Four Years of VEX Robotics

[@AntonioMac3301]

I started VEX robotics my senior year of highschool when my school obtained some of the new V5 kits. This was my only year of VEX, and since the program was so young, I was the only person on my team... I couldn't really find other people in my school. However, I found your channel, it taught me so much. I would wake up just being so excited for robotics because of the things you showed in your videos. Everyday I spent 3+ hours trying to learn how to program, build, document, and pilot with the VEX materials. It was something so fun and I actually found my senior year of highschool flying by. Competition comes and I'm watching your video about your tower takeover experiences, and I think I couldn't sleep that night. Sadly, I didn't even make it to state in tower takeover. I placed 8th or so and our robot simply wasn't well-engineered enough. We had a ramp-bot that could only stack 7 or so cubes. I look back on it with a smile though, because it was something that was so much fun and I'll never regret all the time I spent. Thank you Kepler Electronics, I look up to you more than you know.

[@crabbydood933]

I made it to quarter finals with moo thing but a base bot lol

[@NOOTSMAZDAS]

Tower takeover was a great game (my first year as a freshman)

[@OrangeGod_]

This is my fourth and final year of doing vex hs. Been through a lot of challenges and different teams through the years but am confident about this years high stakes. Your video on the dr4b is extremely helpful and gave us a amazing idea. Thanks for your help

[@itzsupergamertime2200]

Thank you Kaden, I have basically learned everything from your videos and am very thankful for the knowledge you have given me over the last year.

[@nicholass6835]

This year was my first year in vex and I and 2 friends started a team with help from the stem club teacher and started in November with 2 v5 clawbot kits and some extra peices. After a huge amount of work we made a tray stacker that was trash and took it to our first competition. We did bad but we learned a lot. We went back and built another tray stacker that was okay and went to a all rookie competition and got the design award but we lost the first round of finals sadly but our skills score got us to states. We went with pretty much the same robot and ended up 18th in state but lost in the first round of finals. Your videos have really helped me and I'm going to have to teacher another team next year and your videos will help a lot. Your videos have given me the confidence that I can build whatever I put my mind to and that a team that starts as rookies can make ot to worlds after a short amount of time.

[@joshuavanovereem5120]

Honestly as I watched this, I realize our stories were pretty similar, Freshman year: Our robot was a rubberband star launcher (you read that right) which never worked so we scrapped it the Friday before our first (and only competition) and went with a hook on a chassis only able to low hang Softmore year : 6 bar lift with a mobile goal lifter, we make it to state, and do well, however due to divisions in the team, I split off and create my own team after state Junior: V5 parts don’t arrive until mid-January and all our prep work didn’t work, so me and my teammate (ended up haveing a 2 man team after people quit/ stopped showing up) go to comp with a 6 motor drive cap bot that couldn’t park, missed states by 1 point in skills because of the lack of parking Senior year: Find our about vex forums, My team built a complex tray, first competition everything fails, but are able to make it to play ins as last seed because it was a smaller tournament. In that match we lost because I didn’t place the first stack far enough back then dropped both of them when trying to stack. 2nd competition we fixed our issues manage to go undefeated in round robin, and make it to finals where we won the first round, after which we notice our drive motors are starting to burn out, still manage to tie the 2nd round then lose the next 2 finals rounds. Our 3rd competition, the “last chance” to qualify competition, we manage to get 4th seed after round robin, then in semifinals our partner gets sized checked, they were out of spec and so we played semi’s in a 1v2, and managed to win somehow, lose in finals but managed to secure a skills bid to state as skills champion that competition. At state we went 5-2 in round robin, then choked in bracket play TLDR: Vex alumni sharing his story

[@samuelmikhail3706]

F I actually learned so much stuff from this channel

[@24118E]

That’s kind of what happens to us because our chain fell off our intake during one of our most important matches

[@rebeccahorton5938]

I did VEX in middle school and worked with a team that was made up of mostly high schoolers, so I learned pretty quick how to do some crazy lifts. My freshman year we had a double reverse four bar with a claw and we did pretty well. Second in state, and ranked 46 at the US open that year (In the zone) Sophomore year I had a four bar cap bot with a small catapult in the back. Should I have scrapped that and built a ball only bot? Oh god yes. I didn't even qualify for states because it did so poorly. Luckily, a lot of other teams in my state are friends so I was invited to be a team member at nationals. Funny thing is, I have an 843 sticker on my laptop because I stopped by your pit while I was there that year (Turning point) And this past year, I attempted to create a 5 wheeled chassis with two motors powering the chassis (in the front) I built a cascade lift on the back of it and connected to that we had two cube containing systems. We went to our first competition and ended up dead last. We didn't have our field yet, so we ended up tipping on the corner goals. Then, we missed a competition in our state to rebuild a tray bot. After a few close competitions and bad partners, we won a competition right before state and qualified for nationals. We ended up being semi-finalists at state and I lost to a couple of the strongest teams in the state. We planned on going to nationals, but that fell through the roof. I'll be a senior in the coming year, and I hope I can put the last 5 years to good use. (I helped my brother's team in Nothing But Net and Starstruck and we made it to worlds in Skyrise, Nothing But Net, and Starstruck) Hopefully I'll see your team at worlds in Texas (worlds 2021 heck yeah) and I wish you the best of luck ~1826Z The Fuse

[@connorm_3605]

Wow! Great job in TP & TT. Your videos are super helpful! Good luck in VEXU

[@eliwilloughby7020]

So, you started as a highschooler, know virtually nothing, then managed to get to worlds a few years later. Incredible.

[@oliverball6648]

Where did you plan on starting this VEX U team? I'm in the same boat you are, we were looking forward to going to worlds and now everything was cut short.

