Wiki

VEX V5 General Discussion
#1

Vex Forum Index / FAQ / Wiki

The purpose of this topic is to make it easier to find vast amounts of knowledge already available on the Vex Forum and related sites.

Any forum user with high enough trust level could edit this Wiki and all contributors are welcome.

However, to maintain high quality, everybody has to adhere to the Wiki Style and Guidelines, detailed below.

Please, DO NOT CREATE NEW POSTS in this topic, unless you have a prior approval from the Wiki maintainers team.

Also, please, read the guidelines to find the link to the open discussion topic, as well as instructions how to be a good Wiki editor.

44 Likes
VEX Forum Wiki
DR4B Tutorial by 333A
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New team here, what do I need and what are some building tips
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Tips for beginners
#2

Master Index

This Wiki project is still work in progress, currently in the phase of collecting links to the relevant reference materials.

  1. What every new VEX Forum user needs to know

  2. What every Student needs to know about VEX

  3. What every Teacher or Mentor needs to know about VEX

  4. What every Parent needs to know about VEX Robotics Competition

  5. External websites and user communities

  6. Frequently used acronyms

  7. VEX Forum Wiki Rules and Style Guidelines

Details (level 1)

  1. Building the robot — what constitutes the robot — basics

  2. Overview of common chassis types

  3. Overview of frequently used lift types

  4. Overview of frequently used intakes

  5. Best building practices

  6. Other important build topics and examples

  7. Programming environments, links to help and tutorials

  8. Programming: Getting Started with VEXcode

  9. Programming: Common Beginner Mistakes and FAQs

  10. V5 Architecture and Troubleshooting

Details (level 2)

  1. Engineering Design Process

  2. Engineering Notebook Resources

  3. CAD software: links, tutorials, tips

  4. Preparing for competition day

  5. Tips for how competitions work

  6. Beyond the competition

  7. School based vs. independent teams; fundraising

  8. Tips for organizing a team

  9. Tools

  10. Alternative part sources

Specific subsystem designs (detail level 3)

Drivetrains

  1. Omni-wheel tank drive

  2. X-drive

  3. H-drive

  4. Mecanum drive

  5. Other drivetrain types: Kiwi, Lynfield, Swerve

  6. Treaded/Tracked chassis in VRC

…

  1. Comparison of different wheels

Intakes

  1. Claw Intake

  2. Side Rollers Intake

  3. Passive Intakes

  4. Top Roller Intake

  5. Ball indexer

Ball launchers

  1. Flywheel

  2. Puncher

  3. Catapult

Lifts

  1. Clawbot / 2-bar lift

  2. 4-bar, 6-bar, 8-bar, etc…

  3. Chain lift

  4. Double Reverse Four Bar Lift: DR4B

  5. Scissor Lift

  6. Cascade / Elevator lift

  7. DRxB variants

Mechanical tricks

.71. Ratchets

.73. Motor sharing

.78. Grease and lubrication

.79. V5 Smart Motor maintenance

V5

.80. V5 Legacy 3-wire ports

.84. V5 Inertial Sensor (Gyroscope / Accelerometer)

.87. Ultrasonic / Range Finder Sensor

.88. V5 Vision Sensor

.94. V5 Controller

.95. V5 Custom Cables How-To

.96. V5 In-Depth Architecture

.97. V5 System Troubleshooting

Advanced programming topics

  1. VEXCode Video Tutorials

  2. Driver control (teleop): arcade, split arcade, tank controls

  3. Macro Sequences

  4. Joystick control scaling, deadband

  5. Tasks and Callbacks

  6. PID Programming

  7. Autonomous: driving straight & turns

  8. Debugging output

  9. Displaying Images on V5

  10. Accessing files on SDCard

  11. Autonomous mode selectors

  12. Position Tracking/Odometry

  13. Using #includes in C++

TBD
113. PROS
114. Okapi
115. LVGL

  1. Navigation
14 Likes
X Drive PD Loop
How to code robot in VEXcode V5 Text to move forward and backward using driver control
I am new to Building and I have no Idea where to Start
Any good resources for coding beginners
#3

What every new Forum user needs to know

A majority of the questions about the current VRC game could be answered by reading Change Up Game Manual, Official Q&As, or VRC Change Up Community FAQ thread.

If you still have questions regarding the game rules, try searching the forum: https://www.vexforum.com/search

  • Search the forum before you post
    Either use the built-in search or search the forum with Google. Even better — use both.

  • Do not revive really old topics ¹
    Create a new topic and post a link to the old topic instead.

  • Follow this guide when posting code snippets
    For sharing large amounts of code or entire multi-file programs, upload your code to a site like GitHub and just post a link here.

  • You can edit your post, topic title, and even topic category ²
    Just find the pencil icon under the post.

  • Avoid using chat style with lots of small, one-line posts
    Instead, write longer, more informative posts and use the like button when all you want to say is “Wow! I like it!”.

