(bright upbeat music)

Hello, and welcome to the VEX Classroom. In this video, I'm gonna walk you through building the EXP BaseBot. The purpose of this video is for you to follow along with me to help you build the EXP BaseBot. All you really need to get started is your kit and a charged battery. If your battery is not charged, I would suggest plugging it in as we build so that we can actually test our build at the very end of this video.

Now, because this is a video and I'm asking you to follow along with me, you can pause at any time. If you're building something and you need a little bit more time, and I'm going a little bit too fast, feel free to pause. Feel free to pause and come back again later. Also, feel free to rewind it or watch this video as many times as you need to in order to help you build the EXP BaseBot. You can also show this to your students if they would like the same experience as what we have in this video here. So again, all of the support that you would need to build the EXP BaseBot.

Not only do we need the kit and a charged battery, or you're going to charge it while we're building, I'm also going to reference the Poster. If you go to posters.vex.com, we can select the EXP poster. I'm just gonna show a couple of things on here. I'm actually on the computer here as we're going. You also need the build instructions for the BaseBot. You can find those at builds.vex.com. I'm gonna have them already pulled up here, but again, you can obviously navigate to that to obtain those build instructions.

All right, so let's get started. First things first. I counted out everything that we would need and put that here on the table. I highly recommend before you get started, I will show you here in one second on the build instructions that every item that you'll need to actually build the BaseBot is laid out, and the parts needed at the very beginning of the build instructions. I would suggest actually gathering all those parts from the kit and having them ready in front of you before you build, just because it's gonna make things go a lot faster and you don't have to take the time that you would need to actually go find all those parts as you're building.

Also, if you're doing this with students, a great thing to think about is that you could have one student actually be the gatherer of the parts and actually get all those parts while the other students actually put them together via the build instructions. There's a lot of flexibility that you can have here as far as how you'd like to set up and get ready to build.

All right, so let's actually dive in here. One thing that I will like to note and reference as we go through this video is the Posters. When you go to posters.vex.com, it'll take you to this page. It actually contains all of the posters that we have, and we can scroll down to EXP, and it's going to be the first one there. The education kit poster, and there's a lot of different things that we can reference here on this poster itself. You can also make it a little bigger if we want to look at some different parts. I'm gonna keep this open just in case we need to reference it as we continue to build, and it also just is a really nice resource to have as you build in case you're looking for a specific part or you wanna see it in context.

All right. So as you can see here, I laid out all the parts that we would have needed. The first thing that I'm gonna show you here is the build instructions. All right, EXP BaseBot build instructions. The first page is gonna show you what it's gonna look like at the very end. As you can see, one of the first pages that we have are the parts needed. This is gonna list every single part that we need, and also how many of that we need.

Thank you for joining me in this video. I hope you found it helpful and that you enjoy building your EXP BaseBot. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out. Happy building!

And again, continuing onto the next page, this is going to be more of our metal, while the top is gonna be the electronics and some of our fasteners and things like that. So just showing a couple of the things that we have here.

One of the main differences that I would like to note is this eight of the star drive screw. So right here, this 8-32, 0.25 locking here. This one, and as you can see from the poster, has a little, very tiny blue knob there at the very end. It's much easier actually to see from the poster, which is why I wanted to kind of bring that up. But it has a little blue marking there. So I just wanted to call attention to that, that that makes that screw way easier to gather because of that blue marking on there. So just wanted to let you know to look for that as you are gathering all these pieces.

One other thing while you're gathering all of these pieces is the high strength shaft adapter, which is actually silver. So I'll hold that up here so you can see, it's silver, but there are two of them in the kit. One is silver and one is gold. So we actually go back here to the kit itself. Let me find the shaft adapter. Here we go. High strength shaft adapter. You can see one is silver and one is gold. The silver one or the darker grayish looking one is going to be a square bore, while the gold one is a round bore.

Now you're probably wondering why am I calling this out. It's actually really, really important that we're using the grayish one, the square bore, because if not, and we're using the circular one, the shaft that actually goes inside there or attaches to the wheel will free spin, and that's when we spin the motor, it's actually not going to catch and spin the wheels. So really, really important. I've actually seen this mistake happen a couple of times when we start building that we use the wrong one. So just to make sure that we are using the correct one, which is the square bore or the darkish gray one and not the round bore, which would be that gold one. So just wanted to call that out as we begin there.

Everything else is pretty much self-explanatory. Finding in the kit, we have some rubber shaft collars, spacers, obviously the battery, the motor, the cables, the shafts, and the tires as well. One thing to note about the tires is that we're using the travel tires and the Omni tires. There are a bunch of other balloon tires in the kit that come in different sizes, but these ones are actually the same size. So they're a little bit easier to find. Two 300 millimeters smart cables, a couple of different C channels. And as you can see here, actually in 3D, you see they have some on the side there and also on the other side, which hence the C channel, but the one by two by one by 16 means one hole here, two lengthwise, one again, and then 16 down. So if you're trying to count them or figuring out what exactly does that mean, not only can you see from the picture, but you can also count from this as well. So very easy to actually find that piece.

