2017 in Louisville.) Please stick around and keep asking. You might want to watch some match videos, which will give you a feel for how a competition proceeds. Also, ESPN2 had a show about last year’s VEX Worlds competition.
I’m sure you’ll be able to get enough help to get things moving.

Here’s a link to a youtube playlist that @TheColdedge put together from the US Open Green division finals in Iowa recently. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvz3NlItz6gTJZ1Y0Pg6g_zXCfsPJ6-C6

There were also some good match videos in the forum from some North Texas finals; you’ll just need to search for them.

Here is the ESPN2 show, now available on youtube: VEX Robotics World Championship 2016 on ESPN2 - YouTube

I’ll be sure to check it out!

@FullMetalMentor

KYpyro speaks the truth. A lot of us will be busy these next two weeks, so don’t feel ignored if you’re not getting quick answers to your questions. The new game will be revealed on Saturday, I think, so after that, a flurry of ideas will pop up on the forum as students ponder various approaches to the new game.

No worries. It’s great to see how interactive this community is.

@Bruhh

Hey, I did find a link from an older forum that has a list of parts that one should have on their robot. If you feel that some of the parts are unnecessary then you can edit the list by downloading it (downloads as a simple excel sheet). I do not take credit for this list, I can not seem to recall the user who compiled it. Nonetheless, any questions feel free to pm me. Box

Thanks! This will help out a ton.

@kypyro

There were 3 events listed in Wyoming last year. Here’s a screen shot of them:

[attachment:58f576df3b173]

There were 15 teams in the Wyoming state final, sending the Excellence (6822B) winner to VEX Worlds. Here’s the team list:

[attachment:58f5774841f8b]

Here’s the contact page for the school that held the events:
[attachment:58f5783af0350]

Is there a specific website where you got this from?

@jpearman

The design of the competition robots changes year to year depending on the game and what new products have become available.

Here is another old thread (from 4 years ago) with some detailed design information for an intermediate robot.
https://vexforum.com/t/open-source-robot/23454/1

The best way to learn programming is to jump in and start playing with it. RobotC is free for VEX physical robots and is one of several options available for programming. Start simple and then ask questions here on the forum, many members will be happy to help.

I’ll definitely give it a shot to learn RobotC. Thanks for this.

@Rick TYler

Welcome to the VRC world. Here are some other links for you:

• If you prefer programming Python, or if you aren’t already a robotics programmer and want to get started with a simpler experience using Google’s Blockly user interface, try Robot Mesh Studio. It’s free to try online – nothing to download, and the Team version can be downloaded for free.

• You will eventually have to buy robot parts from somewhere, so you might as well get free shipping on orders over $50 from Robot Mesh.

• Here is a direct link to the REC Foundation’s team grant page. If it’s open right now (with Worlds going on, it might not be), get your application in.

Thanks for those links.

@kmmohn

In addition to the robotmesh.com with their free shipping (all vex resellers have the same prices, by the way), look to robosource.net for good qualaity tools, plastics, and specialty parts like High Strength Lock Bars to keep your high strength gears from breaking at the hubs.

I’ll take a look at it.

@HawkDad

Depending where in Wyoming we have a few tournaments in Northern Colorado. We had the Triumph team out of Cheyenne come down to our tournament in Windsor CO.

Alright, cool!

[kypyro]

@josh_r

Is there a specific website where you got this from?

All VEX robotics events can be found on the page:
https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition

It’s not really obvious how to do some of the searches. For instance, I can’t seem to make the date picker work now. It used to work for me; maybe I’m doing something wrong. In order to find the events this season in Wyoming, I chose the “VRC 2016-2017 Startstruck” in the Season dropdown, manually entered the date “05/01/2016” and chose “Wyoming” as the “State/Region”. Then I pressed the “filter” button. Here’s how it looked when it was all set up:

[lolasdf]

to be a highly competitive team you need to spend thousands of dollars for JUST PARTS! but to be a team that does it for the thrill of competing is fun too. i came from a school with a small robotics program. we went to one competition and it was a ton of fun.

[robotguy]

I think that the best way to start(if you have the money) is to begin with the $1000 starter kit. Then you will need to buy more parts to be very competitive. The parts you need will be dependent on the bot you want to build. Some people will want more motors, others want pneumatic, even more want more metal. Then you will need to decide how you would like to program it. You can use either EasyC by Intelitek (I recommend this) or you can use RobotC. The difference is EasyC you drag into the program what you want to do, like move a motor in auton. You then type in the motors you want to actvate and the duration of their activation. To do this in RobotC you need to accually write out the line of code. Youtube RobotC tutorials to learn more.