Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration, and inspiration.
-Evan Esar
Pretty much everyone on the team was busy for the majority of the meeting time today which was awesome. The big development is that the competition robot electrical base is back together now after the paint job. We also finished the shooter mechanisms. The piston for loading Frisbees, the hopper made out of a 5 gallon bucket, and the shooter wheel are all done and mounted. Our next steps are mounting the whole shooter assembly and large piston, putting on the feeder ramp, and mounting the hanging hooks. SO EXCITING!!
As stated before, it's difficult to do the competition robot because we want to be really accurate and precise. It just makes progress slow which makes us antsy.
A bunch of the team members also painted the goals. Then taped on the reflective tape. This will allow us to test the vision processing once the final robot is up and running.
We did a couple more interviews for the Chairman's video. We also kept revising the Business Plan and thinking about Chairman's Essay and Executive Summary.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Driving To The Finish Line
It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile, and one nut to scatter it all over the road.
- Author Unknown
New YouTube Video:
Competition Robot Base
Sincerely apologize for short post. Running behind and working hard on the final robot. Will do a better update later.
- Author Unknown
New YouTube Video:
Competition Robot Base
Sincerely apologize for short post. Running behind and working hard on the final robot. Will do a better update later.
- New AndyMark parts are here!!!!! - dualie omni wheels, C Rail, solenoids, digital side car, and other stuff
- Finished electrical board - Miranda
- Put on wheels - Alex, Bydlon, Mitch, Brandon, Lacey
- Put Prototype Robot back together - Lacey, Bydlon, Bryce, Alex
- Played around with prototype robot - Bryce driving, others operating, Brandon and Alex feeding
- Drove around new drive base - Brandon, Bryce, Mitch, Bydlon
- Ate Domino's Pizza
- Worked on Chairman's Executive Summary - Jesse, Kacy, Jade
- Other mystery projects
- Rock Band
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Check Yes Or No
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
-Robert Louis Stevenson
New YouTube video!
Midwinter Invite
The big excitement today was that one of our team members, Jade, was asked to the next school dance using our prototype robot. It was super cute and we got it on video. Check it out above.
After staying pretty late for what seems like the hundredth time, Alicia, Brandon, Bryce, and Bydlon got the electrical system done for the most part. It's awesome how all of the experience we have built up from last year and this offseason has come together during this build season. We know exactly what we need to put together and where. It's still pretty tedious work (need to be careful and deliberate with our placements). But we made a huge amount of progress today and will continue it tomorrow. We've got a nice big AndyMark delivery tomorrow. Yay!
The parts for our robot that are being made at Alex Tech are almost done. We can't wait to see them!
Up in the computer lab, Kacy and Jade got the timeline all set up for our Chairman's Executive Summary. This will make writing the answers to the questions much easier.
There are lots more projects we are working on as well! Will update as they become more solidified.
-Robert Louis Stevenson
New YouTube video!
Midwinter Invite
The big excitement today was that one of our team members, Jade, was asked to the next school dance using our prototype robot. It was super cute and we got it on video. Check it out above.
After staying pretty late for what seems like the hundredth time, Alicia, Brandon, Bryce, and Bydlon got the electrical system done for the most part. It's awesome how all of the experience we have built up from last year and this offseason has come together during this build season. We know exactly what we need to put together and where. It's still pretty tedious work (need to be careful and deliberate with our placements). But we made a huge amount of progress today and will continue it tomorrow. We've got a nice big AndyMark delivery tomorrow. Yay!
Up in the computer lab, Kacy and Jade got the timeline all set up for our Chairman's Executive Summary. This will make writing the answers to the questions much easier.
There are lots more projects we are working on as well! Will update as they become more solidified.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Hurdling Toward Our Goals
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.
-Arnold J Toynbee
New YouTube Video!
Business Plan Update
Yesterday was the Design and Build Team's time to shine. They accomplished a ton on the competition robot frame and were very successful. Today, it was the Awards Team's time to shine. The Business Plan is finished for now!! No really, it is! Kacy and Jade have been working really hard to do revisions on last year's Business Plan. As it turned out, they basically rewrote it all. That was necessary because of all the changes and incredible events we have been able to do since last season. The next step for the BP are having it revised by English teachers. Then, it will be edited again and submitted! EXCITING!
Chairman's Award is the next hurdle that the Awards Team has to jump over. Bydlon was under the impression that the Chairman's Essay was to be around 10,000 words. Turns out, it is only 10,000 characters. That's not very many!! Kacy, Jade, and Jesse will have to do a lot of editing to get all of the great events, partnerships, achievements, presentations, and outreach into such a small amount of characters! They'll get it done though because they're awesome.
Down the Robot Room, work was slow going today. As we start building our competition robot, we are being much more deliberate. While this is good for building a really nice robot, it makes work much more tedious and the progress comes in spurts. But we did cut the electrical board piece and started some of the planning on where components will go.
We also brought over the parts we need machined at Alex Tech.