All right, so let's actually go and get started.

[Music Cue]

Okay. First step that we're gonna do. I'm gonna actually zoom in here. Now you can see it actually says twice over there, there's two times, which means that we actually have to do this two times or on two different one by two by one by 16 C channels. So I'm gonna make this a little bit bigger for us to look at.

Okay, so now that I actually have everything selected, I need two, I'm actually just gonna gather the parts that I need for this specific step. So I need two star drive screws, I need one rubber shaft collar, I need one more shaft collar retainer with a bearing flat and two low profile nuts as well as that one by two by one by 16.

[Music Cue]

Okay. All right, so I have all that here. Now, now that I have all my pieces kind of lined up and we're ready to go, as I can see here when I'm looking, those green arrows are gonna show me where they're gonna point in.

[Thank You Note]

Thank you for your attention and for following along with this guide. We hope this information helps you in your assembly process.

[Final Message]

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out. Happy building!

So it's actually the first hole right here going long ways is where the screws are going to start. And there are going to be two screws going in here. What's actually evident there by the instructions is this piece here is actually meant to hold the rubber shaft collar. So that's actually why it is that shape.

As you can see there, I'm gonna put the shaft collar in before I start. I know it's a little hard to see from my view here, but this side actually has a little bit of a profile, which nestles into these square holes really nicely. As you wiggle it around on the C channel, you'll actually be able to feel it catch, which is really nice.

The other thing is that this side is going to hold the shaft collar. The other side is going to hold those low profile nuts. So I'm going to first put this on with the shaft collar like so, and I'm gonna line that up and you'll actually feel it go into place there.

Now that I have that, I'm gonna push the screws through on the other side. There we go. But before I even do that, it's probably going to be a lot easier if I put those low profile nuts in there first. They just pop right on in. There you go. They sit very nicely in there, and then I can actually, if I let go here, it's okay, 'cause there's nothing really on the other side.

I'm gonna hold those nuts in place so that when I flip it over to actually put that screw in, I'm gonna start turning it just so it catches a little bit on that low profile nut. Once I get it started, I can feel it catch. I'll do the same thing for the screw on this side as well. Again, just so I can feel it catch a little. There it goes.

Obviously, I'm not gonna get it as tightly as I could here, but now that I have those two screws there and on the other side, you can see both of those nuts there. It's still a little loose, so I'm gonna take my tools. Here we have the star drive key and we also have an open-ended wrench there.

What's nice is that because of this piece here, it's actually gonna hold those nuts in place. So I don't have to actually use the wrench to hold them in place, which is super nice. I can just hold this. On the other side, I'm gonna get my key and I'm gonna start twisting and tightening those. Now don't tighten them too much. We don't wanna force it, but once you feel it stop moving, we're in a good place.

And there we go, everything's attached. I can see that it's not loose at all. Just gonna check those one more time and we're good to go. Now it says to do this twice. So let me go ahead and do that same thing for the other one.

I'm gonna grab the pieces that I need. I need one of these, I need a rubber shaft collar, two low profile nuts, and two screws. Again, gonna put that rubber shaft collar inside before I start. Line that up properly. Can feel it kind of nestled in there. Put the low profile nuts in.

Okay. And again, if I'm going too fast, you can pause at any time. I'm gonna just hold those in place so I can flip this over. I'm gonna put the screw in just to get it threaded a little bit, get it started, and then, of course, I can tighten it with my tools here in one second. Get that tightened up a little.

All right. Now that I have it started, I'm gonna use the key. Twist it. Now you can use the key from either side. I like to use this when I can rotate it. Of course, you could also do it this way if you wanted to. I just find it when doing in this position, it's a little bit easier to rotate it from the top.

All right. Have those two pieces assembled. Let's move on to our next step here. So what exactly do we need for this guy? We need... This is again gonna be a twice. So doing this two times for both of our pieces here. I need two more star drive screws, I need another shaft collar, and basically the same pieces. It looks like I'm just putting it on the other side. Gathering this again. Two more low profile nuts.

All right, got all my pieces that I need, basically gonna do the same thing, except it's going to be in the opposite direction. Oops, sorry. Gonna be reflective. So as you can see, it's gonna look like this. So I'm gonna do the exact same thing that I just did in the previous step. I'm gonna put that shaft collar inside, gonna line that up. Now that I have it lined up, I'm gonna put in my low profile nuts.

Okay. Hold that in place, flip it over. Get my screws started. Once I get them started, then I could tighten them up a little bit with the key. So again, in total, because you're doing this twice per C channel, you'll be doing this a total of four times. So you'll be an absolute pro by the time that you've done that. Getting all the practice, now doing it four times.

All right, I'm gonna tighten this now that I have them threaded a little bit. You'll actually be able to feel the screw coming through the other side there of your finger if you keep holding it in position. All right, good to go. Just tighten that a little bit more now that I have a little bit more free hand space. There we go. So as you can see, it's gonna be on either side, same thing, it's just reflective.

