Monday, February 14. 2011
First of all, I apologize for all of the missing and late blog entries! The team is in CRUNCH TIME both for the robot and for the team essays and award submissions. We are trying to have as many entries as possible written by student team members and I usually don’t realize until too late that there is no one available to blog.
Tonight is such a night! We aren’t even supposed to be here today, but just like last Friday, we are holding extra build sessions to get the robot finished. To make working on Valentine’s day a little more palatable, Mentor Leann brought in chocolate chip cookies for Valentine treats.
The evening started early with a design session. We have an interference issue with the motors for the arm and the mini-bot deployer. The decision was made to move the deployer tray down a bit, which then causes an interference with the lift bridge deployment aligner. As Mentor Tom C. described it, a little dental work was needed (to improve the bite). Small reliefs were ground into the lift bridge and it is back to fitting correctly.
The arm was wired during the evening and the fancy light was mounted. The motors for the manipulator are still on back-order from Banebots, and the team is starting to consider other alternatives.
The only other room I spent any time in was the essay room, although I did notice that Parentor Peggy was in the closet. In her slippers. She was finding some good stuff, like photos and videos from our first season in FIRST, but still no sign of the red camo bumper cover from last year.
In the essay room, work was being done on Chairman’s, Dean’s List and Woodie Flowers essays. The Chairman’s essay is finally been pared down to under 10,000 characters. Whew! It’s so hard when the students write so much for the Chairman’s to have to chop and whittle to get it back down to size!
Since it is Valentine’s Day, I want to close out today’s blog entry with the poem that was written by Calvin’s Gramma liz!
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue…
Stir red and blue with white to make a potion
for the game this year is called Logo Motion.
Robots large and small–now there’s a notion!
Inner tubes–enough to cross the ocean?
Six weeks’ worth of absolute devotion,
skill, and speed, with nary an explosion.
Here’s to Happy Valentine’s emotion:
Go get ’em, Rolling Thunder!
❤❤ Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤❤
