Any advice for a new Vex-IQ team on what to do while waiting for the competition kit to arrive?
Looks like there has been a backorder and we wont be getting our kit until October.
Our team has been watching the tutorials, learning VEX code, and built the field.
Thanks in advance.
You can start working on the notebook. Write about the game, what your strategy is, how will your robot make that happen.
Some stores sell small kits like Costco and Michaels, etc. You can get some of them and do some practice builds.
Good luck with your season!!
You could also learn how to cad and begin building your robot in cad.
Our team is made up of 6th graders. Do they need CAD for VexIQ slapshot?
itās a usefull skill that can be used for many other things
If you are interested in CAD modeling for IQ, the favorite solution of several people around here is a program called āLDCadā. Hereās a video I put together last year with some general information about CAD for IQ and a demo of LDCad in particular:
Is it something your team needs? No, most VIQC teams do not model their robots in CAD. But it could be a path worth exploring if itās something your students are interested in.
āWith the new Google Slide based notebook do you have a preferred way to get the drawing out of LDCad and into the notebook?
I would probably just take screenshots and insert those into the google slides presentation.
It is possible to produce higher-quality renders with LDraw models (such as by exporting to an OBJ file and importing that into Blender, or by exporting to a POV-Ray scene file), which can produce really nice results, but for showing robot mechanisms in the engineering notebook I think that would be a lot of extra effort for not a lot of benefit over just taking screenshots.
If you really need something to do while you wait for a kit, I would suggest using the Virtual Skills website to practice a strategy for your robot. You could also build a model for your robot in SnapCad or similar programs, as some people above me have already stated.
Virtual Skills: https://codeiq.vex.com/
SnapCad Download: https://www.vexrobotics.com/iq/downloads/cad-snapcad
Hope this helps!
Thank you all for the suggestions. It is looking like we wonāt get the kit until mid November. Hoping this season isnāt a washout for our team, and they can go to at least one event.
I have asked Dan from RECF yesterday about the back orders on gen 2 and flex wheels and he said they have to keep going on with the season, there will be scrimmages after states and worlds so if you did not compete that much you may as well sign up for those.
Thanks for that update. Itās so frustrating because not only are the kits on backorder, but some of the grant processing stuff in IQ has had some technical issues. Motors are backordered until October (fingers crossed). The electronics are the big hangup right now. If they could ship kits without the electronics, that would even be helpful. I have 5 teams of kiddos who are working from one Gen1 kit I got last year for our exploration into VIQC with one brain, 4 motors, and spare parts from last yearās table build. I just spent a chunk of change out of my own pocket for my students to be able to at least start building drivetrains and brainstorm design ideas (weāve already gone through notebooks and CAD) and now realize there are other things I should have purchased, like the rubber shaft collars but the shipping is more than the cost of one package of them (I knowā¦Iāll probably buy 3 or 4 ).
Yes, you can order kits without the electronics.Go to the āstructure pageā on the Vex robotics website and order the second generation education kit without electronics, and the education to competition upgrade kit.
If we hadnāt already placed an order for some kits with title funds, weād do that, but we donāt want to get out of the queue to get the electronics because what Iāve been told is that orders for the electronics will go to complete kit orders first. Plus, weāre waiting on grant stuff too, which has had technical issues as well. Fortunately, my principal understands my frustrations and the kids are too. It just really would be disappointing that after their hard work and patience, they might not get to compete in any qualifiers. Thatās what gets me as their lead coach/teacher.
If you guys get your kit before January, you guys have a chance to compete. Start designing now and act later.
Thanks for the encouragement! Thatās exactly what weāre doing.
Weāre going to take a design break next week and work on programming with everyone so they have a common vocabulary between designers/builders, drivers, and programmers . Then weāre going to spend some more focused time on the Engineering Notebook past introducing it and having each student get used to documenting everything in their notebook (a first experience for all of my students). Hopefully by then weāll have things. Iāve been told by one group in our region that they will host competitions in November and December. Hopefully we can work with our RECF people to help our region have a competition in January for teams like ours that are dealing with the supply chain.
Quick update that I forgot to do. We ended up receiving all of our kits by October 3ā¦Hurray! Kids are making great progress and we will go to our first competition in December. Thanks for all of the support from this group!