So let's do that for the last C channel or other C channel here. I'm gonna have this piece, another shaft collar, two screws, and two low profile nuts. Same thing, it'll put that shaft collar in. I'm gonna line it up. Again, please keep in mind that this is reflective, but what I mean by reflective is that the larger piece is going to be on the interior. It should not be that you're flipping it around and they're facing the same direction. The larger of the two pieces should be facing each other, the interior there.

All right, gonna place those low profile nuts in there. Okay. Now that I have that, hold that in place, start threading those screws in. Once I get them started, I'ma tighten them up a little bit to a good point where I can actually hold onto the C channel a little bit better. Okay. All right. Just gonna check that one more time. Okay. All right. So now I have both of those pieces and we are ready to move on to the next step.

All right. Okay, we're gonna be doing this twice as well on both of our C channels that we have here. So I have a post standoff retainer with bearing flat. That's going to be this guy here. As you can see, it does have the space to actually hold that low profile nut in, then this on the other side, that little square. The whole purpose is that it's actually going to lock into place with the squares that we have on here. So it's actually a really, really nice piece that's gonna allow a lot of stability for us.

So I'm gonna grab that, gonna grab our screw, gonna grab our one more low profile nut. And what I'm seeing here is that we're going to thread the screw through right after the end of this piece. I'm gonna keep that screw there. I'm gonna flip it over on the other side. Now this piece is going to go through the screw here. So the piece where the nut is actually going to go. I'm gonna go down a little bit further there. That's where it's going to lay into the screw.

Now, when I actually put that in there like that, it's gonna be pretty hard to get the low profile nut in there. So my suggestion is to actually do the screw last. So we're going to flip this over. I'm going to put in the low profile nut so that it's in place. I'm gonna keep this relatively parallel here. I don't wanna knock it over so that nut will fall out, but I can see that the hole right after this last piece is where I need to line up the nut. So I'm going to do that. And then this square piece should actually fall into the next hole. So that should actually be inside. If I flip it over, you can actually see it's protruding through.

That's a good way to check, is if you flip it over, you should see my last piece, an empty hole, where the screw is going to go, and then this square piece from the post standoff retainer with bearing flat. Now that I have that, I'ma flip it over. Take my screw, just like I did for the other pieces, I'm gonna get it started. Start threading that there, and then once I have the thread, I'm gonna tighten it with my key. All right. I'm just gonna double-check that that is tight. Yep.

Okay, so here's what we just attached. Now as you can see, that little black piece there is actually right next to the screw, and again, on the other side. We wanna nestle in that low profile nut. So we're gonna do it again on this next C channel. So gonna gather my pieces. One more low profile nut, another screw, post standoff retainer with bearing flat. Again, I'm going to first put in the low profile nut. Again, be careful, don't wanna twist that in either direction and have that pop out. I'm gonna flip this over and I'm gonna line it up so that that piece actually goes into the square. It may take a little bit of moving it around before it actually gets in there and lines up properly. You may need to apply a little bit of pressure to actually get in there. But once it lines up, there it goes, it falls relatively easy in place.

So this is actually going to be 1, 2, 3, 4 holes in, or where this notch is is where you should be lined up with your low profile nut, okay? Again, four holes where the notches is is where you should see that. This part, the protruding square should be going through the other side. So you should be able to see it. And again, we should have our last piece, an open hole, and then the square. I'm now going to put in the screw next to that square, that open hole, get it threaded a little bit and then tighten it. All right. Good to go. I have both of these tight. I can just double-check. Did that twice.

Now let's see what our next step is going to be. So as you can also tell from the build instructions here is the final piece. Let me actually make this a little bit bigger. You can actually see right under the step that shows us where it inserts, it actually shows the final product as well. So you can double check that.

All right, let's go over to the other side. Now we're gonna start attaching the motors. We're also gonna do this to both of our C channels. Okay. So I need a motor, I need a low profile bearing flat, and I need two star drive screws. All right. I take one of these pieces here, and what it's saying is that I am going to first, I'm gonna take my low profile bearing flat. Now the other side of it, I know it's hard to tell from this angle is does have a little bit of the ridges on it, which is going to lock in place with these screws, which is a really nice feature that we have there. And the third part of this low profile bearing flat is actually gonna line up with the last hole here of this piece. I'm gonna flip that over. I'm gonna put that in so that it lines up. What's nice is that on this side, you should see two screws, and then the beginning of our low profile bearing flat.

I'm gonna take my motor and I'm going to put it into the last two holes to the left there of the low profile bearing flat. They actually sit in there really nice. And as you can see, it sits in there to the point where if I pull up the motor, it actually pulls it off. So all of that is nestled in there. Now, make sure it's lined up properly. I'm gonna flip it over to the other side, and now I'm going to put in the screws. So I hold it like this so that I have everything kind of lined up there. I'm gonna first screw in the first screw, get that threaded a little bit, put in the second screw, get it threaded a little. And then I'm gonna tighten it. Be very, very careful here as you tighten.