At the end of the night, we were all very tired and received some AndyMark parts. Thus, we goofed around for a while. We played with the frisbees, made funny faces, and even did some "magic" tricks.
Our team is awesome.
-Arnold J Toynbee
New YouTube Video!
Business Plan Update
Yesterday was the Design and Build Team's time to shine. They accomplished a ton on the competition robot frame and were very successful. Today, it was the Awards Team's time to shine. The Business Plan is finished for now!! No really, it is! Kacy and Jade have been working really hard to do revisions on last year's Business Plan. As it turned out, they basically rewrote it all. That was necessary because of all the changes and incredible events we have been able to do since last season. The next step for the BP are having it revised by English teachers. Then, it will be edited again and submitted! EXCITING!Chairman's Award is the next hurdle that the Awards Team has to jump over. Bydlon was under the impression that the Chairman's Essay was to be around 10,000 words. Turns out, it is only 10,000 characters. That's not very many!! Kacy, Jade, and Jesse will have to do a lot of editing to get all of the great events, partnerships, achievements, presentations, and outreach into such a small amount of characters! They'll get it done though because they're awesome.
Down the Robot Room, work was slow going today. As we start building our competition robot, we are being much more deliberate. While this is good for building a really nice robot, it makes work much more tedious and the progress comes in spurts. But we did cut the electrical board piece and started some of the planning on where components will go.We also brought over the parts we need machined at Alex Tech.
At the end of the night, we were all very tired and received some AndyMark parts. Thus, we goofed around for a while. We played with the frisbees, made funny faces, and even did some "magic" tricks.
Our team is awesome.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Progressing Forward
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
Two new YouTube videos:
Prototype Robot - Responding to Comments
Prototype Robot - Full Demo
WE FINALLY GOT SOME REAL PROGRESS DONE! Yay!!
The team was on Cloud Nine from the beginning of the meeting today. Our Purchase Orders were approved in the morning. That means our AndyMark parts are on their way to our shop (EEEEE!!!) and that we could finally go to Menard's and buy many of our new tools and competition robot material. THIS IS EXCITING!
As far as robot progress goes, we got a lot done today. Mitch and Brandon went over to Alex Tech to get our frame pieces cut up. Unfortunately, they turned our a little long (our fault for not measuring right) so we need to cut them down a little bit. But! We still put the frame together anyway (Alex, Matt, Mitch, Bryce, and Brandon). We also got the new drive wheels all set up. We're just waiting for the new gearboxes to keep moving the process along.
Molly went over to Alex Tech and got 2 new solenoids from Todd (Thanks Todd!). This means we were FINALLY able to fire our main piston as well as our frisbee loader without switching tubing. We got help from our college mentor, Tyler. So we did a full robot demo video above. We also were able to practice a lot of the driving, shooting, and hanging in a row. The practice that the drive team is getting is invaluable for the future.
Brandon took measurements for our final shooter. We will be able to make those pieces tomorrow and start the careful assembly.
Alicia kept up her awesome work of organizing the robot room. The electrical drawer looks great! Now for the fasteners drawer (yikes...).
Allen worked on getting the camera to connect to the laptop but is having very little luck. This will be solved very soon.
Tyler and David measured out all of the Battery Cart plywood pieces. Tyler and his dad, Dan, will cut those pieces tonight and assemble them tomorrow. Yay!
Jesse made progress on Chairman's video by organizing what we have now in the 5 main categories. Jade and Kacy kept up the work on the Business Plan. They surveyed the guidelines which helps a lot in framing how the paper is written.
Molly signed the team up for the Polar Bear Plunge (more to come later). Carson designed a hanky for the team to sell at events. Heidi took a bunch of pictures.
To end the night, Bryce, Alicia, and Bydlon went to Menard's and purchased a new drill, a portable band saw, some more electrical components and the competition robot materials. SO EXCITED!!
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Two new YouTube videos:
Prototype Robot - Responding to Comments
Prototype Robot - Full Demo
The team was on Cloud Nine from the beginning of the meeting today. Our Purchase Orders were approved in the morning. That means our AndyMark parts are on their way to our shop (EEEEE!!!) and that we could finally go to Menard's and buy many of our new tools and competition robot material. THIS IS EXCITING!
As far as robot progress goes, we got a lot done today. Mitch and Brandon went over to Alex Tech to get our frame pieces cut up. Unfortunately, they turned our a little long (our fault for not measuring right) so we need to cut them down a little bit. But! We still put the frame together anyway (Alex, Matt, Mitch, Bryce, and Brandon). We also got the new drive wheels all set up. We're just waiting for the new gearboxes to keep moving the process along.
Molly went over to Alex Tech and got 2 new solenoids from Todd (Thanks Todd!). This means we were FINALLY able to fire our main piston as well as our frisbee loader without switching tubing. We got help from our college mentor, Tyler. So we did a full robot demo video above. We also were able to practice a lot of the driving, shooting, and hanging in a row. The practice that the drive team is getting is invaluable for the future.Brandon took measurements for our final shooter. We will be able to make those pieces tomorrow and start the careful assembly.Alicia kept up her awesome work of organizing the robot room. The electrical drawer looks great! Now for the fasteners drawer (yikes...).
Allen worked on getting the camera to connect to the laptop but is having very little luck. This will be solved very soon.
Tyler and David measured out all of the Battery Cart plywood pieces. Tyler and his dad, Dan, will cut those pieces tonight and assemble them tomorrow. Yay!
Jesse made progress on Chairman's video by organizing what we have now in the 5 main categories. Jade and Kacy kept up the work on the Business Plan. They surveyed the guidelines which helps a lot in framing how the paper is written.
Molly signed the team up for the Polar Bear Plunge (more to come later). Carson designed a hanky for the team to sell at events. Heidi took a bunch of pictures.
To end the night, Bryce, Alicia, and Bydlon went to Menard's and purchased a new drill, a portable band saw, some more electrical components and the competition robot materials. SO EXCITED!!
Monday, January 21, 2013
Small Steps
The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance! Then, even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning!
-Markesa Yeager
Real Talk: So we've had a lot of really great success recently with our prototype robot and that's awesome. The real work begins after those successes happen and you hit a wall. The fun learning curve has definitely flattened out. Truthfully, we are just kind of spinning our wheels waiting for our competition robot parts to come in. Purchase Orders are just kind of hard way to deal with paying for parts. Our team totally understand why they are important and why the paperwork is necessary. It's just... WE WANT TO BUILD OUR AWESOME ROBOT! *deep breath*
The thing our team HAS to keep in mind: The small steps we make in the next few days are the difference between being PICKED and doing the PICKING.
To pass our time today, Brandon and Bryce worked on a couple of projects that ended up not gaining us any ground. We added some more height to our feeder ramp wall. Unfortunately, this prevented us from using our hooks to hang. So we tried to move around the hooks but nothing was working so we went back to our original design.
The other time waster today was a project to lift frisbees off the ground. Honestly, we don't feel like we need to pick frisbees up off the ground. We see no reason for our game strategy to do this. However, we are waiting for parts and don't have anything else to do so brainstorming a new mechanism is fun.
Alicia and Tyler built some shelving units to help organize the robot room. They look great!!
Allen kept working on autonomous and semi-autonomous programming. We got some WONDERFUL suggestions on our YouTube videos and Chief Delphi post about reminding us that you need to shoot further away to host 3 frisbees. Otherwise, it's 2 frisbees.
Jade came in and kept her work on the Business Plan going. She has also been updating our Tumblr page. It's so funny! Check it out!
-Markesa Yeager
Real Talk: So we've had a lot of really great success recently with our prototype robot and that's awesome. The real work begins after those successes happen and you hit a wall. The fun learning curve has definitely flattened out. Truthfully, we are just kind of spinning our wheels waiting for our competition robot parts to come in. Purchase Orders are just kind of hard way to deal with paying for parts. Our team totally understand why they are important and why the paperwork is necessary. It's just... WE WANT TO BUILD OUR AWESOME ROBOT! *deep breath*
The thing our team HAS to keep in mind: The small steps we make in the next few days are the difference between being PICKED and doing the PICKING.
To pass our time today, Brandon and Bryce worked on a couple of projects that ended up not gaining us any ground. We added some more height to our feeder ramp wall. Unfortunately, this prevented us from using our hooks to hang. So we tried to move around the hooks but nothing was working so we went back to our original design.
The other time waster today was a project to lift frisbees off the ground. Honestly, we don't feel like we need to pick frisbees up off the ground. We see no reason for our game strategy to do this. However, we are waiting for parts and don't have anything else to do so brainstorming a new mechanism is fun.
Alicia and Tyler built some shelving units to help organize the robot room. They look great!!Allen kept working on autonomous and semi-autonomous programming. We got some WONDERFUL suggestions on our YouTube videos and Chief Delphi post about reminding us that you need to shoot further away to host 3 frisbees. Otherwise, it's 2 frisbees.
Jade came in and kept her work on the Business Plan going. She has also been updating our Tumblr page. It's so funny! Check it out!
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Waiting But Deciding
“Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”
― Malcolm Gladwell
Weekend meetings are tough. Team 3313 is from Minnesota and January is not exactly the most wonderful time of year. Your house is warm, the tv is beckoning, there is copious amounts of food, and all sorts of temptations to keep you at home. Plus, transportation can be hard on weekends.
Bryce and Brandon showed up to work today along with Bydlon. While they watched The Avengers, the website was updated and electrical diagrams were studied. After the movie was finished, the 3 of us went down to the shop to do some tests on the prototype robot.
The 3 amigos went to Menard's to do some brainstorming. We looked at wood prices (spoiler alert). We also made some plans for new tools to buy. We put in a request for an encumbered account at Menards but it has not gone through yet. So we are stuck waiting...
The prototype robot is finished You can see all of our videos at this playlist. The major stumbling block we are at now is that we don't have the necessary parts to continue on with our competition robot. We are kind of at a stand still. Today, after Alicia showed up, we tested out if the Mini CIM from Vex Pro would work for our shooter and it does. That allows us to use a smaller, lighter motor for the same function. That's nice!
Alicia and Bryce stayed later. We made some decisions on apparel for the team. We are going to make new t-shirts with all of our sponsors on them (also going with the blue logo). We are going to do another order of polo shirts because they're awesome and look professional. Finally, we are going to order hooded sweatshirts. They are going to look so amazing. Cannot wait.
So today was not a very busy day but we made TONS of decisions about the future which is very exciting.
― Malcolm Gladwell
Weekend meetings are tough. Team 3313 is from Minnesota and January is not exactly the most wonderful time of year. Your house is warm, the tv is beckoning, there is copious amounts of food, and all sorts of temptations to keep you at home. Plus, transportation can be hard on weekends.
Bryce and Brandon showed up to work today along with Bydlon. While they watched The Avengers, the website was updated and electrical diagrams were studied. After the movie was finished, the 3 of us went down to the shop to do some tests on the prototype robot.
The 3 amigos went to Menard's to do some brainstorming. We looked at wood prices (spoiler alert). We also made some plans for new tools to buy. We put in a request for an encumbered account at Menards but it has not gone through yet. So we are stuck waiting...
The prototype robot is finished You can see all of our videos at this playlist. The major stumbling block we are at now is that we don't have the necessary parts to continue on with our competition robot. We are kind of at a stand still. Today, after Alicia showed up, we tested out if the Mini CIM from Vex Pro would work for our shooter and it does. That allows us to use a smaller, lighter motor for the same function. That's nice!
Alicia and Bryce stayed later. We made some decisions on apparel for the team. We are going to make new t-shirts with all of our sponsors on them (also going with the blue logo). We are going to do another order of polo shirts because they're awesome and look professional. Finally, we are going to order hooded sweatshirts. They are going to look so amazing. Cannot wait.
So today was not a very busy day but we made TONS of decisions about the future which is very exciting.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Auto Pilot
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
- Henry Ford
New YouTube video is up!
Prototype Robot - Autonomous
Team 3313 met again today to do some more work. Jade and Kacy went right to work doing more Business Plan revisions. It is really starting to come together. It is really fun to read our missions statements and see the progress we've met to achieve them.We set up our half field to practice on today. It was fun to see the full pyramid and goals out. We simply cannot wait to begin competition. So exciting.
For the first time, we have a robot to practice autonomous on before the last day of build season! Haha. It seriously is great to be able to optimize and tweak the autonomous to make it the best it can. Worth the tedious work to see it shoot 3-3 on 3 point autonomous shots.
The team has worked their tails off putting all the components together of our prototype robot. It is fabulous to see it all working together. Unfortunately, we cannot take a video of the ENTIRE system because we only have one 12v solenoid. They are on the way though!The other small project was fixing the robot cart. We switched around all the wheel wells so they will fit our wide, smaller robot this year.
The team ended the night by playing some Rock Band. It's nice to kind of take a break for a little bit from the stress of build season and just spend time together laughing.Goals for Saturday:
Thursday, January 17, 2013
School Comes FIRST
Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill.
-Christopher Parker
No new YouTube video today:
Sorry... More tomorrow! Promise!
So Team 3313 had kind of a slow day today. Tomorrow is the last day of the semester at Jefferson High School. This means Bydlon, the team's head coach, has a ton of grading to catch up on. It also means the student team members have A TON of homework to catch up on and finals to study for. Basically, team members either didn't show up today, or spent most of the time doing homework or studying. That's ok! Grades and school definitely comes first. Tomorrow though, the team will be back in action building and writing awesome stuff!
Even though everyone had a lot of work to do, we still accomplished a few things.
OUR PYRAMID IS COMPLETE! Yay! Dalton's dad, Scott, from Myhr Fabrication was able to finish squaring up the pyramid today. It looks great! We can't wait to keep prototyping on it.
Bryce wired up the digital solenoid on the c-Rio so that we can use 24v valves. As embarrassing as it is to say, we didn't know how to do this before. This will allow us to use more solenoids on this year's bot.
Tyler went to work creating a battery cart. We have 9 batteries now and we will need a way to keep them all organized at the Regional we attend. It is looking great on CAD! Can't wait to see it in person.
Brandon took down some notes on measurements of the our prototype robot. For the first time, we are CADing our initial robot before we build our final one.
Jade did some more Business Plan revisions. She also added some more to our Tumblr. There are some super funny pictures. SEE THEM HERE!
Goals for tomorrow: Take apart Murphy and start making a stockpile of parts for our competition bot. Cut some C-Rail for the competition bot. Investigate using a screw to get to 2nd level. Start Autonomous Programming. Contemplate frisbee pick up. Keep revising Business Plan. Play Rock Band.
-Christopher Parker
No new YouTube video today:
Sorry... More tomorrow! Promise!
So Team 3313 had kind of a slow day today. Tomorrow is the last day of the semester at Jefferson High School. This means Bydlon, the team's head coach, has a ton of grading to catch up on. It also means the student team members have A TON of homework to catch up on and finals to study for. Basically, team members either didn't show up today, or spent most of the time doing homework or studying. That's ok! Grades and school definitely comes first. Tomorrow though, the team will be back in action building and writing awesome stuff!
Even though everyone had a lot of work to do, we still accomplished a few things.
OUR PYRAMID IS COMPLETE! Yay! Dalton's dad, Scott, from Myhr Fabrication was able to finish squaring up the pyramid today. It looks great! We can't wait to keep prototyping on it.
Bryce wired up the digital solenoid on the c-Rio so that we can use 24v valves. As embarrassing as it is to say, we didn't know how to do this before. This will allow us to use more solenoids on this year's bot.
Tyler went to work creating a battery cart. We have 9 batteries now and we will need a way to keep them all organized at the Regional we attend. It is looking great on CAD! Can't wait to see it in person.
Brandon took down some notes on measurements of the our prototype robot. For the first time, we are CADing our initial robot before we build our final one.
Jade did some more Business Plan revisions. She also added some more to our Tumblr. There are some super funny pictures. SEE THEM HERE!
Goals for tomorrow: Take apart Murphy and start making a stockpile of parts for our competition bot. Cut some C-Rail for the competition bot. Investigate using a screw to get to 2nd level. Start Autonomous Programming. Contemplate frisbee pick up. Keep revising Business Plan. Play Rock Band.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
It's The Simple Things
Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.
-Albert Einstein
Our new YouTube video is up!
Prototype Robot - 10 Point Hang
The team met today with a flurry of activity to start on. Our biggest development is that we achieved a 10 point hang!! That is extremely exciting! The method we used is extremely simple but we think that simple is often the way to go. Simple means less things to fail during competition and less things to keep track of.
We had a video from last Saturday detailing how we were going to hang. We completed that idea today by using organizer hooks for a garage. We just fastened them to our shooter top using some 2x4s. The giant piston we have on the front of our robot for angle adjusting has the power to pull the wheels off the ground. As long as the robot is not touching the ground, we are good to go for 10 points. We are very proud of the work we have done so far. Our next big steps are going to be CADing up our design and programming autonomous. We are going to build an all new robot (same design, different materials) in the coming weeks.
A few other students started remaking our robot cart. We are doing a wide robot for the first time. That means the wheel wells need to face a different way. The smaller frame perimeter also allows us to use more of our robot cart for storage. We are going to build a shelf and tool box area for it.
Bydlon turned in the Purchase Orders for all of our AndyMark parts and encumbered account at Menard's. This will allow us to buy all the parts and tools we need to be successful in our competition robot design.
Kacy and Jade kept working on the new Business Plan revisions. It's a long process but they're getting there.
Jade has taken over ownership of the Team Tumblr account located at here.
Carson added our newest sponsors to our sponsor page here on the blog. We are always so thankful of our sponsors and all that they provide for us.
Goals for tomorrow: Start CADing the prototype robot like maniacs. Frisbee picker upper work? Business Plan revisions. Battery cart design. More team videos.
-Albert Einstein
Our new YouTube video is up!
Prototype Robot - 10 Point Hang
We had a video from last Saturday detailing how we were going to hang. We completed that idea today by using organizer hooks for a garage. We just fastened them to our shooter top using some 2x4s. The giant piston we have on the front of our robot for angle adjusting has the power to pull the wheels off the ground. As long as the robot is not touching the ground, we are good to go for 10 points. We are very proud of the work we have done so far. Our next big steps are going to be CADing up our design and programming autonomous. We are going to build an all new robot (same design, different materials) in the coming weeks.
A few other students started remaking our robot cart. We are doing a wide robot for the first time. That means the wheel wells need to face a different way. The smaller frame perimeter also allows us to use more of our robot cart for storage. We are going to build a shelf and tool box area for it.Bydlon turned in the Purchase Orders for all of our AndyMark parts and encumbered account at Menard's. This will allow us to buy all the parts and tools we need to be successful in our competition robot design.
Kacy and Jade kept working on the new Business Plan revisions. It's a long process but they're getting there.
Jade has taken over ownership of the Team Tumblr account located at here.
Carson added our newest sponsors to our sponsor page here on the blog. We are always so thankful of our sponsors and all that they provide for us.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Ramping Up Our Design
A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
-Ayn Rand
Check out our new YouTube video!
Prototype Robot: Feeding Frisbees and Shooting
We have received some really awesome emails from teams across the country complimenting our online presence and willingness to share. The entire team cannot begin to express how awesome those emails are. It absolutely continues to motive our team to achieve and share even more. FIRST Robotics is a truly awesome community. The idea of coopertition is ever present in the team's minds.
Our basic robot design is for the most part complete. We added the last details today. We can now have frisbees fed to us through the feeder slots. We accomplished this by adding a ramp on top of our shooter. It was a team effort to put the ramp on and get all the kinks out. We shot a ton of frisbees today making sure all aspects of our robot are completely in sync. We also changed the hopper design by adding tin instead of more bucket at the top. This allows more room for the frisbees to fall down into. Check out the new YouTube video above to see the full process in action.
We still need to add hooks to the robot to practice hanging.
We spent a lot of time today talking with Dan from Douglas Machine, our engineering mentor, about how we can pick up frisbees. The advantage we see in doing that is programming our autonomous to pick them up and shoot them. That would allow us to shoot 5, instead of 3, frisbees for double points. We are still in the very early stages of planning it, but we are confident we will complete the design. It involves a piston pulling the frisbees onto a conveyor belt. We will post a video in the coming days.
The business plan was revised by Bydlon and Renee Becker. We are loving the new additions and are constantly amazed by how much the team has accomplished in the past year.
Carson made a poster for each of our next big events. The Pizza Selling at the Ice Fishing Contest Poster is fantastic. The Open House poster is also very nice and informative.
Allen, as always, is making improvements to the server. We will be able to sign in and out like a punch card.
Dalton's dad came in again (because he's AWESOME) and helped square up the bottom of the pyramid. Next up is the middle level and finally the top... It's a project, that's for sure. And we appreciate all of his hard work so much.
Goals for tomorrow: Executive Summary changed, hooks installed, pick up a frisbee using fork and ramp, change up the robot cart, start battery cart ideas
-Ayn Rand
Check out our new YouTube video!
Prototype Robot: Feeding Frisbees and Shooting
We have received some really awesome emails from teams across the country complimenting our online presence and willingness to share. The entire team cannot begin to express how awesome those emails are. It absolutely continues to motive our team to achieve and share even more. FIRST Robotics is a truly awesome community. The idea of coopertition is ever present in the team's minds.
Our basic robot design is for the most part complete. We added the last details today. We can now have frisbees fed to us through the feeder slots. We accomplished this by adding a ramp on top of our shooter. It was a team effort to put the ramp on and get all the kinks out. We shot a ton of frisbees today making sure all aspects of our robot are completely in sync. We also changed the hopper design by adding tin instead of more bucket at the top. This allows more room for the frisbees to fall down into. Check out the new YouTube video above to see the full process in action.We still need to add hooks to the robot to practice hanging.
We spent a lot of time today talking with Dan from Douglas Machine, our engineering mentor, about how we can pick up frisbees. The advantage we see in doing that is programming our autonomous to pick them up and shoot them. That would allow us to shoot 5, instead of 3, frisbees for double points. We are still in the very early stages of planning it, but we are confident we will complete the design. It involves a piston pulling the frisbees onto a conveyor belt. We will post a video in the coming days.The business plan was revised by Bydlon and Renee Becker. We are loving the new additions and are constantly amazed by how much the team has accomplished in the past year.Carson made a poster for each of our next big events. The Pizza Selling at the Ice Fishing Contest Poster is fantastic. The Open House poster is also very nice and informative.
Allen, as always, is making improvements to the server. We will be able to sign in and out like a punch card.
Dalton's dad came in again (because he's AWESOME) and helped square up the bottom of the pyramid. Next up is the middle level and finally the top... It's a project, that's for sure. And we appreciate all of his hard work so much.
Goals for tomorrow: Executive Summary changed, hooks installed, pick up a frisbee using fork and ramp, change up the robot cart, start battery cart ideas
Monday, January 14, 2013
Work Backwards To Go Forwards
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
-Soren Kierkegaard
New YouTube video is up!
We also used up all of our FIRST Choice points. We spent most of them on pneumatics system parts. We are using pneumatics for the first time on our robot this year. They were always a mystery to us until we spent a bunch of time last spring and this fall playing around with them. Takes time to get used to all the different components of robotics...
Jade and Kacy kept working on Business Plan refinements. We keep thinking we're done when we find some other area to tweak. This time, we are changing the Executive Summary to a "bullet point format" as opposed to a paragraph form. At least for now...
Dalton's dad is AWESOME and came in to help us get started on putting the Pyramid together. We got the bottom and middle rung done. Last step is getting the top together. Pretty excited to see it finish and practice hanging!!
Jesse started doing Chairman's video interviews. Look great so far!
Carson made a poster for our Pizza Selling fundraiser. It's awesome. Can't wait to share it.
The build team worked on a couple of projects. First off, our hopper idea is kind of brilliant and very cost effective. We used a 5 gallon bucket. Cheap and easy to attach. This way, we can hold our 4 frisbees securely. We also put on a cylinder to load the frisbees into our shooter.
We are definitely "building backwards" this year. By that we mean, working on each component individually and making each of them work as we go along. Last year, we built separately and then had to work hard to integrate each system. This year we started with the shooter and worked backwards to feeding. David, Miranda, Molly, Bryce, and some others did a great job on the loader and hopper.
Big goals for tomorrow: finish Executive Summary changes, build a feeder ramp, pick up a frisbee, and finish pyramid. Busy day planned!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Success Breeds More Success
A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.
-Colin Powell
Check out our new YouTube videos.
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...
-Colin Powell
Check out our new YouTube videos.
Prototype Robot - Electrical Board
Prototype Robot - Pneumatic Piston
Prototype Robot - Hanging Idea
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...
Friday, January 11, 2013
Ideas That Do Not Work For Us
"My biggest failure is I have too many to talk about."
- Dean Kamen
New YouTube video is up!
School was cancelled today which was awesome. Except that it made it hard for team members to come in to school and work on the robot. We only had 4 people show up to help. Sometimes less people can mean more focus.
The main struggle that our team is having is what we can do vs. what we want to do. We did a strategic analysis and we read the TwentyFour paper about shooting in 2012. BTW, if you haven't read that article, you really need to. So we know that shooting is not very reliable and there are no guarantees with it. That means we know climbing is the way to go. Unfortunately, we don't know how to do it. We just don't have the inspiration right now. Maybe we will later. So we're going ahead with the shooter robot and 10 point hang for now. Who knows? Maybe things will change later.
Our original main goal for today was to put the shooter on the rolling base from yesterday and see what happens. We got kind of sidetracked by other ideas at first. Brandon cut down the curved shooter but got discouraged by the amount of room leftover. Bryce worked on a straight line shooter. We tried many different options but none of them were working. It was pretty down moment. BUT we found our resolve and threw on the curved shooter. AND IT WORKED! It was a very nice moment for us. After so much adversity throughout the afternoon, it was good to finally find something that worked. Plus, it is very consistent in our intitial tests.
The only other developments is that our Business Plan is basically complete. Kacy was not able to come to school but through the power of Google Drive, she was able to still work from home. Jade also did a GREAT job working on the Business Plan today. The next steps are to have it edited by some teachers. Then, it's on to Chairman's Essay!
With all the strategy talk and statistics, it can be easy to lose sight of what works for YOUR TEAM. We discovered some things today that will work for us and that is a big accomplishment.
- Dean Kamen
New YouTube video is up!
 |
| Our linear shooter that did not work. |
The main struggle that our team is having is what we can do vs. what we want to do. We did a strategic analysis and we read the TwentyFour paper about shooting in 2012. BTW, if you haven't read that article, you really need to. So we know that shooting is not very reliable and there are no guarantees with it. That means we know climbing is the way to go. Unfortunately, we don't know how to do it. We just don't have the inspiration right now. Maybe we will later. So we're going ahead with the shooter robot and 10 point hang for now. Who knows? Maybe things will change later.
 |
| Start of a prototype robot. |
The only other developments is that our Business Plan is basically complete. Kacy was not able to come to school but through the power of Google Drive, she was able to still work from home. Jade also did a GREAT job working on the Business Plan today. The next steps are to have it edited by some teachers. Then, it's on to Chairman's Essay!
With all the strategy talk and statistics, it can be easy to lose sight of what works for YOUR TEAM. We discovered some things today that will work for us and that is a big accomplishment.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Rolling Base
The team met again on Thursday night after school. There was some major progress made on a prototype robot and our other current projects as well.
There were two big build developments. We kept working on our arm for picking up frisbees. It's coming along but our big struggle is weight. This little elbow is super heavy. We're keeping our options open and not spending much time on it so we can test it and see if it works.
The other really big development is that we have a working, driving robot base! We decided to go for a long base. Whether we go for a climber or a shooter, both designs we are thinking about involve a longer robot. It took some tedious work (mounting electronics and doing chains are not what most people think of as "exciting") but was worth it to see the robot base drive around.
Kacy and Jade kept plugging away at the Business Plan. The executive summary is basically done. They are currently going through and doing some corrections (the tense that the paper was written in changed throughout so they are making it consistent). Then, they will add in new information and hopefully finish by Saturday.
Carson made a poster for our Pizza Selling Fundraiser. Our team sells pizzas at the Ice Fishing Challenge in Alexandria, MN on February 9. It is our biggest fundraiser money wise so we are really excited for it!
There were two big build developments. We kept working on our arm for picking up frisbees. It's coming along but our big struggle is weight. This little elbow is super heavy. We're keeping our options open and not spending much time on it so we can test it and see if it works.
The other really big development is that we have a working, driving robot base! We decided to go for a long base. Whether we go for a climber or a shooter, both designs we are thinking about involve a longer robot. It took some tedious work (mounting electronics and doing chains are not what most people think of as "exciting") but was worth it to see the robot base drive around.Kacy and Jade kept plugging away at the Business Plan. The executive summary is basically done. They are currently going through and doing some corrections (the tense that the paper was written in changed throughout so they are making it consistent). Then, they will add in new information and hopefully finish by Saturday.
Carson made a poster for our Pizza Selling Fundraiser. Our team sells pizzas at the Ice Fishing Challenge in Alexandria, MN on February 9. It is our biggest fundraiser money wise so we are really excited for it!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Haaaaaaaper
Check out our vlog for today!