  • Take advantage of the available formatting options
    Use the formatting toolbar in the post editor. If you’re really committed, check out the Markdown manual or HTML

Footnotes

  1. The one exception to this is when the content of your post is specifically relevant to the old topic, and you are certain none of the circumstances surrounding the old topic have changed. However, this is a very rare situation, so if in doubt just create a new topic.

  2. The post and title edit features are disabled 24 hours after posting.

7 Likes
Thread Killers
#4

What every Student needs to know about VEX

Top Things Someone New to Vex Should Know

TBD

2 Likes
#5

What every Teacher or Mentor needs to know about VEX

VEX Coding Studio is obsolete and have been phased out.
Use VEXcode instead: https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexcode

Additional material are available at VEX knowledge base: https://help.vex.com

2 Likes
#6

What every Parent needs to know about VEX Robotics Competition

Student-Centered Policy Document

2 Likes
#7

External websites and user communities

(Work in progress / to be organized)

External websites with Reference materials

iDESIGN solutions VEX IQ playlist on YouTube
iDESIGN solutions VEX EDR playlist on YouTube

Advanced Programming Links

4 Likes
#8

Frequently used acronyms

VRC - VEX Robotics Competition (main site: http://robotevents.com/)

GDC - Game Design Committee

RECF - Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (https://www.roboticseducation.org/about-us/)

VEX - It is not an acronym (VEX Robotics: www.vexrobotics.com)

EDR - It is not an acronym (https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexedr)

VCS - VEX Coding Studio

VC - VEXcode

DRow - Banhammers and Comic Relief

Abbreviations in Forums

4 Likes
#9

VEX Forum Wiki Rules and Style Guidelines

As was already said in the introduction, the purpose of this topic is not to duplicate vast amounts of knowledge already available on the Vex Forum and external sites, but to make it easy to find that information.

We welcome and value all contributions and currently any forum users with TL1 trust level could edit Wiki posts.

However, to maintain high quality of the Wiki, everybody has to adhere to the Wiki Guidelines, that are detailed below.

Please, DO NOT CREATE NEW POSTS in this topic, unless you have a prior approval from the Wiki maintainers team (TBD).

Current open discussion about this wiki could be found in this thread: VEX Forum Wiki

This Style and contribution Guidelines are work in progress and we are going to define and put them here in the near future…

In general, the preference is to stay brief and, whenever possible, use a link to an existing topic, instead of copying its content into the Wiki.

Strategy

We could start by listing things “we wish we knew at the beginning” and then sort them into beginner / intermediate / advanced categories.

Beginner category is something that needs to be communicated right away.
Intermediate is something that could wait until later in the season or second season.
And advanced is something (like odometry/tracking) that would be great to get to, but is not required by most of the teams.

If we use pyramid diagram, then we could start from the top with the most basic and most important knowledge, then expand it into intermediate level, with more information that relies on more prior experience, and so forth …
block-pyramid

5 Likes
#10

Building the robot - what constitutes the robot - basics

VRC Legal definition of the robot (according to the Game Manual <R1>)

TBD

Example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yedhYdeiLM

Details

Brain, Battery, VexNet, and most importantly license plates: 7580A 2015 Robot Reveal.

Just kidding

https://help.vex.com/category/369-engineering

2 Likes
#11

Overview of common chassis types

How could we help a new team to choose a chassis for the robot?

https://help.vex.com/article/372-how-to-select-a-drivetrain

It is very important to select the proper drivetrain for your robot. You need to consider specifics of the game. Your driving style and experience, as well as requirements for lateral movement, power, and speed among other factors are integral to selection of a drivetrain.

Tank drive is most common type of drive seen, as well as the simplest. A Tank drive consists of two rows of wheels parallel to each other on either side of the robot. There are many different subsets, including 4-wheel, 6-wheel, and whether the use of traction wheels included as any of the sets of the wheels.

H-Drives are built as Tank drives are, except there are wheel(s) mounted perpendicular to the drive which allow for lateral movement. All wheels must be omni wheels for the drive to be able to function.

Holonomic drive, also called an X-Drive, consists of wheels mounted at angles from each other. It is good for lateral movement, and increases speed and power of turns. However, linear drive speed and power are decreased due to the nature of how wheels run toward each other to move linearly. All wheels must be omni wheels in order for this drive to function.

Mecanum drive uses 4 mechanum wheels to move linearly forward, backward, left, and right. Mechanum drives are much harder for another robot to push around, however are usually slower than a H-drive.

