Tutorials and Resources

We have created a document in the hopes of compiling information and resources that might be useful to FRC students. Some of the information is team-specific, but we hope other teams will find it to be helpful as well.

Team 4272 Information Compilation

CAD

CAD I: What CAD is, what Onshape is, Extruding, Filleting, MKCAD, Importing, how to make basic parts, and the importance of naming conventions.

CAD II: Covers pocketing, Onshape files, getting files ready for the laser cutter, going more in-depth with Part Studios and Assemblies. Reviews concepts covered in the CAD I lesson.

Using Onshape Featurescript: A mini-lesson about what Featurescript is, how to use it, and how it can be especially beneficial to FIRST teams.

Editing in Context: A mini-lesson about how to edit in context in Onshape, as well as uses and some basic troubleshooting.

Onshape Resources: This is a Google Document full of links to slideshows, training videos, and other online sources of information for learning to CAD with Onshape.

Robot/Mechanical

Engineering Design Process: How the Engineering Design Process works and its importance, as well as how it works on the team.

3D Printing: Where and why to use 3D printing, where it’s used in industry, additive manufacturing, slicing software, and public CAD repositories.

Electrical I: Electrical design, power and signals, methods, crimping, wiring basics including insertion and pull testing, integration onto the robot, and troubleshooting.

A useful screw sizes chart.

Programming

Programming (Java) I: You’ll learn about the basics of Java, including classes, variables, and naming conventions. We’ll also show you how to use Codecademy so you can practice on your own.

One of our mentors created a Swerve Simulator for programmers to practice with. If you get stuck and have questions, his email is bobobalink@gmail.com.

One great post about writing commit messages can be found here.

WPILib has helpful documentation on the FIRST Robotics Competition Control System.

Github: Our open-source bot code.

Non-Robot

Adobe Photoshop: Layering, selection tools, texts, brochure and flyer basics, and maybe even a fun little project at the end.

Grants and Chairman’s: Organizing information and writing compelling presentations.

A list and description of the awards given out by FIRST, found on their website.

Miscellaneous resources

The Compass Alliance: This website is full of FIRST resources. They have sub-team-specific documents under Pathways.

Chief Delphi: Chief Delphi is an online forum for everything FIRST related.

Reddit FRC: A non-technical resource for FIRST memes and other fun.