Build Season 2010 Blog - 2010 Build Season

Breakaway Day 43 - 1 Day to Go till Ship day!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:21:00 -0800

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.

Breakaway Day 42 - 2 Days to Go till Ship day!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:09:00 -0800

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!

Breakaway Day 43 - 3 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:50:00 -0800

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.

Breakaway Day 42 - 4 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:53:00 -0800

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!

Breakaway Day 41 - 5 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:05:09 -0800

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?)

Breakaway Day 40 - 6 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:01:00 -0800

Winter Break, Day 3

I came very late tonight, so this is a quick update! Thanks to Mentor Bear for taking the noon Mentor-in-Charge duty!

What we ate for Dinner! (And I was sorry to have misssed it!) Thanks to Tom P.'s family we had PASTA! Some with hamburger, some with sausage, some with both hamburger and sausage, and some with just plain sauce! There was tossed salad, bread and brownies for dessert!

There was a lot of essay writing going on while I was here! The Chairman's essay was submitted at 10 pm, a whole 26 hours before the deadline! And it was a good thing because the FIRST essay entry system was not very user friendly. It removed all formatting from the essay and transformed it into one giant paragraph!

The player stations on the field has been painted in red and blue! It looks pretty nice. The goals have chains and look finished. The multi-colored pads are still fun!

The crate got a touch-up and bold 1511 letters were painted on all four sides (Becca and Shauna did that). It is very striking! I love our red camo!

Parentor Val was working on Rally signs, signs, signs, signs, signs!

Thunderfoot was still on a diet and more parts were trimmed, thinned, cut and then finished and repainted to be pretty again. And when the paint is dry, remounted on the robot. The superstructure is out at the welder's. Which means that I can't get the crew working on the bumpers yet since we don't have a firm mounting point.

Well that's enough for today! (Since in reality it is tomorrow)

Photo of the Day! If it is camouflaged does that make it invisible?

Breakaway Day 39 - 7 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:35:53 -0800

Winter Break, Day 2!

We have access to the school from 12 noon to 12 midnight. Thanks to Mentors Jeff and Dave V. for giving up some of their work time to come in so that the students had access to the school.

In the evening we had the usual cadence of Integration Meeting, Dinner and Team Meeting.

What we ate for dinner! Karen's family brought in dinner tonight. Mac-n-cheese - the really cheese style - and a rice, hamburg, corn casserole. We had carrot cupcakes for dessert. And cream puffs!

Integration Meeting notes - Parentor Val took them today.

Electrical - Added spike relay for second electromagnet (needs wiring). PWM cables are being made. Need to mount the board, wire, test, and reduce weight. From the Mechanical teams, need a mounting system on the robot. The Lexan piece for mounting the cRIO has been cut. Need to buy spare limit switches (from a local source).

Controls - Tested with Programming. Slider cracked and needs to be replaced. Controls need some touch-up and USB cables. Need a new cover for joysticks. Controls need to be labeled.

Programming - Currently debugging the code for the hanger, and the autonomous code. Finished debugging the kicker (need the finished robot to test it). Need to do more testing with Controls (the wheel and the slider).

Mechanical lift - Cut all pieces for the welder, need to put structure on after welder's done (maybe tonight, more likely tomorrow). Put winch together. Need to finish milling plate, cut tubes, cut collars and wire. (Tubes may have arrived today - have to check the delivered packages!)

Mechanical kicker - Kicker's on, hooked up to window motors. Beater bar parts are in, should be assembled tonight.

Drivetrain - Bumper covers and mounts are being worked on.

Field - Goals need to be fitted better. Field will be moved to the gym on Thursday.

Everyone - the robot needs to lose a lot of weight! Diet and exercise must begin immediately!

Team meeting: I came in at the end of the announcement, but here is what I caught:
The chairman's essay is done! The whole team was reminded to take some time and read it and provide any last comments. We are also looking for students interested in presenting.
Tomorrow during the day - students who come during the day were reminded to have a task planned ahead of time and to check in with the mentor (who will be Bear) so he knows they are here. Major construction is being done in the school including the space directly across form the closet. So the team needs to be extra careful and stay where we belong! Mr. Marro, PHS Principal, came and spent some time with the team, touring the shops and cafeterial where the field is set up. Thanks, Mike H. for showing him around!

Tally of build season hours! Student Hours: 3032.5 Mentor Hours: 1918.5 Total: 4951

Checking in on activities - time was logged in today on the Rally Opening Video, and on the FIRST Essay(s). Tom P. roughed up the wires for the robot. The programmers are ready for the robot; they have debugged as much as they can without testing the code for real. Field set up continued; targets are being finished. the pattern for the fabric for the bumpers was made.

