FRC Team 2522 News
Seattle WA Regional: Things went really smoothly. Robot worked every round. Only one problem, when the chain tensioner got loose and we lost a chain, but it was quickly fixed. Our drive team was stylin' in the new tabards, and consistently scored on the field. Our pit, our people, our program all made points with the judges, visitors and other teams. All our plans, except the banner, got implemented and got us noticed. We are getting a reputation as a strong, across-the-board team. Excellent!
Getting prepped for SEATTLE, home territory. Got lots of marketing materials to get ready: team buttons, Goodwill bracelets, Safety materials, update website, and our VIDEO. Bryan and John are doing an excellent job of editing and all those that had parts did great (even if they don't think so). Down side is we still won't have our new banner, the images need adjusting before they can expand up to 4 feet. Oh well there's next year.
Portland OR Regional: Well we had a few 'bugs' in the works, both machine and human, but we got them worked out and did pretty good in the last couple of rounds. Final ranking was 43rd out of 60. Didn't make it into the final alliances, but we're more prepped for WA, so that'll be good. It did seem that we did a better job of relaying to the judges what our team is doing well. The safety judges noticed our handouts for other teams and the Business plan judge was so impressed that he had to come back and tell us that we were 'this close' to winning it. Skunkworks won it, so if we are 'this close' to such a fine team we are doing well indeed!
WEEK 5-6: Homestretch, this is where it gets hairy. Everyone is getting very tired and there is still a fair amount of work undone. Crunchtime!! Redoing the control board bases to plexiglass. Adding the "ball magnet" means moving the kicker back. Still hoping to get the lifter working. Building a driver station. Then there's testing of all that programming to see if anything actually works. Not too mention the crate and pit rebuild, all the buttons and whatnots. Can we do it? Yes we can!
WEEK 3-4: Had some slow down in effort. Finals week definitely cut into how many members were able to attend. Also some setbacks in getting all the parts to work together. Tried going over the bump now that we are heavier and decided to order plaction wheels, too much slipping was giving us bad control. Got the North end field up and running. So we and other teams will be able to practice and test how we are doing. Starting the Crate rebuild.
WEEK 1-2: So far so good. We've got basic design ideas. We've assembled the drive base and tested it and tested the electronic components. The electronics are being changed to a modular design so pieces can be moved as needed. We've begun programming for teleop. Prototypes for kicker mechanisms are in process. A final decision will be made on Saturday, 1/23/10. Bumpers, battery box, and herding parts are in progress. Completed several field parts for testing and practice purposes.
Build shop time will be nearly every day, M-F and Saturdays. See the Build Schedule & Timeline or the Yahoo and Website calendars for details. We don't expect every team member to make every day, but we do ask that they make as many as they can. Hours will be a factor in selecting the drive team and how much the team can cover t-shirt and travel costs. The first hour M-F will be dedicated to homework (and slow times can be used for that too). Following that will be a team meeting, then work time. See you there!
Snacks and meals will be needed during the build season. Nan VanKlaveren is organizing this. If you can help provide food, please contact her at garry.nan@verizon.net
The competition was a success. The teams did well presenting to the judges and the best part was doing the holes. The final scores were: Sean's team 4, Violet's team 16 and Dominique's team 22. Each team earned a chocolate trophy full of chocolate coins. Sean's team won the Technical and Competition excellence award, Violet's team earned the Teamwork and Spirit excellence award and Dominique's team earned the Design and Innovation excellence award. There was a special award for excellence in applying what was learned which went to Connor B!
The team training challenge begins, it is explained on the rules sheet. Click here to download drawings of the golf holes. Specifications for golf balls: diameter is 1.68 inch, average weight is 1.62 oz.
Below are the team training tasks
FRC Funding Opportunity: ECC grant money is available if we can prove our engineering skills. We will receive up to $50 for each area that we show our competence. The areas include: Project management, Design, CAD, Programming, and Manufacturing. This opportunity piggy-backs nicely on our tech training program ideas, so we can earn bucks for what we pretty much already had planned to do! Rod Schein from EdCC came to our planning meeting on Sep 15th and talked about this grant. He approved our project timeline. Rod Shein from EdCC came to our Minigolf competition to see what we've learned. He seemed impressed, good work everyone!