You don't wanna tighten too much and actually strip the screws that we have there on the other side of the motor. Strip putting screws into the motor. So be very careful. Tighten it so that it's tight, no longer moving, but don't force it past extension because we don't wanna actually mess with the threads that we have there on the motor.

Now we're doing this twice. So let me go ahead and get my other motor, my other low profile bearing flat, and my two screws. Again, I'm gonna flip this over, line it up so that right after those two screws, we put the low profile bearing flat. It should sit in there quite snug. And then I'm going to grab my motor. The last two holes in the motor is where I'm gonna line up. Also, make sure your orientation is correct. It should be looking like this. You shouldn't be applying it like this. When you're looking top-down, you should be able to see the red VEX on the left here. It should not be on your right. So just be careful of that orientation, it should match this here. So be very careful of that as you actually add the motor. We wanna make sure it's actually pointing in the correct direction.

All right, now that we have all of that lined up, I'm gonna flip it over. You can also put it on the table if you need a little bit more stability. Now that I have everything lined up there, I'm gonna put the screw in. I'm gonna get that going. Again, be careful not to tighten too much. Oop. Low profile bearing flat came out there, so let's put that back in. There we go. Okay. Grab my motor, line all that up. Okay. I'm gonna flip it over so that I can actually put it on the table there. Get a little bit more so I can line that up a little bit easier.

All right. Now, after all that's lined up, take my screw. Start to thread it in. You should be able to feel it getting a little bit tighter. If it's free spinning, something's not catching properly. So you may need to just move some stuff around until you can actually feel it catching the motor. If that's happening, again, just move it just a little bit until it catches. We don't wanna push anything past extension and damage anything. So definitely keep that in mind.

All right, now that I tighten this a little bit, again, do not over-tighten these, just make sure that they are not loose. All right, that one's good. All right, now that I have both of those pieces, let's see what the next step is. As you can see, this is the final. We should have both of our screws here after this final piece, which is holding the rubber shaft collar.

All right, now we're gonna start introducing the wheels. Zoom in a little bit on this as well. This is gonna happen twice, one for each. Zoom back just a little there. Okay, so I need one of these pieces. I need the click-on spacer, which is gonna be one of these guys that has a little opening on the end. I need my wheel. So this is gonna be the travel wheel. I need the high strength shaft adapter, and I need another click-on spacer and the capped shaft.

Now these shafts look very similar other than their length. The cap shaft actually does have a little cap on the end. So be very careful what shaft you're picking. Make sure you're actually picking the cap shaft, that again, has that little ridge on the end, and you can tell that it's actually capped, okay?

So now that I have all of that, we're actually going to put this through the motor. So my first suggestion is to actually start with the wheel. So what we're going to do here is we're gonna have the capped shaft. I'm gonna put the high strength shaft adapter in the wheel and actually goes in just like that. Then I'm going to add the spacer to my capped shaft like that. Even though it has little gaps, it's gonna fall out, fall from either side. I mean, if you flipped it upside down, it would definitely fall out that way. So now I have my capped shaft. Make sure the capped part is what's facing outward.

That's the part that you do not want to put in the motor; that's the part that you want to have facing you, okay? So I have the capped shaft, and I have the clip-on spacer. I'm going to put this through. They are both square, so you're going to have to line them up properly. Okay? Then I'm going to flip that over. Okay? Now that I have all of that, one other thing that you can do, if you're having a problem putting the high-strength shaft adapter in first, is you can take your shaft, put the click-on spacer, and then insert the high-strength shaft adapter. Again, this is the dark gray one. Then I can put my wheel on, making sure it's lined up properly. Either way, it's totally fine, whatever you're more comfortable with.

I have one more click-on spacer, and then I'm going to actually put this through, and it's going to go through the rubber shaft collar. I have to line it up here with the motor. You may need to spin this a little bit until you actually feel that shaft go in the motor. Okay? I'm going to keep turning this until I get it in. Okay? Now, the rubber shaft collar, which is going to be inside this black piece right up against here, is going to be a little bit tight, so you will have to push a little bit, and it will be flush with that clip-on spacer. Push all the way until the capped part is touching the clip-on spacer. There shouldn't be any more gaps. Okay? Again, the insert to the motor is square, and the shaft also is square. You may need to rotate a little bit until they fit into each other. You will know that you've done it properly when you can do two things: number one, the cap is actually flushed with the spacer, and number two, when I spin the wheel, I can actually hear the motor.

