Hello from Team 3313 Mechatronics!!!!
Sorry for the delayed post, but i can assure you that we are a bit late on our posts for a reason since we have been very busy and engaged in many different activities. Hopefully, now that we are further in our build season, there will be more frequent posts being put up because of the amount of things that we have been doing.
First off, we finally, after a long anticipated 2 weeks, got our tank drive tracks. We hope that these new tracks will be able to drive ourselves to pretty good standings in week zero and the other competitions that are coming up. We hope that these tracks will also allow us to get over most defenses in the game. To further prepare for the defenses, we have been building some of the ones that we believe that we can go over.
Another highlight that the team has had was being able to create a shooter that seems to work very effectively. We have decided to use this prototype for our actual robot. For the most part the robot is built. All we have to do is attach some wires and start programming the brains of the bot so that our creation comes to life. So far with the shooter that we have, we are going to be able to shoot the ball into the high goals very shortly after we get over the defenses. In conjunction with being able to shoot the ball we have managed to make an intake system where we can pick up with the ball. As mentioned before we have started the wiring and the programming on the bot. That's why we have been training some of the students on the team how to program.
Everything seems to be working out great. All we need to do is do some wiring, some programing, make some adjustments and figure out what we are going to name the bot. Also, something is coming back to our team. Hint: Something to cheer the team on and show team spirit. That's right. Some students from our team have been assigned the job of creating a new mascot. So far, the mascot looks good and hopefully we can have it done by the time that week zero comes along. If not, then the mascot for sure will be done by the time that the regionals comes around. This year, our team is going to the Northstar regional in Duluth.
We can't wait until we get to see all of the teams again. If anyone needs help feel free to contact us. Thank you so much to everyone for your support. See you all soon. Keep calm and robot on.
Today was another pretty slow day. We ran our robot from last year, to get back into the swing of things and get ready for the Minne Mini! We have quite a few new recruits, and they're just as excited as the ones from years past, if not more, to get started and learn new things! 
The Minne Mini is on November 19th and we can't wait to interact with other teams and explore this experience!!!
Today was our first official meeting with the new recruits, and it was a pretty slow day. The newbies were trained on blogging, we organized our space, and had a chairman's meeting. The team discussed outreach, fundraising, promo, and sponsors. The majority of the team was focused on really cleaning up our space and prepping for the Minne Mini!! We are ready to kick bot, already having new experiences and we love what we've seen in the recruits. 
Our new and old team members are super excited for the Minne Mini-Regional on November 19th! 
The next meeting will be on Thursday, November 10th and we can't wait!!!
On Thursday, September 29th 2016, the Alexandria Area High School held their annual club fair. At this club fair we were able to show off what FIRST really means. During our 3 lunches, Highschoolers were able to see some footage from last year's game as well as see the kinds of awards you can earn on the team. From the information that they acquired, they decided to sign up to be on the team. We are excited to welcome the new recruits in our journey to building an epic bot for what I hope will be an epic game.
Hello from Team 3313 Mechatronics!!!!
First off, we finally, after a long anticipated 2 weeks, got our tank drive tracks. We hope that these new tracks will be able to drive ourselves to pretty good standings in week zero and the other competitions that are coming up. We hope that these tracks will also allow us to get over most defenses in the game. To further prepare for the defenses, we have been building some of the ones that we believe that we can go over.
Another highlight that the team has had was being able to create a shooter that seems to work very effectively. We have decided to use this prototype for our actual robot. For the most part the robot is built. All we have to do is attach some wires and start programming the brains of the bot so that our creation comes to life. So far with the shooter that we have, we are going to be able to shoot the ball into the high goals very shortly after we get over the defenses. In conjunction with being able to shoot the ball we have managed to make an intake system where we can pick up with the ball. As mentioned before we have started the wiring and the programming on the bot. That's why we have been training some of the students on the team how to program.
Everything seems to be working out great. All we need to do is do some wiring, some programing, make some adjustments and figure out what we are going to name the bot. Also, something is coming back to our team. Hint: Something to cheer the team on and show team spirit. That's right. Some students from our team have been assigned the job of creating a new mascot. So far, the mascot looks good and hopefully we can have it done by the time that week zero comes along. If not, then the mascot for sure will be done by the time that the regionals comes around. This year, our team is going to the Northstar regional in Duluth.
