Stop Build Day!

Today is the day. I'm feeling sort of sad. My final stop build day as a student. Today was a very very busy day. Mechanically, we did as much as we could to the robot. The hanger will obviously go on Thursday at WPI, but our main goal was to make it pick up and shoot like nothing else out on the field. Even if we only get the 10 point hang, I strongly believe a reallly good shooter can offset the 20 points you're lacking from not hanging 30. If thats the case, and we ca't hang within 25-30 seconds, I don't think we should hang for 30. We got into the shop early and got straight to work. We finished touching up the wiring and indexing on the competition robot and Matt got to work cadding, around 10 at night we had her fired up and started testing systems, and by 11:59, she was in the bag and sealed. We will have a lot of work to do on Thursday and I think we'll end up missing a lot of practice matches because of it, but I think we can do it. We've worked so hard up until this point, now is no time to quit.

I'm fairly happy with how this season played out. It was defiantly the most difficult one yet. I've learned more this year than any other year. It feels good. Thank you to all of the mentors and students who worked day in and day out on this project. I'll post again right before the WPI regional!

-Dave Powers

Day 45

TOMORROW IS SHIP, WE NEED MORE TIME. Just like every year it's down to the last minute. I think this off season we'll focus on how we can use or time more wisely. Of course we got a late start because we didn't have the CNC machine, but I still think we could have done better. Today Matt and I left school early today to get down to the shop to start working. I'm really glad our principal loves the program, it helps us out a lot! Once we got to the shop we mounted the motor to the intake arm and gave it a go. It works wonderfully. It's still a little too fast for my liking, so we're going to try another gear ratio on the arm and see if we can slow it down some more. The hex shaft holding the shooter was manufactured and the shooter was tested, but work very well! We also ran wiring to the victors and mounted them on both robots. The intake needs a little finagling, but it seems to be working. My idea is instead of having a rod the runs across the intake to prevent the frisbee from flying out the back, we use pistons, and that way they're more compact and we can fit two frisbees in the intake to make for easy auto. We started talking about the hanger today too, we're going to focus on that after ship and use our 30 pound withholding allowance to bring it in the WPI and put it on Thursday! Here's the pictures from today.

Day 44

Today we woke up early and went over to Micro Inserts to weld our shooter brace. After finishing welding it we went to Mountain View to powder coat it, which wasn't easy(our ovens tiny). Then after the powder coat cooled we went to Maloney and got to work attaching the brace to the frame and the shooter to the brace! We still have to cut down the hex axle and turn some c-clip spots, but it's just about done! With a dry run the four bar works really well, hopefully the arms will be strong enough to stand being slammed into the ground. Here's the media.

Day 43

Okay, don't ever ever ever leave batteries on charge for longer than they should be. We have one explode today in the shop, it was a bomb. Thankfully no one was harmed and nothing broke(aside from the battery). Back to the post! Today we welded together our arms this morning and powder coated some more stuff. We spent the majoritiy of the day running the CNC machine. 

Somedays I wish we had more mentors. It's absolutely brutal only having two or three hard working mentors in the shop. We have 10 kids sitting around at some times because we don't have mentors to push and help them. It isn't nice at all. Oh well, we will prevail! I'm just thankful for the dedicated mentors we have! 

Day 42

Lots of progress today! We got the practice shooter built and part of the competition shooter half way done! The drivetrain is alive! Our weight right now is 45 pounds with everything we've got so far. This will be our smallest robot ever. Tomorrow we're here all day!

Day 41

More CNC work today! Phone didn't charge last night, so no pictures today. Progress is slow but steady. Back to school tomorrow!

Day 40!

THE ROADS ARE PLOWED! Still no school though. They're canceled for tomorrow! It's scary to think ship is less than a week away. Defiantly no Suffield Shakedown for us this year! More wiring today, and work on the CNC machine was done. I'm enjoying making aluminum chips and cutting weight from 3 pounds to .8 pounds! Yay for holes!

Day 39

Still no plows. :[ Thank god for the mentors that pick me up! Wires, wires, wires! Started wiring today! Competition intake is togeather!

Day 38

Roads still not plowed, I walked a good portion of the way to the shop again. We put together the intake and run some more parts on the CNC machine. After that we went to my bosses shop and started powder coating the competition parts! I'm so glad we can do this in house now. It gives us the ability to go back and forth powder coat what we need, and not have to worry about harming a long time sponsor like Mr. Powdercoat. It's nice to have him for the big stuff, but it really is nice to be able to do the small stuff in house!

Day 37

My voyage began at 11:32, no sight of plows from miles, the long walk to Maloney. Everything is still closed, and school is saying it will be closed for most of the week already. My hopes are that we'll still be able to get into the school everyday, but we'll see what they say. I walked the majority of the way to the school and had one of our mentors pick me up once I hit a plowed main street. It was pretty crazy seeing all of the snow. Mounds 12 feet tall, endless unplowed roads. It'll be a while before the roads are all cleared.

Once I got to the shop we did some braces on the CNC machine, Matt's really getting the hang on it. Only a senior in high school and is better on the machine that some of the guys I know at work. Here's the only picture I took today.

Day 36

Oh man, the weatherman wasn't kidding when he said two feet. I am going stir crazy. I woke up this morning to two feet of snow still covering the roads. The town is shut down, every road is closed. Maybe it's time to really get some sleep, have to take advantage of it when you can get it!

Day 35

It has begun, school was canceled due to the impending storm, which meeeeeeeeans, no meeting for GUS. Back at it tomorrow if the roads are cleared!

Day 34

The evil weather men are predicting like 2 feet of snow Friday into Saturday. Erg, cross your fingers. Today was quite productive, the CNC mill is cutting more parts, and we're making steady progress assembling the robot! I feel like it's time for a rant though. Nothing erks me more than students who show up, and claim they are willing to put their all into this team, then just stand there and do nothing. We have a couple students, who even with mentors guiding their every move, can't seem to do anything. Why, WHY?! They do not understand they are losing a GOLDEN opportunity. They are just wasting away their days, being lazy, not listening, not caring. Well it's their loss. The whole team has tried to motivate them, and it's just not working. Some people just don't get it. You get out of this program what you put in. Anywho, sorry about that, here's the pictures from today!

I wish I could marry this machine

It's so tiny!

I smell space issues.

Hanging prototype

Day 33

I'm getting scared. We've been in binds before, and behind schedule, but if this design doesn't work, it's as good as starting over. Thankfully we're going to iterate and improve the design as much as possible. I am getting excited. If this all works out, it'll be pretty insane. Today we cut the shooter mount out on the CNC mill, cut treads in the colson wheels, and played with some sticky material for the hanger! Steady progress is being made, but we need another week, and no snow! Cross your fingers!

Shooter top plate!

Mr. Dutra bravely cutting treads in the Colsons!

CNC hard at work!

Wide receiver gloves? More like pyramid griping gloves! 

Sexy planetary on a BAG!

Day 32

Well, here we go. Crunch time. The practice robot chassis was completed today, we just need to wire the victors to a sidecar and we're set! The powder coat came in and we cut some more parts today! We also are getting good at learning the CNC mapping program! Here's the media!