2010 Build Season

Thunderfoot is in the Crate!

After one last intensive evening of building, lightening, testing and debugging, the robot was set on the scale for one last time, with all of the extra parts - camera, winch, lexan panels... At 121.1 pounds, he is still a tad heavy.  We still have a few ideas for reducing weight, but those will have to wait until the Finger Lakes Regional.

One last dinner report:  Thanks to Tresten's family we had Mark's pizza.  I was too late for dinner, but I did have a little of the leftover ice cream from "Ice cream for Breakfast Day" that was out for dessert.

(One meal update - Breakfast on Saturday was from Parentors Lee and Val!)

Another major effort for the evening was team testing: 29 students are now qualified to attend the competition and several have joined the group with 100% - Mike Mac, Tresten, Alex V. Jacob K. and Candido "The Game" Jr.!

At the end of the evening, the ceremonial photos were taken and Thunderfoot was gently tucked into the crate for his brief winter nap.  Thus ends the build season section of the blog.

Photo(s) of the Day!

Caption #1:  Presenting Thunderfoot!



Caption #2:  Tucking Thunderfoot in the Crate.

Rally Day! 

Local FRC Teams were everywhere.  We had 17 teams on our RSVP but I think only 12-14 made it.  The going was rough, but I think all the teams gained some valuable insight into how the game would be played out, and benefited from the practice time and or the community pit time. 

I could and should probably give you more details, but the day really flew by at a blurring pace.  I know there was free cake and it was great, but I didn't get any.  I know the bleachers were filled for the opening ceremony and even more filled after Kathy Rapp, from ITT, made her presentation and use a unique team and community building exercise to make more room on the bleachers for the SRO crowd.  Additional thanks also to Chip Renzi and Laura Chan from Harris (our main and awesome sponsor) for speaking.  Crystal's opening video was wonderful, but I wish it would have been introduced so that more people would have paid attention to it.  Mentor Jeff's field management system did a great job to give the feel of competition and it was fun to have Mentor Eric E. as our MC - complete with Rolling Thunder colored Hawaiian Shirt!  Thanks for a tremendous effort goes out to the field sub-team for 6 weeks of hard work building the field (for just 4 hours of play time - sigh), to all the mom's and dad's who helped with the concessions or other tasks, to the corporate sub-team led by parentor Lee for getting the media there, and to all the rest of the team members for helping out the other teams as hosts of the event, and for helping to take it all apart and cleaning up after it was over.

I have a little meal menu reporting to get caught up on, so let me do that here:

I lost track of who brought donuts and bagels in for breakfast on Saturday, but lunch was provided by Ethan's family.  I missed it but I heard that it was wonderful deluxe chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches! I missed lunch because I was home preparing dinner which was a baked-potato bar complete with a wide selection of toppings: chili, bacon, cheese, broccoli, scallions... for dessert we had creampuffs and mini éclairs.

Sunday's bagels and donuts were brought in by Mentors Kim and Eric.  Lunch was pizza with a wide variety of toppings, tossed salad and veggies and dip brought in by Chris's family.  Dessert was Famous Amos mini-chocolate chip cookies and Oreo cakesters.  Dinner was brought in by Mike Mac's family and was pizza as well with a selection of meaty and cheese toppings.  We have one more family meal planned for Monday night, so while I'm thinking of it, I just wanted to say thanks again to all of the families and mentors who kept us well fed during build season.

Robot update:

The rally was a good chance for us to give the candidates for drive team a change to take the controls, but more time was spent off the field than on the field.  Drivers with a little confidence were able to consistently manage the bumps.  Ball handling was a little more challenging, especially if the ball ended up along the wall of the field or up against the bump.  We learned that if we try to push a ball over the ramp, it will go under the robot. and stay there for the rest of the game. The autonomous modes worked but always seemed just a little off to me.  There is a photo of Thunderfoot hanging on the tower, so that must have worked at least once, but I missed it!  

We actually only have one more night to spend on the robot before it goes in its crate to be shipped on Tuesday.  Monday night will be a very busy hectic robot day!

Testing update:
As of noon today, 23 students have passed the game and tool test and are eligible to attend competition!  I have a few more 100% to report - students eligible to be on the drive-team or pit crew as well:  Mike H, Theo, Kyle, Crystal, Alex, Matt and Justin (a week ago, but I missed reporting him earlier).  Several students are very close to passing or getting 100%, and several finished the task before the end of the evening, but I want to make sure I have something to talk about tomorrow!

We are definitely in the home stretch now and after Monday night it will be the wild dash to prepare the whole team for the regionals! Huge quantities of buttons have been made, but more are to come. We are planning on carrying on the tradition of FRC365 MOE with the personal recognition buttons at the regionals and need to make those buttons and handouts.  Work will need to be done to make sure we have all the pieces of the pit since it spent the summer at several locations. Robot brochures and team pamphlets need to be designed and printed, and team awards - the ones we give other teams- need to be finalized.  And Chairman's prep and making the team video...  I'm stopping now before I wear myself out just thinking of it!  Where did the past 6 weeks go?!?

Photos of the Day!

Caption #1:  Team Crates, all in a Row!



Caption #2:  Bumpers and Buttons!

Saturday.  The Last Saturday.

I left at 3:30 am yesterday.  Or is it today? Several students and mentors ended up spending the whole night and crashed on the field on some wrestling mats.

But now its late again.  And I should tell you about the whole day.  But not now. For now, its just the basics. 

Everything is ready for Rally, except our robot. Thunderfoot made it to the field around 8:00 pm.  Drove up over the bump and well, it fell over.  But its ok, and the "rookie" driver learned from that mistake and the next few bumps went better.  The kicker kicked. And then it broke.  They tested the winch, ummm not quite.

But we will get it together before the real competition.  At least he is light enough.  Bumpers are underway. That's my big task.

We welcomed the Grapes of Wrath today the FRC team from Naples.  Awesome design feature.  You should come to Rally to check it out.

The crate from NazaREX is here, but the bot is coming tomorrow.  The robot and crate of the rookie team from Pittsford has arrived as well. We can't wait to welcome them tomorrow.

Tomorrow.  Its almost here. 

And after so many days of the Photo of the Day, today there isn't one.  I'll make up for it tomorrow. 

Winter Break, Day 5!

And the excitement builds!  Hard work was done to get the field ready to play Breakaway! And there are activities everywhere to get ready for the Rochester Rally.  Thanks to Parentor Sharon for being the noon mentor today so the students could arrive and work.

What we had for Dinner!  It's pasta night!  Thank you to Quentin's family! Baked ziti some with meat and some without! A deluxe tossed salad (cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices make it deluxe), and garlic bread or regular bread. Dessert was iced cookes and iced brownies, some were mint flavored!   

Here is the quick report since there is so much to do!

Parentor Val has just about finished the signs, Parentor Sharon was proctoring game tests while managing a crew of button makers. (Another student got a 100% on the game test!  Way to go Vaughn!)

Team Leader Larry made a special announcement about our shirts at dinner!  Thery are here!  Parentor Lee coordinated getting them ready for distribution! Actually there is something else about the shirts that you should know...hmmm.

And look!  Mentors-from-afar Kim and Angry Eric are here!  They've come from Boston for the Rally weekend! Kim has a huge to-do list waiting for her and Eric had already had a peak at the programming!

And where is the robot?  Is it finished? Will it work? When I arrived there was a huge pile of people around it, but it is still sitting on the table.  The scoop, it is finished enough that the programmers actually got to run some preliminary code with it.  But not finished enough to be finished.

But tonight we have permission to stay here all night!  I'm sure I won't make it!  But while there is work to do, I'm sure someone will be!

Speaking of work to do! I have some so I'm leaving you with...

The Photo of the Day!  And Guess what? Just for fun, there are three photos!

Caption #1 Look at our lovely field!  Bring your robot and Come and play!



Caption #2 Thunderfoot! He has wires!  And a diligent programmer! And yes it was disabled so it's ok that Mike Mo. has his arm in it.



Caption #3 The AWESOME 2010 Rolling Thunder Breakaway Shirt!

Winter Break, Day 4!

Parentor Terri and I took the noon shift today.  Several students were waiting for us at noon.  I love the enthusiasm!

Mentor Tom C.  joined us shortly later and got things hopping in the shop. 

We ask the students to come after lunch or bring their own lunches, but today we brought back the leftover ziti from dinner last night, reheated it and had enough food for 10-15 people.  It didn't go to waste!

The big task for the day, other than finishing the robot (please) was moving the fully set up field from the cafeteria to the gym to get it ready for Rochester Rally! 

Parentor Val was back in Rally Sign, sign, sign, sign... mode.

The Woodie Flowers Award essay was submitted by mid afternoon! Once again it was an ugly essay as the entry system took away all of the paragraph formatting.

What we had for Dinner!  Today it was Kevin's family's turn to bring dinner.  We had "make your own sandwiches" with several types of bread, rolls, meat assortments (turkey, ham, roast beef, bologna), cheese and veggies.  It was supplemented with cheese pizza (and some leftover ziti) carrots and celery, pickles, apples and clementines, and brownies for dessert!

Thursday's Safety Talk! Mike H. reviewed what could be found in our team Safety Manual and we did a review of this year's incident reports and discussed root causes and corrective actions.  Apparently Mike Mo. has been completing incident reports on a regular basis.  Not good.  

Parentor Lee reported that the Democrat and Chronicle will be here on Sunday for the Rally, bringing a reporter and a photographer.  Time Warner Cable was already scheduled to attend. 

Oops!  I almost forgot the Integration Meeting notes!

Electrical - board is going on the robot!  Added terminals to new batteries.  More limit switches have been obtained.  Camera mount needs to be reworked.

Controls - sent in revised drawing for top joystick mount.  Sliders appear to not work - may need to have a Plan B.  Need to decide whether to ship the controls with the robot or not.

Mechanical kicker - mounted sensor for kicker, started on beater bar (will be on tonight). Need to figure out what will "skin" the robot.

Mechanical hanger - need to make collars for tubes, otherwise all set.

Field - field is being moved into gym. Will set it up on Friday for practice and Rally.

Drive-train - waiting on superstructure before making bumpers.

Programming - autonomous mode has been debugged.

Everyone - weight is the big issue. Trim anything unnecessary! Mechanical has been working on weight issues all day. Suggestion: replace Lexan with netting on the superstructure, except over the electrical board (sponsor stickers will go on that piece of Lexan). Put a small strip of thin Lexan around the top of the superstructure, so that Harris and PHS logos can be put on all four sides. An estimate of weight for this strategy must be created tonight, to compare to the weight of Lexan over the entire superstructure.

After dinner and meetings, the rest of the field was moved to the gym.

At exactly 8:08 pm, the welded superstructure arrived! A whole day early!  And then about an hour and a half later, a weld on the superstructure broke while they were adjusting it.  The welder was called and the part was rushed back to him!

I've been here too long today, so I'm signing off...  (it's a pun...)

Photo of the Day! Caption:  This way to Rally!

(get it?)