(motor whirring)

All right, I can hear the motor, so I know that that is in there properly. Okay, going to do the other side. Two click-on spacers, capped shaft, and the tire. Okay? I'm going to move this over here just for a second. All right. Now I'm going to do what I mentioned before. Again, going to have my capped shaft. I'm going to put that on. Going to put on the high-strength shaft adapter. Okay? Going to put the wheel on. Again, make sure the wheel lines up with the high-strength shaft adapter; both are square. It should be going through; it should be inserted. Okay? Now that I have that, I'm going to pop on the other click-on spacer, and now I'm going to attach it to the other wheel. Okay? Again, you might have to push a little bit because that rubber shaft collar is a little bit tight. So don't be afraid to push that in. You're going to have to move this, rotate this until you align it. You can also stick your finger in it. Be careful of pinch points, but if you need to guide the shaft in a little bit, you can absolutely do so. You're going to have to rotate it a little bit until you line up with the motor. Again, both the shaft and the motor are square. So you're going to have to make sure that they line up properly. Keep spinning it until you do. You may need to push again. Don't push too hard. You know, you don't want to force anything that's not supposed to, but this is a part that may take a couple of seconds just because everything does have to line up properly. Okay? Again, I know that I'm not done because, as you can see here, this capped shaft is actually protruding a little bit, and when I spin this, it's free spinning. I can't hear the motor spinning. So I'm actually not done yet with this. Okay? I'm going to keep rotating until I can fit it. Here it goes. You actually feel it go in the motor. All right. Now this is flush with my click-on spacer, I can't push it anymore.

(motor whirring)

And when I rotate that, I can actually hear the motor. So I know that that's all the way in. All right. Zoom out a little bit. Now we're going to start adding the Omni wheels over here for step six. So let's go over here. Very similar process. Again, we're going to do this for each.

Thank you for following along with this guide. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out. Happy building!

Going to be doing this for each of the two C channels that I have here. So I need the two-inch shaft, 'cause there's gonna be the only two shafts left. Another click-on spacer, the other high strength shaft adapter, and a rubber shaft collar, and of course, one of my Omni wheels.

All right, same sort of thing here. Now, because I have here on the other side, I'm gonna start by putting the shaft here, and I wanna actually push that in. What's nice about that is the rubber shaft collar is actually in this piece, so I can push it in just far enough. I don't want it to protrude very far on the other side. Okay? So it's not protruding very far, but I just wanna get that in there to get started.

I'm gonna put on the click-on spacer. I'm now gonna put on the high strength shaft adapter. I'm then gonna put on the Omni wheel. Again, make sure your high strength shaft adapter matches up. It goes in the wheel. Okay? And then the rubber shaft collar. So I can push the shaft through just a little bit more. You want just a little bit showing on each side, and the rubber shaft collar is actually gonna hold that in place. Okay? And then obviously if I go like this, I can see that it's working rather nicely. It's holding into place really well.

All right, same thing for this side. So I need a shaft, I need a click-on spacer, I need a rubber shaft collar, and I need the Omni wheel, and the last, high strength shaft adapter. I put my finger on the other side here so that it doesn't go through too far. Push that in. Because of the rubber shaft collar, it is a little tight, so I just push until I can feel it hit my finger. Okay? You can see it there, it's not protruding too far. Then I'm gonna put on the click-on spacer, the high strength shaft adapter, gonna put on the Omni wheel. Again, that's gonna sit in there really nicely and make sure it spins just fine. And then finally the rubber shaft collar to hold it into place. Okay? I'm gonna push the shaft through just a little bit there so that it's protruding just a little on each side. Okay? All right, and that moves really nice.

Okay, looking towards our next step here. As you can see, we have both those done. Okay. I'm gonna zoom in a little bit here. Going into step seven. Now that circular green circular mark there means that we're actually rotating. So I'm going to rotate so that my travel wheels in the back and the Omni wheels is in the front. Okay? So that's actually what that means. So I'm gonna gather that, I'm gonna grab another C channel. I need a star drive screw, I need the post standoff retainer, and I need a low profile nut.

Okay? All right. So what I'm gonna do here, I oriented this so that my travel wheels on the left, motor's on the right. And as you can see here, this C channel's actually going to be faced down. So the longer parts of the C channels should be facing downward. And what I'm going to do is that's gonna line up nice and square. So I'ma actually flip it over so you can see on this side. It's gonna line up the two first holes here, and this C channel is gonna line up with the first two holes there. Okay? So what's nice about this is that I can actually keep it upside down if that's easier to work with, or you can keep it this way. Again, totally doesn't matter. It's a little bit easier to see if I do it the other way.

And the first thing that we wanna do is we want to attach the post standoff retainer with that low profile nut on there. So I'm gonna nest that in there. This is very similar to some of the other pieces we had. That sits in there very nice. And because of this, it actually means that I don't have to hold on to it with the open-ended wrench to actually tighten it, it's gonna actually do so because of this piece, which is really nice. And then on the other side, again, we have that little square hole that's gonna keep it in place.

Before I even get started with that, as you can see here, I'm gonna angle it.

Thank you for following along with this assembly process. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out.

Looking forward to seeing your completed project!

This second hole from the back is where the screw is going to go. So I'm gonna line this up so that the first hole... Tilt that a little for you to see. The first hole is where the square part is going to be, and the second hole is where the low profile nut should rest. Okay? I'm gonna line this up. Again, this protruding black part should go in the first hole right there. So I'm gonna actually hold that in place while I line all that up. It should click in rather nicely.