[@airbornefishing4871]

Where are you going to do VexU I am going to Vaughn College and plan on becoming a VCAT so hope to see you at a tournament

[@toasterztoast1432]

Next year's my last year of vex, our coaches are very hesitant on letting us compete in vex rather than create but but everyone's description of worlds I gotta go

[@teddyd3159]

Did your school have a FTC or FRC team as well? Would you have rather done those programs or did you enjoy vex more? Great video!

[@KeplerElectronics]

There was talk of having one for the past couple years, but it never materialized, but there was a cross-school team around i guess. Due to the craziness of this year, what with school and stuff, I decided that it would be best to just stick to VRC, as I had already invested in getting the parts.

[@teddyd3159]

@@KeplerElectronics makes sense, thanks for the reply :)

[@cameronsoviero4308]

What VexU team will you be joining?

[@KeplerElectronics]

Current plan is to start my own team, as I already have most of the stuff to do so.

[@baaz6968]

a starting new vex u team is really hard because u have to travel further for tournaments and u need money and time for 2 bots. good luck and I hope it works out :)

[@orcaprotector]

7:11 nice bot behind you tho

[@marcuslebabushka9821]

I am 10 you inspired me to get a vex iq super kit I’ll tell you if I like it thanks

[@cardudeperson7208]

You should try some FRC

[@willpowala1203]

How was there a clawbot in your state finals?

[@rebeccahorton5938]

it happened to my state too, they played heavy defense on everyone and almost took state

[@kapriobrien]

dakota bad

[@ryleesmith-taylor7433]

One thing that I suspect occured with your catapult bot is something my team calls "white screening." Essentially, static buildup discharges into a port and results in the robot shutting down and restarting to a blank white screen. The robot essentially just freezes and cannot be rebooted during the match no matter what. I can't be sure that this is what you encountered but this was a minor issue with a V5 firmware update midseason that lost us quite a few matches at small comps.

[@KeplerElectronics]

We never actually white screened with the catapult. At least, we never had the white screen itself. To my knowledge, the only time we have ever white screened was on a practice field with our last Tower Takeover bot.

[@ryleesmith-taylor7433]

@@KeplerElectronics I see. The only other thing I can think of is the motors overheating and refusing to work (I know there's a specific name for this but I can't remember) but I've never encountered that issue with V5 so I've got no clue.

[@NOOTSMAZDAS]

Tower takeover my team made it to finals at state in Washington. And then our team also joined Technology student association and placed first in our state match and got 6th in nationals in Texas! I've been doing vex for four years and I am a senior.

[@Eric-kg2nc]

What state are you from I’m really interested in how your skills went alone with your states because my team 4810c in middle school got a 108 total placing us 9th in the world

[@arlomaguire7363]

man, rip worlds, i am too in a middleschool team (10012B) wouldve got 5 higher then ur score if our robot hadnt have brocken during provs (intakes, flip-out and our arm gear broke( it was to into the robot to change) managed to fix everything but the arm( still kinda worked) and managed to win ( somehow) if only worlds

[@harryxu3677]

Have you guys tried firing pin release for anti tips? I find it to be the most reliable

[@KeplerElectronics]

You mean where you have a pin on the wheels or something that releases it? That was the plan for the US Open, but of course that's not happening. I was thinking of having it release when the tray pivoted, as the slides were basically right there anyways.

[@harryxu3677]

@@KeplerElectronics an axel going through the holes in a c channel, holding the antitip in. This axel is attached to a string, and when triggered by the lift/angler, deploys the antitips

[@ryleesmith-taylor7433]

I've stuck with the same team of five people for all of high school (save for one year). They're some of my best friends and amazing engineers. Freshman year we built a double reverse four bar with an internal mobile goal lift. We made it to finals at states and lost by two points to another one of our school's teams. Sophomore year we actually ended up building three robots since we were testing different design ideas and a few other teams from the school were having a hard time so we gave them our two prior builds. One was a flywheel with a dr4b and a cap flipper and was beautiful. The second was another dr4b but with a stationary fork for flipping caps and a linear puncher for shooting balls. The last one was a full on catapult bot that flipped caps with it's rollers. We would've gotten to worlds off of skills but the field shit down before we could do programming. Sadly for Junior year I had to transfer to a new school where I started doing FRC for the year but now I'm going to be able to commute across town to after school meetings for our newly formed AI team since I no longer have night school. Sorry for rambling, you just made me look back fondly on the past few years and I'm glad to be able to compete with my team again.

[@titanium0titan]

This is my last year in vex and I was about to go to the open last year and am disappointed I didn’t get to go but my team and I were able to do better and better each year

[@mridhanbalaji1787]

How do you qualify for the U.S. open?

[@ridjuan921]

Where ru goin to college?!!

[@7686B]

9:33 Hey look its us!

[@zacharyp3359]

Holy shit i think my robot was the one shown in the video with him looking down XD

[@gamerist9225]

lol i thought you were game theorist

[@axl-pt3ou]

Face reveal, nice

[@jonathanflores3570]

Let’s go face reveal

[@connersiebert6640]

Good luck at Vex U! I’m planning to join Vex U next year, after coaching a first year jr high VCR team (which made it to state) this year. My high school doesn’t have a high school team, so I got to coach this year. Where are you joining Vex U?

[@deepeshverma6208]

What is lego league

[@sunnymultistans7154]

This is my first year doing it, I’m in 7th grade and I’m on my school’s team, I’m terrified 😭🥺

[@grantcatdone3417]

Well how'd it go?

[@returnnull3476]

Scissor lift 100% suck. I have seen one that was decide.

[@mylesavery5705]

Seems like a shit region if that bot made it through skills