The evolution of our shooter prototype was created today. We made a hopper (or as we like to call it, haaaaaaaaper) and a loader for the shooter prototype we created yesterday. Now we can shoot frisbees completely hands free!! That's pretty darn cool. Especially because we programmed it all in so we were shooting using our driver station. Huge thank you to the ITW Heartland mentor who came in and helped us today. Check out the prototypes together in the video below.
Shooter Prototype 3
The other big build development was that we started work on a frisbee picker upper. Bryce worked pretty hard on making a claw design. We'll see if it works in the next couple days when we finish it. If we do a shooting robot, we want to be able to pick up off the ground. Check out the video of it below.
Frisbee Picker Upper POC
Dalton Myhr is a Senior Programmer on the team. His dad and uncle have a company called Myhr Fabrications. They have generously donated time and money to make us a full on, legal, steel pyramid to practice on. THAT'S AWESOME!!!! So Dalton and his dad started working on that this week. It should be done by Friday. Did we mention they are awesome?
There were many developments in the computer lab as well. Business plan revisions are still carrying on. We are changing the layout a little bit and making even more corrections and additions than we thought we would.
The Chairman's Award Video is starting to get going. We have our interviews and interview questions set up. We also collected many pictures and team videos we want to showcase.
We created a template for a newsletter we will send out to all of our sponsors every Saturday.
The server is continuing to improve. We got a desktop to use for it. The "clock in" feature works!
Shooter Prototype 3
The other big build development was that we started work on a frisbee picker upper. Bryce worked pretty hard on making a claw design. We'll see if it works in the next couple days when we finish it. If we do a shooting robot, we want to be able to pick up off the ground. Check out the video of it below.Frisbee Picker Upper POC
Dalton Myhr is a Senior Programmer on the team. His dad and uncle have a company called Myhr Fabrications. They have generously donated time and money to make us a full on, legal, steel pyramid to practice on. THAT'S AWESOME!!!! So Dalton and his dad started working on that this week. It should be done by Friday. Did we mention they are awesome?There were many developments in the computer lab as well. Business plan revisions are still carrying on. We are changing the layout a little bit and making even more corrections and additions than we thought we would.
The Chairman's Award Video is starting to get going. We have our interviews and interview questions set up. We also collected many pictures and team videos we want to showcase.
We created a template for a newsletter we will send out to all of our sponsors every Saturday.
The server is continuing to improve. We got a desktop to use for it. The "clock in" feature works!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Pew Pew Pew!
Check out our super short vlog on youtube!!
We built a prototype shooter today! It was awesome! An engineer from Massman came to our shop and helped us get together some plywood, 2x4s, diamond plate and a spinning wheel. We made a bunch of 3 pointers in a row after some tweaking. A cool design aspect is that we have a piece of springy diamond plate as the backing.
Shooter Prototype 1
Shooter Prototype 2
We are simultaneously designing two pretty different robots. One is a climbing bot and another is a shooter robot. An engineer from Douglas Machine is helping us with the climbing robot. The ideas are coming along with that.
We got a frame cut for a long robot design. We're going to try that out and see what happens. Both our shooter design and our climbing design lend themselves to a longer design it makes sense.
We also organized the robot room which was extremely necessary after receiving our KOP. We even took inventory of all of our parts. That information is being put on a server for our team. The server will allow us to log in like a time clock.
There was also a lot of activity up in the Computer Lab. We worked on the business plan revisions some more. The executive summary is done! Now for the other 13 pages...
The Resources page up above has been updated as well which is awesome. All of our slide shows from this fall have been added including: PR, Drive Trains, Pneumatics, Prepping for the Regional, Awards, and many, many others. Check them out!
We also got another fundraiser set up. We are going to sell pizzas at the Ice Fishing Challenge in Alexandria on February 9. This was a HUGE help last year and we are excited to do it again.
We built a prototype shooter today! It was awesome! An engineer from Massman came to our shop and helped us get together some plywood, 2x4s, diamond plate and a spinning wheel. We made a bunch of 3 pointers in a row after some tweaking. A cool design aspect is that we have a piece of springy diamond plate as the backing.
Shooter Prototype 1
Shooter Prototype 2
We are simultaneously designing two pretty different robots. One is a climbing bot and another is a shooter robot. An engineer from Douglas Machine is helping us with the climbing robot. The ideas are coming along with that.We got a frame cut for a long robot design. We're going to try that out and see what happens. Both our shooter design and our climbing design lend themselves to a longer design it makes sense.We also organized the robot room which was extremely necessary after receiving our KOP. We even took inventory of all of our parts. That information is being put on a server for our team. The server will allow us to log in like a time clock.
There was also a lot of activity up in the Computer Lab. We worked on the business plan revisions some more. The executive summary is done! Now for the other 13 pages...
The Resources page up above has been updated as well which is awesome. All of our slide shows from this fall have been added including: PR, Drive Trains, Pneumatics, Prepping for the Regional, Awards, and many, many others. Check them out!
We also got another fundraiser set up. We are going to sell pizzas at the Ice Fishing Challenge in Alexandria on February 9. This was a HUGE help last year and we are excited to do it again.
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