(soft metal clicking)

There it goes. And, oop, when I flipped it over to the other side, I lost my low profile nut. So let's put that back in there. Okay, low profile nut. Put this back into place. I forgot to put my finger over that when I flipped it over. So just be aware of that. Okay? All right, I'm gonna hold that low profile nut in place. Much better. All right. Line all that up. Now I'm going to put the screw in. Again, the screw should be going through the low profile nut. Okay? So now I'm gonna tighten that a little bit. Again, not too tight. All right, so I'm gonna hold that up. Again, square part should be protruding. We have our screw there. The screw is screwing into the low profile nut, and this is where the square part is protruding there to hold those pieces together. Okay?

All right, let's zoom that out. Okay, this is what the final should look like. I'm gonna go over here to the other side. Basically, we're doing the same thing, it's just going to be flipped or mirrored. Okay? Same pieces. We have the star drive screw, I have the low profile nut, and I have the one post standoff retainer. Okay, I'm gonna flip this around. Please keep in mind when you flip this around, you should have both travel wheels on the back, both Omni wheels on the front. Okay? We do want to be powering the travel wheels. All right, I'm gonna take my post standoff retainer and actually nestle in that low profile nut. Okay? I'm gonna take this piece, I'm gonna pop that in so that the first square actually has that little black piece protruding out. Okay, let me turn it so you can see. Right, so we have the first hole is where I put my post standoff retainer, that little black part that's going through there. And then the low profile nut should be going, lined up with the second hole. I'm gonna put my finger on that as I flip it over, just so I don't lose it. I'm gonna line all that up. I'm gonna flip the entire thing over, okay? Please keep in mind to keep your finger there so that low profile nut doesn't fall out. You could also keep it right side up if you prefer. This is just the way that I found it to be a little bit easier. I'm gonna line up that screw in there. Once I get it all lined up, I'm gonna take my key and I'm going to start tightening. Now, once you feel it start to thread, you can let your fingers loose, then you can tighten it up a bit. Okay. So now that I have that in there, you do wanna make sure that they're lined up rather nicely, tighten this up a little bit more. All right, there we go. Again, not too tight, but it should be pretty tight and of itself. All right. You could have also, if you wanted to, screwed it from the bottom. So held that screw from the bottom and place that on top. However, that's just the easier way that I have found it is to flip it over and go from there. And all of our pieces are tight and we are good to go.

All right, let's look at the next step. This is what you should look like up to this point. Next step, we're gonna add on this other bar. So I need my other C channel. I need two of the low profile nuts, I need the last two of the star drive screws, and I need the one post standoff retainer. I actually, I'm sorry, I need both of these. And what I'm gonna do is as you can see here, this star drive screw is going to attach. Let me zoom in a little bit so we can see. It's going to attach on the sixth hole from the back. So it's going to attach right here in front of the motor. So the notch happens every four holes.

So 4, 5, 6. It's going to be right after that, and it's gonna settle in just like that. Okay? So we can also double check by looking at the C channel there. Okay? All that's lined up. Looks good.

Okay. So first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to put the post standoff retainer. I'm gonna put my low profile nut in there so that it doesn't fall out. And as I am looking, the back part of the low profile nut should be facing the travel tires. So just make sure that your orientation is correct there.

On the C channel, this particular C channel, we have the low profile nut in the first spot up there, and then the black part should go through that second hole, which is facing the back. Again, you may have to wiggle that around a little bit until it actually gets settled in. There we go. Whoops. Pop that back into place there. Okay. So that's the first one. And the screw actually goes in from underneath.

So for this one, maybe easier to actually flip this guy over. Now, again, six up, so 4, 5, 6. I'm gonna hold that in place. I'm gonna flip the entire thing over just so I can see it on the side a little bit. I'm gonna put in my screw. Maybe easier actually to hold onto the screw with the keys. Sometimes I find that to be a little bit easier to get it in there.

And then once I have that nestled in there, one of my favorite tricks, let me turn this a little bit, is that I can actually get in from the top of the C channel. So let me actually turn. I'm actually in the top of the C channel in order to screw that guy in. So tightening up a little bit more. Once I have that, you could have also gone in with the shorter side down there, but I find it a little easier.

Let me actually hold that up to the camera a little bit more. So again, when you have, and you're trying to get into a tight space like that, it's much easier to just go through the C channel. So as you can see there, I can actually go through the C channel and screw it that way. So when you're putting a screw on the bottom, I can go through the top using my key and actually get in there rather nicely.

Okay? So this is the top. Basically gonna do the same thing over again. So I have my post standoff retainer, I have my low profile nut. I'm gonna line that all up again. Put that in there so that it fits nicely. Okay, gonna line up both pieces now. Make sure that that black part of the post standoff retainer actually fits in both squares. So you may need to move that around just a little bit until you can actually see it go through. There we go.

Again, I'm gonna flip this. Oops, I lost it on the connection. Okay, lift that, Oh, there we go. Okay. I'm gonna hold that tight. Flip the entire thing over so that I can put the screw through. Okay. Actually make sure that the low profile nut's actually in place. There we go. And make sure you have everything before you flip the entire thing over. Okay? Flip that entire thing over. I can see now where I need to put the screw. I am going to put in the screw. I can actually do it with the key if I want. All I'm doing is placing it in, that's all. I'm not tightening it yet.

Now I'm gonna go through the very top and tighten in that screw 'cause it's much easier to go through the top. Okay? Tightening, I can feel it coming through the other side. All right, make that nice and tight. Again, not too tight. And there we go. So now I have both of those attached. You want to make sure that the black piece of that post standoff retainer is facing the travel wheels, and both of our low profile nuts are facing, forward facing the Omni wheels. Lots of different things you have to actually pay attention to here with the orientation.

Now, when doing that, one of your shafts may have slipped out of the tire. So let's double check that it didn't, okay? I can hear that motor, that's good. Let's check this one. Oh, I can't hear that, so it actually did slip out. So let's go ahead and push that guy back in.

Sometimes when you're manipulating the build, you may have one of those shafts slip out, especially when you're gathering and holding it from a lot of different angles to get one of those screws in. Okay. Now that we have those, let's check both tires.

(motor whirring)

Okay, good to go. All right. Almost there. Let's see what our next step is. Here, it looks like we're gonna start attaching the brain. So from the back here, I need two star drive screws, which are going to be these very small ones with the little blue marks on them. And I need two of the two-inch standoffs. Okay? Basically, what we're gonna do is attach them. Now, this is the part that you really wanna zoom in and look at.

From the center notch, you can see that there are three notches here: 1, 2, 3. From the center notch, we are going to put the screw through the second from the center. Okay, so I have this notch, one and then two, that's where that's gonna go. You can also see from those green lines there. So I'm gonna actually put the screw through first, then I'm gonna take my standoff and all I have to do is twist it. Okay? This is just to get it started. I am going to tighten it in a second here once I get them both started, right? Same thing for this guy, two over from the center, pop that in, just gonna get it started a little bit. Okay, and obviously they're very loose. Now I am going to hold them still. I'm gonna get my key and I'm gonna tighten them to make sure that they are tight enough. Okay? All right, screw those through just a little bit more. It's always nice to get the screws started just a little bit, and then once you're in a good place and have a little bit more stability, you can hold onto it and make them tighter. Okay? All right. Almost done here. Okay. I have my two standoffs on and attached. Let's see what the next step is. And as you can see so far, your build should look like this, which ours does for now.

Okay? Now we have this attachment, which is going to be the mounting plate for our brain. All right? I need that, I need two more of the star drive screws, the 0.25 locking, all right? And I'm gonna zoom in because so we can see exactly where we're going to attach it on the brain. Okay? It's going to go in on either side, it's going to be even, okay? Now it's gonna look a little bit interesting that we're actually going through these different slots here. Okay? But the way that we are doing it is we are going to choose these two. Okay? So I know it's a little bit hard to see here, but it's actually centered. So the same sort of thing. If you actually look at this, we have the center notch and we have two notches on either of the center notch side. So from the center notch, from lining that up with the center notch of my C channel as well to just get everything centered there. And it's actually going to be the third of the grooves or the second hole in. So first hole, second hole, first hole, second hole. Okay? So now that I have that, I'm gonna actually just place that screw on there and I'll tighten it in a second, I just wanna get it threaded to start. Okay. And I'm gonna tighten that up just a little bit now. Again, not making it too tight, just tightening it so we don't have any loose parts. Okay. Same thing here, tightening it on this side. All right. That's how we should look. Face it down a little bit, you can see. Okay? If I go down a little bit, we can see there as well. If I zoomed in, it is going to be the second notch there. Okay? All right. So we just wanna make sure that this is going to be oriented in the correct direction. Okay, so let's just zoom in just a little bit there. So second notch in from the top. Okay? So as you can see there, still good. Have that bottom notch, have the top notch, and there we have the third.

Thank you for following along with this build process. We hope you found this guide helpful. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out. Happy building!

So as you can also see, the standoffs, just from where they are, actually wouldn't have gone in any of the other notches because they're too far away. Okay? All right. That's attached properly. Let's see what the next step is.

Now we're gonna actually attach the brain. So first things first, for the EXP robot brain. If you have your battery charged, this is a great time to put it in. If you don't have a battery charged, then you could have been charging it as we were building. And now we can actually put that in there.

The first thing we have to do is put in these low profile nuts into the bottom part of the brain. This is going to allow us to actually screw it into place. I know it's hard to see, but I already put two on the corners there. We're gonna put four, so I'm gonna take two of these away since I already have a couple there. I'm gonna have one on each of the four corners. I just put them there so that you can kind of see where they're at. They just slide right on in. The reason for that is that we can actually now screw on either of the sides. We're gonna make sure all four of those are in the low profile nuts. So all four corners have it.

I'm now going to put my brain back in. I'm sorry, put the battery back in. Now is the time where you wanna add that battery in. We are going to make sure our orientation is correct for the brain. Those low profile nuts actually stay really nicely in the brain, so you don't have to worry about them falling out. You have to really push pretty hard for them to come out. The check marks should be facing the top. The VEX should be in the bottom right-hand corner. The way that the cables or our plugs up here is gonna be one through five, and then six through 10 on the bottom.

Now I'm gonna line this up so that my first... And it's not gonna go all the way flush with the bottom. That's something to definitely note. We're going along this top set of holes here. The very, very right top and the very, very left top are where we're gonna actually screw in the brain. Once I have that lined up really well, I'm gonna pop those screws in there. Again, I'm gonna tighten them in a second once I get them in. I may have to orient it just a little in order. There we go. Same sort of thing. We don't wanna tighten too tight here. These screws are also relatively short and small. Tighten that up, just so nothing's loose.

It makes sense that it isn't all the way flush with the bottom, because that way you can actually get the battery out in order to either swap the battery or charge it. So it does make sense that it's not completely flushed with the bottom. If you're trying to screw into these bottom holes here, just keep in mind that that's not the goal; the goal is these top holes. Same sort of thing for the bottom. I'm actually going to twist it down a little bit. Line up those holes.

One trick that I do if you notice some of those, I had one of the different lock nuts there falling out a little. You can actually just go from the bottom and push them up. If that happens, again, take your key, just push them up a little bit until they're back into place. All right, putting in my screws, they line up. That one's in. Just gonna give it one or two twists there to get it lined up into place. This one. Whoops. Put that screw in. We're good to go. Tighten that up a little bit more. I'm just gonna keep tightening, 'cause we're still a little bit loose. All right, that's good. Tighten this side up. All right. Okay. All four of those are in. Two on the bottom, again, shooting for that top row, and two on the top.

Great. We're almost there. As you can see, final product there. Now, put the battery in. I like to do it from the previous step. You can also do it here if you forgot. Okay? Batteries in.

The light should be facing on the right side there. Please make sure you're putting in the battery correctly. The orientation is important, as the battery will not go in if you try to do it in the incorrect orientation. All right. Now we just need to plug in our motors.

So, the last thing here, we have our two 300 millimeter cables. I'm gonna take these little ties off that hold them together. I'm gonna plug the left one in, since the left motor goes into port six. Okay. I'm gonna wrap that cable in there just so I don't lose it. All right. And then our right one. So here, make sure the tabs are lining up. You should definitely hear a click.

(soft click)

Okay, I hear that click. This one's gonna go into port 10. Again, you should hear the click into the motors, or I'm sorry, into the brain as well.

(soft click)

All right. Got both of those clicks. If you pull just a little bit, not hard at all, you should feel that they're nice and snug in there. I'm gonna wrap this cable around the standoff. All right, and there we go. I have both of them connected. See if we're missing anything else for our instructions here. And that was the last one, that's it.

Okay, so now that we have everything built, all of our pieces are used. Fantastic. The last thing we need to do to make sure that my BaseBot is built correctly is I can run the built-in drive program on the brain, and that's gonna ensure that if I can drive this using the drive program in the controller, that this actually works properly.

Now, the controller, you do charge the same as the battery. So if your controller is not charged, again, you could charge it before the build or any of those things, but the controller and the brain should come paired. I'm gonna push the power button on the controller. This should be green. I'm gonna push the check mark on the brain. Okay? And the controller and the battery already come, I'm sorry. The controller and the brain already come paired. If they are not paired, you can pair them. There's a process for that, but since we already have them paired here, I'm gonna select the drive program. It's the first one selected all the way on the left. Press the check mark. It says, run, press the check mark again. It's now running. I can actually see the timer in the top counting.

I'm now gonna use my controller. I'm gonna push the left for that. So that's gonna control the left side. This is going to control the right side if I have tank drive initiated, and as I can see there, it's working properly. My left motor's working 'cause my left wheel is going, my right motor is working because my right wheel is going. Okay, so if I do them in tandem, I can see they're working at the same time there. All right. Okay, perfect. I can see that, I'm gonna stop that program from running. I can see that everything was built correctly.

Congratulations. You built the BaseBot, you did it. Followed along with me, followed along with the instructions. You did a fantastic job. You validated that everything here is correct. Again, if you went and tested the drive program and something was not working, a couple things to check:

Number one, was it one of the motors? Did the left side not work? Did the right side not work? That's a great indicator that either the left side, the shaft may have slipped out. One other thing is that you should be able to see that the cables actually turn red when they are connected into the motor all the way. When they are not connected into the motor all the way, they're not a color. Okay? So that's another way to check to make sure that your cable's actually inserted all the way there into the motor. And also, check the connection up here for the brain as well.

Okay? So those are my two biggest things to check. Number one, make sure your cables are connected properly, make sure one of the shafts did not slip out of the motors. Other than that, everything should be working as promised, as intended.

And again, congratulations.

I hope this video was helpful as you built your first BaseBot, and I will see you in another video.

(bright upbeat music)