The rest of the team was very busy working on the...

Thunderbot Weight Loss Program (Shauna says that our weight loss program is holy!)

Three drilling stations were set up to make parts look like swiss cheese and the chips were flying! Other parts were being milled, shortened, cut out, or even totally remade out of thinner stock.

Today's result: 6+ pounds removed so far

Photo of the Day! Caption: And the chips were flying!

Breakaway Day 38 - 8 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:47:44 -0800

Winter Break, Day 1.

No formal blog entry today. I want to be on vacation, too!

We had access to the school today starting at 5. I saw programmers, essay writers, test takers, mechanics, electricians...

Students started wiring the kicker and by the end of the evening, the magnetic lock and kicker could be actuated under electrical power.

A significant portion of the superstructure has been cut and will be ready for assembly.

Programmers are still at work - sequestered in the cafeteria with Thunderplucker.

What we ate tonight! Leftovers! Since there was such an excess of meatballs last night, Andy's mom heated it back up and brought it in with more sub-rolls and chips and veggies and dip. Oh, and leftover camo cake! Pink tongues again!

We were very family like at dinner and told stories about catching mice and played an alphabet game - category - fruit! A is for apple! E is for Eggplant! (is that a fruit?) I is for Iguana! It went downhill from there!

Chairman's essay is done and just under 10,000 characters. We still have the executive summaries to finish and the photos to arrange.

So many odds and ends are starting to hit the to-do lists. Make decals of our sponsors for the robot. Finish the bumpers. Get back into button making for the Finger Lakes Regional. Finish the prep for rally. And make plans cheese the robot, because it needs to go on a big diet!

Photo of the Day! Thunderfoot (and loose parts) steps on the scale.

Breakaway Day 37 - 9 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:42:09 -0800

Happy Valentine's Day!

And what a better way to celebrate the day of love but with Rolling Thunder!

Mentor Bear supplied bagels, donuts, and coffee this morning. Thanks!

Lunch was thanks to Theo's family and was vegetarian chili, served with cornbread muffins, tossed salad, and orange cake and chocolate cake for dessert. It was another great winter lunch!

The shop is very busy, with parts being made in every corner. I love seeing all the hands on work the students were doing! Programmers were busy working with Thunderplucker in the cafeteria, where work on the field assembly was continuing. The 2nd ball return system has been installed and two of the goals were put in place.

Several students took the opportunity to take the game test today. I learned that I had missed in reporting that Calvin had joined the group of students who have achieved 100% on the test and are eligible to be on the drive team or in the pit crew.

And 5 hours flies when you are in crunch time to finish a robot! So...

Here's what we had for dinner! Andy's mom treated us to a wonderful valentine's day meal! Meatball subs with a veggie-ball option, served with chips and veggies and dip. She decorated with little dishes of conversation hearts and gummy hearts. Dessert was red camo decorated heart shaped cakes! The red and black frosting turned our tongues bright shades of pink and purple. It would have been the photo of the day except I though it was a little gross to take a photo of all of us with our tongues sticking out.

After dinner we took an informal survey to determine the name of the robot and Thunderfoot came out as the clear choice. Much work was done on the assembly of the robot today as parts were aligned, trued, trimmed, chopped, filed, chamfered, rounded and fitted. Parts of the winch were made, the beater bar design was completed, and the kicker was reassembled. By the end of the evening the robot kicker was at the stage where it could be fired with repeatability in the trajectory of the kick.

With a long week ahead of us, we packed up and headed home to celebrate what was left of the day.

Photo's of the Day!

#1 Caption: Camo Cake!

#2 Caption: How did the crate get here?!?

Breakaway Day 36 - 10 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:32:17 -0800

The field is up! And we're going to kick tonight!

How do you feel about truth in advertising? Hmmm, You'll just have to wait and see!

It's crunch time for the team so some of the students and mentors gave up their Friday "Date Night" to come to robotics. Work was done on the drive-train, kicker and ball guards. The welder brought in some parts and was so intrigued by the team that he came back today for a full tour! Time was taken to watch some of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

Saturday breakfast was brought by student Tom G. In addition to bagels, there was breakfast pizza!

Moving right into lunch - we had short-order cook Sharon making grilled cheese and tuna melt sandwiches which were served with tomato cream soup, crudites, chips, with milk and oreos for dessert. It definitely hit the spot on a snowy winter day!

Today seemed to be Rolling Thunder Alumni Day! Dropping in to work with us or just to visit were: Josh G., Steve, Ashley, Graeme, Mark, Jess and brother Tony, Lexi, and Annie. Team Leader Larry says that we should have had our Alumni picnic today!

