Is This Fun IR What?

Today is IR, IR, IR. (Infrared)  The programming team finished the IR program, and they're going to test the IR beacon later today. Right now though, they're helping the build team with, you guessed it, IR.

The build team is putting on the IR sensor, along with fortifying the port bar, so our little robot doesn't concave. Also, Did you know we got a switch??

As for PR, it's same old, same old. Engineering Notebook, blog. As far as State goes, we were ready at Qualifiers.

It's Running!

Hey! Guess what, we have the robot up and running again. YAYY.

The build team, mounted the wheels back on the bot, so we can finally start to get things going again.Its been a little weird without a running bot for the past couple weeks, but we are sure glad to have it buzzing around the room!

On a related note, the programmers have the autonomous working, they even think they have the IR sensor ready, which is totally awesome! Fingers crossed that it works!

 Also, the rest of the team today, along with some 3313 team members are at our local food shelf, trying to help out as much as we can before the holidays.

Alright, well that's all we've got for today, thanks for checking in!

Just for a Day

A'ight, today the build team will be mounting the plow, and since they got the rack and pinion done yesterday ( see last post ''I'm back''), they are going to be able to push the plow forward so, Logan, our driver can see what he is doing.





The programmers will be testing the rack and pinion on the bot, and so far that is going well. Well being a relative term. anyway they are testing, and rather than arguing about the relativity of the robot to wellness, they are fixing the bugs and being productive, unlike me.



we are having a relatively calm though unexciting day as our engineering notebook mastermind and kind of my boss, Sam, is not here. However we will manage for one day without her... (hopefully). Well, that's it for now, don't forget to check in, see ya.

I'm back!

hey people, Betsy's back!

ooookkkaaaayyyyy, on the not-quit-awesome-but-still-pretty-cool side of things, lets see what's going on on the team agenda.



The build team will be working on connecting the plow in a way that our drivers can see what they are doing when they are pushing blocks and scoring out on the field, along with perfecting their 'skiing routine. (Inside joke)

the build team will also be working on a new servo mounting bracket for the catch finger, which means we are doing more today than we thought we were  gonna today.

You can see just how productive, and what a team effort this is, from this picture I titled "Really, More Games?" I'm just kidding, mostly, not really, but yeah I'm kidding.... (or am I?)






the programmers insanely smart brains containing lots of smartness, will be focused on configuring buttons for the TellyOp and to test the rack and pinion, that is if things go according to plan.

Any Who, that's all i got for today, see y'all, we out!

Clean Up Time!

Hey y'all! Another installment of the grand workings of 7799 robotics team. Today we're gonna smooth around the edges of our inner workings, so that we can all work a little faster, be a little more productive.

An example of this is the build team. With some of our main chaperons not coming until later, they're taking this moment to clean up around the workshop and get everything organized. 

The programming team is making a new banner  for State in February. 

As for PR, it's really same old-same old. Update the blog, take pictures, and possibly work on the Engineering Notebook, if the person who has it makes it today. :(

The Tortoise and the Infrared Sensor

Bonjour! Today on our truly

awesome team, it's a pretty slow one. 

The robot's pretty much programmed, so that makes the programmers kind of useless. However, they are trying to keep busy by looking up ways to program infrared sensors for if we get one. Fun?

As far as the build team goes, they have even less to do. Wait, let me rephrase that, the have a lot to do, they just can't until a few of our mentors come from their engineering jobs, and give some advice on how to build the robot. We took the whole thing apart to change it to a metal base, though, so we have PLENTY to do.

PR's pretty slow too. Just blogging and the Engineering Notebook. The mascots done, and the Engineering Notebook close enough.

So, yeah. Not much today. I sincerely apologize if you got bored reading this. 

Live to See Another Day

Hullo peoples! Since we are going to state, our team continues. YAY! Right back to work we go, fixing the bugs and other problems we found. The build team has taken our robot apart and is working on painting the base.

Over in programming they are seeing what will happen if they adjust the time of the autonomous, Hope it goes well...

The PR peeps are describing our victory at regionals, Writing in the engineering notebook, And just being super happy that we are going to state.

Moral is high, Crabbiness is down, And we are still excited for State.... Did I mention we are going to STATE!?

We are the Champions!

Hey, hey, guess what?? WE"RE GOING TO STATE!!!! I know it's hard to believe, but I swear it's the truth. We didn't win the competition, but we got pretty darn close. We were picked by Fish in the Boat, the best team in Minnesota, and the current World champions. Our team  made it to semi-finals, however, got out on the third round of that. After that, we all knew our fate. We had lost, and that was that. No one had ever expected that we would win. Not until the awards ceremony, anyways.

The awards ceremony was interesting. We won the 'Judges Award' which is, basically, an award the judges give to the team they feel most embodies the concept of FIRST, the sponsors of FTC. We were also nominated for the 'Inspire Award', the 'Think Award' and the 'Motive Award'. I know. A lot to                                                           take in.

The team was exploding with energy the entire time through, and we were all pretty pooped by the end of it. I asked the team members how they felt about winning, and were mostly  excited, surprised, exhilarated, ( That was a fun one to spell), and sore, Except for one who wasn't able to make it, due to health problems. He said he was confused and doped up on medicine. Poor boy.

Well, that's it for now, but don't worry, we'll still be updating every meeting, and have a report on the State Competition, which is February 22.

The Last Day! (unless we win)

Okay!!!! So lets see... We've got today to get all our stuff done that we don't have done so lets hop to it...

The build team has officially brought the robot to the carpet square, I'd tell what that is 'cept i don't know what that is... I think its where they put it to prepare for the showdown- I mean the competition, So that is awesome.Okay so I asked and it turns out a carpet square is just you know, well, a square of carpet. In the hallway.

The mascot is getting some ink, Well okay so its technically paint and paper, But it still looks freakin' awesome, And then it will be perfect.  Do You Hear? PERFECT

Well passing over my little maniac moment... the programmers are still just chill-axing, then we go to the competition Yay!!! But then if we don't place, we have to stop....   ):

The End is Near

Okay, so we are really close to competitions and we are just scurrying to get all of the finishing touches on the team's branches of work.

Build Team is going all out to finish what we started,And here is the game plan. We have got to;

• Fix the left wheel running at all times issue, 
• Get the stencil on the robots body, 
• Raise the front wheels,
• fix the hook that enables them to hang, so that it is legal
• And, Logan Fillipiak and Luke Tollefson are going to practice driving the bot.

Mascot Workers are;

• Painting helmet accents, 
• And adding finishing touches to the front of the torso

Programmers are:

•  taking a nice little break because they got their work load complete, Yay! go us (-:

• And there are the people on the team that just kinda hang out to keep us mostly sane, and they're job will never be complete.

 peace, we out

Manic Monday

With our first ever competition looming over us, the whole team is in a mini freak-out mode. The robot needs tweaking, the Engineering Notebook needs writing, the blog needs updating, and the programs need to be...programmed.

Th build team today made a support beam to keep the robot from being so, as the describe it, "woogiddy," according to Mike Gilbertson, one of our parent mentors. They are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new motor, so they can replace the one that blew.

Its was another slow day as far as the programming team was concerned. The uploaded a few programs and... Oh yeah! THEY TEST DROVE THE ROBOT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!! Which is a GREAT achievement for our team, and about time, too!

As for PR, we were cooped back up in our little computer cave, updating the blog and Engineering Notebook, and adding pictures to both.

 The mascot is coming along great. Te head is painted, and the body is close. Its a dark purple color (The camera lies!) With a black base and silver highlighting.  Soon, we're gonna have a walking robot! (and hopefully a driving one too! ;)
Buh-bye for now, but more soon to come!

Long Weekends are the Best

hi, right to the point today...

we've got the body of our mascot painted now, except for the shoulders, and its going well on the head. Its practically done, actually. We have the head and body painted black where needed, which is the main color, so, yay!

the programming guys are working on autonomous, but are having a goof off moment right now, since there really isn't much to do.

the build team is done they get to just relax for a day, since there isn't much to do. All I have to say about that is no fair!  >:(

 just kidding... Mostly  :) 

So all in all just kind of a nice easy end of the week, and a great beginning of a three day weekend that everyone's looking forward to.

Hibernation

Today was a pretty slow day for team 7799. With the competition so soon, the entire team rushed to get everything done. Apparently, a little too fast.

With the robot practically done, the build teams day consisted of  tweaking the little problems of the robot , such as a loose wheel to pull the robot up the bar.

The programmers are pretty much done, too, so they spent the day playing video games and pretending to be productive.

The PR team updated the blog and engineering notebook, and continued painting the mascot.

Kind of a boring day, but its better                                                      than rushing to get done.

autonomus

hiya hows it goin'? so today in the wide wide world of robotics the autobotics team is being pure awesomeness, per usual. lets see what all is going to happen today...

The programmers got done programming and are on to experimenting with our adorable robot.... never mind adorable is Not what would be used to describe our...unique robot.

They are actually getting ready to test autonomous on our robot and then adjusting the values on the program.

the mascot makers are doing some body work... literally, right now they are working on the torso. the mascot is going to be awesome, and were off to an awesome start :) 

the build team is working on getting side walls so that we can put our team numbers on the robot. in other news, the are working on trying to get the pull up bar to snap up, so that it can actually do some pull ups ;P

Getting Better Fast

Today, we made quite a bit of progress. We got a new program for...programming, which is so much more efficient. In the few hours we've been here, the programming team has covered everything they've been working on for the past several weeks, and now are done programming until the robot's been built.

The mascot team has the head finished, and now are on to the body. According to them,  the body is a lot easier to do than the head, and they are doing really well on it. You know, measurements and such.

As far as the build team goes, today, we took apart the robot. Again. They need more space for the arm and brick. (The part that gets programmed) Someday, I'm sure we'll decide on a final size.

The  writing team updated the blog and new members page, and worked on the Engineering Notebook.

Well, bye for now. More soon!