Team update

Words from JaSun:

28 Days till Crating

I am really impressed with our club. We have developed into a much stronger team. Individuals are working together in groups. People are being self motivated to find out what to do and continue to solve problems even if that just means asking for help. Remember to read the To Do List every day when you arrive.

Mechanical: We have dreams of great features but we have no capability to do such. We need a plan of what were doing in CAD. We need to find a machine shop and also build ours. We own a lathe, but we have no expert to use it. Our field elements look great, I can’t wait to have a robot to start testing them.

Spirit and Image: We have raised around $22,000 dollars. We need to put this to use. I love our crate. I would like to see it constructed in the hall and more functionality put into it (shelves, power strips, …). We also need to be thanking all of our supporters and giving them regular updates. I love our team cheer, I look forward to many more.

Lock it up: Everyone needs to be at our Crate-ing ceremony. On February 21^st we will stop building and crate our new robot currently with out a name. Several media people will be there and we will be shooting hoops hopefully autonomously and taking our team picture. We will be in our outfits ready for battle, and talking about our dreams.

Schedule: Homework time will now be till 3:30 and then skills till 4:00 when we start meetings. That will give everyone some time to relax and play. Every Octopus (that’s us) should be flexible, able to juggle lots of objects, and be able to sit and think.

~JaSun

Week 3 begins

Robot "brains" are wired up and ready to be tested. We are still waiting for some parts to come in before we build the frame / drive system. More prototyping is still happening as well as CAD of our ever evolving design. Programming has finally started showing promising signs of functionality.

Goals for this week: Finish CAD work, build frame, assemble drive system, build bumpers, fabricate parts. Have a driving robot by the end of the week. If we're good we'll be able to pick up balls by then as well.

Big news from last week: We were awarded the Lowe's Toolbox for education grant in the amount of $7,700! We are now up to a total of about $22,000 raised this year. Great job everyone!

9 days in, 36 days to go!

We're moving along nicely. We spent all week brainstorming, voting, debating, re-voting, and prototyping and at last, we have our final design idea. We ordered about $1300 in parts and supplies this weekend.

Today was a school holiday, but robots don't take days off. Thanks to those who came out to our house today to help build the practice field. We now have a bridge, a barrier, and 90% of the basketball hoops built. And also thanks to those who donated lumber and hoops to the cause.

This week we will be modeling our design in CAD while we wait for our parts to come in. The electrical team can also wire up the control system as well as fix a few things. Mechanical team can start building the frame. Fundraising team can work on grants. Marketing and design has things like press releases, team essays, chairman's awards, and more. Programming can start coding the different subsystems of the robot. Jess is busy making our crate look beautiful and Chente is heading up the robot cart project. That's not all, so much to do only 36 days to go!

Much thanks to all the parents for pitching in with food and endless support.

Keep up the good work all!

Kicking off the Kickoff

Thanks to all who came to our open brainstorming session... parents, sponsors, community members. It was really important for us to talk to you and are excited about your support.

We had alot of great ideas thrown out there and we're still super excited to get rockin! For the rest of this week we will be building prototypes to test out the best ideas. We'll decide on the final design by Friday then start the CAD process.

There are still a ton of other things to do also. We have to build the practice field, get all of our software set up, write a couple more grants, write team essays, work on team awards, finish building the crate and the cart, etc etc etc....

Let's do it!

Rebound Rumble!

This year's game challenge, "Rebound Rumble" has been announced! If you haven't already, watch the game animation to see what it's all about. Also read the game manual and start brainstorming and strategizing. Bring your ideas on Monday!

Don't forget we're having open house kickoff on Monday at 5:30pm. We want all of the parents to be there! As well as anybody else who is interested in checking it out!

Here's a link to the game animation: http://youtu.be/nzpoMzLMhcw

Here's a link to the game manual: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents

Ready or not...

We're less than 4 days from kickoff! Are you feeling the excitement?

We've worked our tails off to raise almost $14,000!!! This Saturday, FIRST kicks off the build season. Jasun and I will be picking up the kit of parts that day. All students and supporters should watch the kickoff online (streams on NASA TV) and read the game manual over the weekend so we are ready to start brainstorming ideas when we meet on Monday.

NASA Streaming Link: http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2012_kickoff.php
Game manual link: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents

Be ready for six weeks of late nights and hard work. All parents are strongly encouraged to come to our local kickoff event this coming Monday night at 5:30pm. We would like to talk to you about what to expect over the next 6 weeks.

Orlando Regional here we come!!!