Jess gave haircuts today to anyone who was interested. I got one! What a convenient service!

Okay, enough of the non-robot stuff, here are the notes from the integration meeting today:

Programming - auto-mode is being debugged - high level is bugless, low level still needs work,using CAN bus, must update jaguars (electrical and programming together)
Electrical - mock board is disassembled, attaching components on official board with velcro, work with mechanical about weights and update the inventor model
Controls - circuit board is completed - to be tested today, complete joystick casing.
Mechanical 2 - working on beater bar - implemented in the inventor file - due for Monday/Tuesday. All the parts needed are in except for one weldment.
Mechanical 1 - superstructure completed / implemented in inventor, in process of implementing holes into rachet pawl, need to make side plates for winch and telescope collars.
Drive-train - completed remounting the ball guard. Needs to put on base plates and battery box to be secured.
Field - is building the field!

Yes! The cafeteria is filled with field! The floor is down, last year's "regolith" is stacked to be the risers under the bumps, the carpet is down, the bumps and tunnels have been placed, the towers are up and one ball return is in place.

The electrical board is put together on the lexan panel and has been mounted on the robot to make sure it fits and then removed for programming and debugging.

Kicker parts kept arriving and were assembled, adjusted and put on the robot. There was a little more adjustment made on the ball guard.

Dinner! I can't forget dinner! We had pizza - pepperoni and cheese and veggies and dip and cookie bars (blond brownies) thanks to Peter, Ben and Mentor Christian's family. And then we had birthday cake for Mentor Jeff, who was celebrating his 11111th (or is it 11111st) birthday! We love binary!

By the end of the night, the ball return on the field had been tested, the control box was done and tested (all but two buttons worked as expected) and the kicker was fired. Yes it was. Not under full power yet, but enough to use the magnet to release the foot.

Truth in advertising! Would I steer you wrong?

Photo of the Day! Caption: Celebrating a successful code debug with the pool noodle players!

Breakaway Day 34 - 12 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:42:24 -0800

What we had for Dinner! With a combination of efforts of Calvin's Mom and Mike Mo's Mom, we had chili, both meaty and veggie with tossed salad, rolls and butter, brownies and clementines.

Thursday! Time for a Safety Talk! Jason gave the talk tonight and it was all about safe lifting! We will have a full weight robot this year, so learning to lift it safely will be very important!

Things I missed last night: The ball guards were put on the drive-train, and tested. The drive train went over the bump the guards did not slide as expected, however the ball guards cleared the bump just fine. Mentors Dave V. and Tom C. took some parts to "The Welder," Dave Delrick.

Integration! Crystal took the notes for me.

Field - Sat through Thursday they will set up the field in cafe. Starting Friday they can set up in the gym. They Will be painting this weekend.

Electrical - Lexan has been ordered and will come in Monday, needed to build covers. Working on the official BoM. They need final design for board placement from mechanical.

Controls - Circuit board is almost done and ready to be programmed; Joystick casing was sent to Harris to be fabricated.

Mechanical (hanger / superstructure) - The winch is in Inventor and needs to be coupled to the superstructure. Superstructure mat'ls must be purchased. Weights are needed, CG must be calculated.

Drive-train - Ball guards clear the bumps but will be changed to be driveway pole material, and new holes drilled for the guards. A back ball guard needs to be designed. Poles need to be purchased tonight.

Mechanical (Kicker) - The parts to be made at Ike's shop are all completed! Sheet metal weldments are needed. They need to know the size of the electrical board, and the bumper supports from the drive-train. Beater bar weights need to be calculated.

Programming - needs to know from Mech 1 how the hook is going to be operated.

Coverage for next week:

Tuesday through Friday - begin at noon - regular close time.
Tuesday - Jeff
Wednesday - Bear
Thursday - Cynette and Terri Mo.
Friday - Sharon, Lee, Dave V.

Announcement! Anybody want a Haircut? On Saturday afternoon, Jess will bring her scissors and set up shop. The hair cut will be free - but tips are appreciated! E-mail her at RollingThunder1511ee@gmail.com to let her know if you want a haircut!

General notes for tonight!

The size of the electrical board and its location has been firmed up, and the electrical team is working on the BoM.

Mechanical team is laying out the pieces for welding an assembly. Everyone is drilling tonight! There are pieces of metal being drilled everywhere! The drive train is drilling new holes in their ball guard mounting bracket, making a slight adjustment to the configuration.

The control box looks done, except for finishing the wiring of the circuit board. I'm very impressed that Mentor Eric A. is keeping such a complete engineering notebook for the control system. He is modeling very good engineering practices!

Theo - the can man - cleaned out a couple more bags of cans out of the shop and classroom areas. Those 5 cent deposits on water bottles are sure adding up!

As for the programming team - some members are in the PID of despair, but Justin was very excited. He figured out how to make messages show on the user message section of the dashboard. Alex C. was making sure his progress on programming the dashboard was well documented, since he will be on vacation for the next week.

Crystal worked on fixing some of the html errors on the webpage. It's looking pretty good these days!

There is still some Inventor work being done to get the superstructure integrated with all the other parts. But one part is welded and after it gets cleaned up will be ready to go. And that is...

The Photo of the Day! Caption: Thunder Foot!

Breakaway Day 33- 13 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:07:04 -0800

Tonight we were surprised to see some very elegant students! Tonight is PHS's PRISM concert and Shauna, Peter and Alex R. were dressed in a gown, a suit and a tux, respectively. Very sharp looking! And with PHS's tradition of music excellence, I'm sure they will sound wonderful as well. One of the first shows in the brand new auditorium!

What we ate for dinner! Thanks to Liz's family we had a delightful taco bar! Here is the line up: crunchy taco shells, taco meat (and a veggie version too), refried beans aka taco paste, rice, black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, cilantro, shredded cheese, nacho cheese, chips, onions, salsa, guacamole, sour cream. Special beverage selection was frozen margaritas (alcohol free of course)! Dessert included special cupcakes in honor of Alex R.'s birthday!

In addition to Alex R.'s birthday, it is also Kyle's birthday! Happy Birthday!

Four students and Mentor Leann went to Intervol and inventoried medical supplies for Haiti for two hours. They made their way through 6 rows of boxes. Thanks Mike H, Crystal, Rachel, and Kristina for donating your time!

The Chairman's essay has been reviewed by Leann's Mom and has been whittle down to below 10,000 characters. Whew!

Peter's paper has now been downloaded over 150 time from Chief Delphi.

Build Season Hour Totals: Students - 2484.5, Mentors - 1636.0, Total - 4120.5 (Is anything done yet?)

Not nearly as many kids tonight, maybe because of the concert. We were hoping that Mentor Mike and Alex W. would return early from VanBortel's with the remaining parts, but I haven't seen them yet. The pieces that have been made for the kicker have been mounted on the robot. Team Leader Larry is working on the weight calculations. It sounds like there is some lightening to do!

I'm holding off on tonight's Photo of the Day. It was taken for me at dinner, but I forgot to grab it from whoever took it. As a matter of fact, I forgot who took it! So, I'm outta here!

Thanks Parentor Lee for rescuing me!

Photo of the Day! Caption: Rally Sign!

Breakaway Day 32- 14 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:03:37 -0800

The Pit of Despair or the Cliffs of Insanity? That was the theme for tonight. But first...

What we had for dinner! Hot-dogs with a Spanish twist! Dinner was provided by Candido (Junior)'s family. His mom explained that in Spain there is no catsup and so she cooked the hot-dogs in a tomato based sauce with a tough of red wine! They were served with a deluxe salad with corn, peas, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta cheese. We also had potato chips and cheese puffs. For dessert we had chocolate cake, lemon cake and cookies!

Team announcements! Intervol is tomorrow! We might still be looking for rides for students. Crystal has sign-up sheets for Rally and for other activities. Team leader Larry reminded everyone that trip deposits are due by February 19th. And then he gave us some bad news, our traditional team shirts are not available any more. OH NO!!! Larry has done his homework and found three options of red shirts with black trim. Leann will come and visit the groups and get input. Next week is a holiday week and Larry has students who will are wanting to come in if he can get Tier 3 Mentors to cover the time. Mike H. will send out an e-mail to coordinate who is available.

Integration Notes from Parentor Val:

Electrical sub-team has been helping Controls. Probably will keep the electrical board in one place on the robot, rather than splitting it in two, but need info from mechanical teams on the CG before making a final decision. The plastic that was purchased is not actually Lexan and therefore is not legal. Must get Lexan as a top priority.

Controls sub-team has all the materials, have been wiring buttons. They should be done by the weekend.

Programming sub-team's autonomous high and low levels are ready for debug. (High level describes functions like "go 8 feet, turn left, fire kicker," etc. Low level actually sends commands to various motors etc. to make the robot run.) Found a safety bug to report to FIRST. Need to create fail-safe stuff for kicker, sensor overrides, etc.

Field sub-team reports that the carpeting, painting, and ball returns are essentially done. The field can be set up in the cafeteria over break week.

Drivetrain sub-team is assembling wheel guards and bumpers. They need springs and need to hold bearing block onto wheel guards somehow.

Mechanical lift sub-team made rollers and shafts, and sent parts to Harris to be made. They Will make mounting block and fork for potentiometer this week. They need someone to go over the supply checklist and see what's needed.

Mechanical kicker sub-team is Making remaining mill parts at Van Bortel (some were made on Monday). All other parts should be at Harris. Tonight - working on weldment drawings. Need to make sure there is a hard backing for the bumpers all around, integrated into the superstructure. Need people to work on Inventor tonight!

Both Mechanical teams still need to come up with one integrated robot design tonight!!

Tonight's random notes:

Programming was having some mixed results - leading to the statement that started the blog. Peter had unresolved symbols that he was trying to resolve. Without success. But on the positive side, Peter's white paper on Chief Delphi has been downloaded over 140 times! Andy's code got the robot to move forward but then it turbo'd backward, unexpectedly. Alex C. has lots of code written for the drivers station, and would really like to have the control box to test it on before he goes on vacation with his family this weekend.

The controls team were soldering the connectors according to the schematic and made the top of the box that covers the joysticks.

The mechanical team was working on designing the super-structure and the robot is starting to look like a tetrahedron. Shauna was looking at the inventory for parts they can use. Mentor Mike W., and students Alex W. and Alex V. were at Van Bortel's Machine Shop making some more of the kicker parts.

Mentor Leann suction cupped a tiny plastic cup to her hand. (I know you all live for these totally random pieces of information.)

And onto tomorrow...before that, its time for...

The Photo of the Day! Caption: Taking cross country skiing to a new level!

Breakaway Day 31- 15 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:39:00 -0800

Build Season Supplement - The first trip to VanBortel Machine shop.

It a team night off and yet...

Mentor Mike W. and students Alex W. and Mike Mo. headed out to VanBortel's machine shop to visit with Ike. The photo is the part they completed.

Meanwhile back in the shop, Mentor's Dave V. and Tom C. were fixing up the band saw in the downstairs shop. The replaced the saw blade and made adjustments to make it operational. Then they spent some time working on the BoM.

Might as well add a photo of the day! Caption: The yokes on you!

Breakaway Day 30 - 16 Days to Go!

nospam@example.com (Cynette Cavaliere) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:14:34 -0800

Super Bowl Sunday!!

Today's entry will be short since it took me all day to finish yesterday's entry!

Thanks to Calvin's grandmother, Grandma Phillips for supplying bagels and really fancy donuts (doughnuts, since they are fancy) for breakfast. Grandma Phillips is not to be confused with Grandma Drake who is in the Okefenokee Swamp taking photos of alligators.

Alex R. became the first freshman to get 100% on the game test! Way to go, Alex!

More work on the web pages today! Mentor Kim is finding photos of alumni from the first years of the team to post in the alumni section. Matthieu was updating the leadership section, and feeding Mentor Eric E. with things to update and tweak. Mentor Eric did add a twitter feed which shows up on the sidebar of the web page. Parentor Lee has been very regular about posting tweets. I'm not a twitter person, so it is interesting to read them on our web page.

What we had for Lunch! Our lunch today was provided by a former Team Super-Mom, Shelley! She and her son, John brought us Chili with shredded cheese to put on to, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and cauliflower and a batch of Shelley's famous, magic, "special" brownies! And they were delicious!

There's not too much other news to report. Most of the students left early for Superbowl Parties. Traveling Mentors, Kim and Eric E. will be relaxing tonight before heading back to Boston tomorrow. They'll be back for the last weekend before ship! (Rally weekend!) Some of the students brought in snacks to share, in case some of the mentors had wanted to stay through the evening and work. But instead we pretty much called it an evening and did some good cleaning of the shop areas to get them ready for the school week.

Crystal reported that she is planning on submitting an entry to sing the national anthem at FLR. Andy reported that WindRiver took his programming changes and dumped them into the river. He had to recreate them. Programming also completed the autonomous code and is ready to test it on the robot. Mechanical teams spent more time in the icebox today, designing and detailing. Shauna and Becca sent lifter drawings to Harris and spent some time in the shop manufacturing parts including 2 rollers and 2 shafts, and cutting the stock for several others. Speaking of making parts, some of the mechanical sub-team is headed to VanBortel Machine Shop on Monday to drop off some materials and drawings, and work with the owner, Ike VanBortel. This is a favorite activity each build season.

Photo of the day! Caption: Brownies to die for!