Drivetrain Type Pros Cons
1. All omni tank drive - easy to build - can be easily pushed to the side
- 2 or 4 motors
- can be chained front-back
2. H-Drive - all advantages of tank drive - needs extra motor
- tricky to distribute weight
3. X-Drive - resists pushing - harder to build
4. Mecanum TBD - requires 4 motors

Omni wheel vs Mecanum

2 Likes
Drive Base
#12

Overview of frequently used Lift Types

  1. 2-bar
  2. 4-bar, 6-bar (n-bar)
  3. DR4B
  4. Cascade
  5. Chain-bar
    …
2 Likes
#13

Overview of frequently used intakes

  1. Claw
  2. Side rollers
  3. Top roller
  4. Forklift
  5. Passive (pneumatics)
2 Likes
#14

Best Building practices (general)

  • bearings

  • screw joints

  • Types of nuts

    • Nylocks are heavier, but have much greater grip. They likely will not significantly loosen even after extensive use. Additionally, not tightening them (and allowing the screw to spin freely) is perfect for rotating joints.
    • Keps are lighter and are the quickest to use. Their teeth help maintain its position when tightened, but not as much as nylocks and cannot be rotated once tightened. Perfect for prototyping or securing less vital structure.
    • Plain nuts are the lightest and are used mostly on parts with places for the nuts designed onto them, such as the clamping shaft collar or V2 rack gears.

  • basic gear ratios

    • Builders can trade motor speed for motor torque (and vice versa) by using a system of gears to change the speed of the output shaft.
    • gears have a set number of teeth, and when gears mesh, the output gear rotates however many teeth the input rotated, not the number of rotations the shaft went through. Builders can use this to their advantage so that the output gear rotates faster, but with less torque (larger gear -> smaller gear), or slower but with increased torque (smaller gear -> larger gear).
    • If gear sizes become too extreme, more advanced builders may use compound gearing to exponentially modify their gear ratios. This is done by having the output shaft from previous gearing become the input shaft for more gearing with different gear sizes.

  • no cantilevered drive wheels

    • As a general rule, for anything on a shaft other than shaft collars and washers, the shaft should be secured to structure on both sides of whatever it is supporting.
    • Not doing this results in the shaft having a lot of wiggle room, as typically seen when wheels are exposed on the outside of a robot.

  • spacers, standoffs mounting

  • use all omni drive base with 4 motors

DR4B Tutorial by 333A

VEX Build Quality Tutorial/Instruction video:

5 Likes
Ocs RI3D
Making a list of tips for new teams
#15

Other important build topics and examples

TBD General

  • Geartrains
  • Chaindrives

Wallbots (not TT specific):




VEX Reference Build instructions for starter kits

Tower Takeover Season Specific

Theory:

Physics of Tilter
How To Fix Intake Compression [Guide]
…

Showcase Tilters:

448X, 21S, 6671X, and 1437Z RI3D Reveal
1961Z Tower Takeover Teaser: Mk. III
42700N Summer Reveal
25461Z early season reveal: https://youtu.be/Wvz_8Ja-JQw

Showcase DR4Bs:

97963A Early Season Reveal
Robot in 3 Days Reveal: Houdini | 9605A + 9421
VEX Tower Takeover 21000C 66 Point Driver Skills (Robo Bonanza @ Beckman)

Showcase Wallbots:

2019 NorCal RI3D Reveal

4 Likes
#16

Programming environments, links to help and tutorials

https://www.learncpp.com
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/index.htm

V5:

Cortex:

TBD: Supported languages, platforms, blocks vs text, which one to choose…

API Reference:

Tutorials

LVGL:

For pre-V5 (Cortex) hardware:

https://www.robotc.net/wikiarchive/Tutorials/Getting_Started/Getting_Started_with_the_VEX_CORTEX

4 Likes
#17

Programming: Getting Started with VEXcode

https://help.vex.com/category/130-getting-started

  • Motor config
  • Sensor config
  • Competition template


VEXcode, motor groups and drivetrain example
VEXcode for experts

vexforum.com/t/autonomous-help-with-vexcode/71698/2

https://help.vex.com/article/110-vex-example-program-with-controller-c-arcade-drive

http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

4 Likes
#18

Programming: Common Beginner Mistakes and FAQs

TBD

Note:

make process closed with exit code : 2 means ‘code could not compile, your code probably has errors’. When creating a thread for help, please attach the whole log with your code.

https://help.vex.com/article/120-how-to-use-blocking-vs-non-blocking-code

Force Compile of Files

2 Likes
#19

V5 Architecture and Troubleshooting

V5 architecture diagram (may need to move to advanced topics): The PROS of PROS

V5 Troubleshooting:

Tips/warnings for v5?

  • V5 mini USB Port / use magnetic cable
  • V5 Motor inserts / be careful
  • V5 ports and static

Make sure you have installed the latest VexOS firmware which could be found here:

Make sure that radio type is to VEXnet and not Bluetooth:

run your program. press the button on the V5 brain to toggle between the user program screen and the vexos screen.

5 Likes
#20

Engineering Design Process

https://www.google.com/search?q=engineering+design+process
TBD

2 Likes
Tell us about your engineering notebook