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r/vex

▲ 6 r/vex

New VEX teacher

Hello everyone,

I will be a new VEX IQ teacher next year for a middle school and and super excited but also very nervous for it. I was wondering if there are any fellow teachers who wouldn't mind helping me out with curriculum and/or projects. I don't know where to start. I will have 3 different robotics classes a robotics 1 (6th grade), robotics 2 (7th grade), and an advanced robotics (8th grade). I was told they have tons of the VEX IQ gen 1 material and a few gen 2.

Thanks for the help in advance

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u/_aguy123 — 2 days ago
▲ 10 r/vex

AI Vision Sensor Object tracking code. (IQ)

What does it do?

Robot drives to an object and when close enough, it stops moving.

Config:

-Set up drivebase.

-Config AI Vision sensor and set up any object you want to follow. (Its called "Tracker" in this example)

How does it work?

Robot Spins while vision sensor looks for any objects and if any are detected, it will go into drive mode. In drive mode, the robot will drive towards the object while attempting to rotate the drivebase to keep the object centred in its view. This is not proportional due to the drive base limitations on VexCode. The robot just checks whether the object is within a column of pixels sensed by the Vision sensor and attempts to rotate the robot to get the object centred it this column. The values for the column are 120-200 in this example. This is in pixels with 160 being in the centre of the screen on the x axis. So, it is ±40 pixels either side. If this value is to small, at longer distances, the robot will oscillate but if it is too large, at close distances, it wont be alined properly. This is a limitation of non-proportional control loops and why PID would in theory be better for this application.

The "broadcast" blocks are just displaying what the robot is doing.

Feel free to change values and modify the code to find any better ways of doing this!

If you need any help, feel free to ask!

Python Version:

def when_started1():
    global myVariable, error, turn, my_event, r, Search, Arrived, Driving, ai_vision_5_objects, screen_precision, console_precision, ai_vision_5_index
    drivetrain.set_turn_velocity(25, PERCENT)
    while True:
        ai_vision_5_objects = ai_vision_5.take_snapshot(ai_vision_5__Tracker)
        if ai_vision_5_objects and len(ai_vision_5_objects) > 0:
            if ai_vision_5_objects[ai_vision_5_index].centerX < 120:
                Driving.broadcast()
                drivetrain.turn(LEFT)
            if ai_vision_5_objects[ai_vision_5_index].centerX > 200:
                Driving.broadcast()
                drivetrain.turn(RIGHT)
            if ai_vision_5_objects[ai_vision_5_index].centerX > 120 and ai_vision_5_objects[ai_vision_5_index].centerX < 200:
                if ai_vision_5_objects[ai_vision_5_index].width < 80:
                    Driving.broadcast()
                    drivetrain.drive(FORWARD)
                else:
                    Arrived.broadcast()
                    drivetrain.stop()
        else:
            drivetrain.set_turn_velocity(30, PERCENT)
            Search.broadcast()
            drivetrain.turn(RIGHT)
        wait(20, MSEC)


def Driving_callback_0():
    global myVariable, error, turn, my_event, r, Search, Arrived, Driving, ai_vision_5_objects, screen_precision, console_precision, ai_vision_5_index
    brain.screen.set_cursor(1, 1)
    brain.screen.clear_screen()
    brain.screen.print("Driving...")
    wait(0.1, SECONDS)
    brain.screen.clear_screen()


def Search_callback_0():
    global myVariable, error, turn, my_event, r, Search, Arrived, Driving, ai_vision_5_objects, screen_precision, console_precision, ai_vision_5_index
    brain.screen.set_cursor(1, 1)
    brain.screen.clear_screen()
    brain.screen.print("Searching...")
    wait(0.1, SECONDS)
    brain.screen.clear_screen()


def Arrived_callback_0():
    global myVariable, error, turn, my_event, r, Search, Arrived, Driving, ai_vision_5_objects, screen_precision, console_precision, ai_vision_5_index
    brain.screen.set_cursor(1, 1)
    brain.screen.clear_screen()
    brain.screen.print("Arrived!")
    wait(0.1, SECONDS)
    brain.screen.clear_screen()
u/ManySubstantial6418 — 3 days ago
▲ 27 r/vex

Huge news from VEX

This is huge for us Event Parnters.

Will the Global Robotics & Science Foundation charge credit card processing fees or registration deductions?

No. The Global Robotics & Science Foundation will not charge credit card processing fees for payments made through the system, nor will there be a $5.00 deduction from event registrations.

Our goal for Event Partners is to receive the full registration amount to help offset the cost of hosting quality events and supporting local robotics communities.

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u/Dangerous-Elk9051 — 4 days ago
▲ 4 r/vex

Hi! I'm a middle school student I am about to graduate. But befor I graduate I have a community project this is a link. Could you help me fill this out?🙏

forms.office.com
u/FastExplanation925 — 4 days ago
▲ 9 r/vex

Can Pushback be put into a real video game and have it's own thing?

Yeah, I know this is a bit of a reach, but the strategy involved and chess game / various types of bots that can all compete. I'd love to play a rocket league quality game for this. And you could probably change the rules enough so people would need to rebuild robots.

Also note the $75 million Esports World Cup prize pool. Again a big stretch, but imagine if rocket league had a robotics like vex. There would be a little more money coming in and a lot more interest as other kids know the game and non-competitors might possibly go to the game instead of the highschool football (10 years). Again I'm reaching and I'm just using rocket league as an analogy, it wouldn't make a good robotics game. But Pushback would be a great online game (not those current simulators) and maybe even be combined in the Esports World Cup. And those top teams really should get prize money as it's super impressive, although the cheating would skyrocket

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u/thehappybuyer — 6 days ago
▲ 17 r/vex

Is vex in bad financial shape?

I've heard (through the grapevine) that vex is basically bankrupt. I mentor an FRC team and one of the coaches claimed that Vex just sold off a lot of inventory that can be used in both vex or FTC to Andymark (he knows people working there). Any truth to this? Are things much worse than just the VEX/RECF breakup?

reddit.com
u/drdhuss — 8 days ago
▲ 4 r/vex

Tool recommendations for metal cutting robots -- AND wood!

This may sound odd here, but I am curious what people think. I run a classroom that has robotics, and occasionally we need to cut wood (for a different engineering class project). Neither is a ton of use -- I cut parts for the classes regularly, and for the robotics competitions.

That said, a good chop saw would be great (they are cheap enough) but it would be great if on the worktable I had one that could do decent cuts on metal and be used as a miter. I saw this one and it seemed like a good fit, but I imagine I'd be replacing the blade occasionally. Or, certainly I could use a grinder blade in a miter but that isn't good for a wood-oriented miter saw.

Currently we just use a Dremel tool which is OK but it's hard to get cuts that are nice and straight with no ugliness that don't need a lot of filing. (I am, admittedly, a bit OCD about this). I plan to buy a cheap hacksaw which I know will make straighter less burr-y cuts but will of course take longer for each cut.

Anyhow I am curious what people think. One reason I want to combine the two tools is that we only have one work table in the classroom I can use for it, and I need to save some room, but if it's a bad idea from the getgo then I will just bite the bullet and have two; I won't die. But it's one of those it-would-be-nice things.

I teach HS, so going over safety protocols and all that is not so big a deal, my students were pretty goo about learning Dremel and screw gun safety.

(While we are at it -- recs on brands of screw gun hex tip are also welcome! The hex tips I got were cheap-o Amazon things and seem to be rounding out on us more quickly than we'd like, but you get what you pay for. I just figured it'd be nice to have better steel).

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u/Camaxtli2020 — 9 days ago
▲ 28 r/vex

So what now? (Given the RECF/ VEX dispute)

I am a coach for a team at a title I school.

What now? Two sets of competitions? I don't know that I can juggle that.

It just seems so... unnecessary. Like, if you have invoices, you pay 'em. Or have it out with the people you bought from. Or clarify what your various agreements say. If you are selling stuff to a non profit make sure that everyone is on the same page as to what they owe you and what you owe them. Get in contact with the leadership and have it out before the money adds up to millions.

It just seems like the leadership at both organizations were asleep at the switch in a big way. Certainly there is a reason you have a legal department - to take care of problems before they are problems.

Or am I just thinking too logically here? Because the net result seems to be a lot of hassle, confusion and potential disappointment for a lot of teams.

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u/Camaxtli2020 — 10 days ago
▲ 20 r/vex

with the recf and vex breakup & lawsuit pending, remember that an org’s leadership says a lot

old blog post about VEX CEO Tony Norman. I don’t know that RECF has acted perfectly, but I find this split suspicious when RECF has essentially run every VEX event

chiefdelphi.com
u/icebergnee — 10 days ago
▲ 13 r/vex

Made some edits to last years format, what do y’all think?

u/supgoama — 9 days ago
▲ 5 r/vex

Coaching question

Is it normal for a coach to say that your robot needs to be able to do X otherwise we won’t go to the next competition? Or fix X problem with the robot otherwise we won’t go to the next competition?

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u/werbear40 — 11 days ago
▲ 14 r/vex

Made some edits to last years format, what do y’all think?

u/manhoter — 10 days ago
▲ 11 r/vex

Auto selector idea

So I've been improving my auto selector and made it a whole ui system and all so now I can do stuff like repurposing my old video player to put videos on screen. So I had the idea of playing a video of the auto in acton alongside the description for all the autos. Do you guys think this would be useful or no? 🥺 (I can turn up the refresh rate obs it's just at 300ms for testing) The video above is a mini demo of what it could be, but I don't have any autos downloaded so I just got some videos off youtube

u/Decent-Difficulty696 — 11 days ago
▲ 11 r/vex

What do people do with old game elements?

Basically the title. I have stuff from two years running, and it's starting to take up space. Do you just.. . throw it out? I kind of hate to do that.

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u/Camaxtli2020 — 14 days ago
▲ 5 r/vex

team leading V5

So I'm not entirely new to this team leading stuff, but last year my team complained a lot that I was being tyrannical, but mostly just the people who couldnt take direction or critism well, and I was wondering if reddit had any tips?

reddit.com
u/Sector_Cheese — 14 days ago
▲ 23 r/vex

What do I need to make this better? Vex iq level up competition

Any help would be greatly appreciated

u/MasterExamination875 — 15 days ago
▲ 6 r/vex

club stuff

has anyone here started a robotics club? my hs doesnt have one and well.. i dont exactly have enough money to keep buying parts, anyone have any tips?

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u/ExplorerLow8780 — 14 days ago