Success Breeds More Success

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. 
-Colin Powell

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Prototype Robot - Electrical Board
Prototype Robot - Pneumatic Piston
Prototype Robot - Hanging Idea

Because we met on a Saturday (and it was freezing cold and icy out), there wasn't much attendance again today. Alicia, Bryce, Allen, Molly, and Kacy came in the afternoon (or stayed all the way until the end). Dalton, Carson, Brandon, and Tyler (college mentor) also came to help out later on in the night.

We were definitely energized after our successful shooter from last night (blog post link). There was a lot of work to improve the design however. We needed to switch the plaction and omni wheels around so the weight would give the plactions traction (fun rhyme!). We also wanted to have 2 CIMs on each drive train gear box for more pushing power. Then we made a new electrical board that took up the entire bottom of the robot. This gave us more space for all of our components and pneumatics.

After getting the pneumatics on and working, we wanted to use them. We put a giant piston on one side of our Lean-To. This allows us to switch between the 3 point goal and the 2 point goal. It also has the added benefit of lifting us off the ground for a 10 point hang on the jungle gym.

As far as the robot is concerned, we are WAYYY ahead of schedule. Kind of crazy considering how down and out we were feeling even 36 hours ago. There is still loads more work to do but success definitely breeds more success.

One of the coolest parts of the day for our head coach was seeing the team use spare parts from previous years (random brackets and stuff) and seeing that continuation of the team's spirit in each robot. It makes all the late nights and hard work worth it.

Carson stopped by for a little bit and worked on a Sponsor weekly newsletter. Kacy was basically alone in the computer lab for most of the day. The business plan is done!! WOOO! Just need some revising and a couple more charts. Next task is making a timeline for the Chairman's Award...

If you want to see our Entrepreneurship Award winning Business Plan from 2012, check out this link.

Thanks for reading! Don't say that enough. One of the best parts about FIRST Robotics is the sharing that occurs between teams and the community as a whole.

Sunday is a day off and boy do we need it. Been going hard for almost 2 weeks straight now. Bydlon, Bryce, Alicia, and Kacy worked for 11 hours. Yikes...