One Week Away

We are one week from the first competition on Saturday, December 12th. And, like any other team before a competition, we are scrambling to finish things up.

A lot has happened since the last blog post. First of all, we went to EIS and presented what we were doing with robotics and technology, and they took a great interest in FTC. They then proceed to pull a big check of $2,000 out of their pockets and give it to us. We are absolutely so grateful to them and all they've done for us!

Another thing that's happened is that we went to the Alpharetta Library and did a collaboration of presentations with the Chattahoochee team Taco Tuesday for kids and their parents.  The kids loved it and they got to drive the robots and ask questions. It was a amazing to see their faces light up!

We have created a scoring mechanism that is going to allow us to dump the debris into the buckets on the mountains. We've improved the wheels and their rubbery surfaces, and we've attached the hanging mechanism (the t-slot). These are some pictures and videos of how everything is working so far:

 

Sorry this wasn't a very long blog post, but we have a whole lot to do and only a short amount of time to write about it!

Major Progress!

It's been a while since we've updated, but a lot has happened since then! We've had major progress in getting up the mountain, and that's mostly because of a new type of wheel that we tried. When we removed the rubber from the normal wheels, it gave us lots of traction for grabbing onto the bars and propelling us forward.

We also received our T-slots that we're going to use as an arm to hang on the top bar of the mountain and also score debris! We put it together and it's working perfectly. We couldn't have asked for anything better right now.

On the topic of outreach, we went to Ocee Elementary school for their family science night. We taught them about FIRST, and what they do, and what FLL and FTC and FRC are like, and what the important aspects of all three are. The kids got to drive the robot, as well as a lego FLL robot, too. They really enjoyed it.We also hosted the Chattahoochee High School team in our garage so that they could use our field.

We also had a build day a few Saturdays ago, in which we went to a large gathering with other FTC teams where there was a full field where we were able practice, and try trial and error. This was where we had the robot get the highest then it had ever gotten. There's a video on that near the end of the post. ;)

Things are progressing quite nicely, and we learned that we are one of the few teams that have found a way to make it up the mountain that far and well. Hopefully our progress will only get faster and better, so we're keeping our fingers crossed as we continue to work.

Hosting the Chattahoochee High School Team

Experimenting with the wheels

Experimenting some more...

Our T-slot contraption :)

Ocee Elementary schoolers driving our robot

Kudos to Kimber

Every year, we talk about raising money for robot parts, tools, travel, and other expenses. But we don't get very far with the idea because we don't really know how to do it. Things might be different this year!

Kimber Burgess paid a visit to our shop to talk to us about fundraising. Her education and experience are in working with non-profits and fundraising. And what she had to share was awesome!

Some key things we learned:

• The main reason people don't give is because they aren't asked. 
• We have a compelling story to tell that people will want to be a part of.
• Fundraising isn't "begging," it's inviting people to be part of what we're dong. 

What's next? Kimber helped us come up with a fundraising strategy and we will be creating a crowdfunding page. Stay tuned!

 

 

Mentor Mention

There is NO way we could do all we do without our awesome mentors. Thank you Bryson Payne. He's a professor of computer science at the University of North Georgia and the author of a great book, Teach Your Kids to Code. He's also a great teacher of JAVA and because of him, we will actually know how to make our robot move.

Tom Pappagallo, Matt, Jackson, Quintin, David, Bryson Payne, Jack

Kickoff!

On September 12th, the team traveled to the FTC 2015-2016 kickoff! There we learned about the robot game, which we were told was called "Res-Q." The game this year is crazy! There are so many ways to score points, it seems endless. If you want to see what we will be doing, here is the link: Res-Q

The team also split up to go and attend some of the "workshops" at the kickoff, where they would learn about specific things such as java, how to use social media to spread awareness of the team, and other topics that would be needed later in the year.

After the kickoff ended, we all went to Chick-fil-A to brainstorm ideas on how to score the most points in the shortest time possible. We came up with lots of drawings and ideas on how the chassis should look and work, and I think it's safe to say that we're off to a great start.

We still have an enormous amount of work to do, and we are nowhere near being done with anything, that's for sure. We're keeping our heads up, and looking towards the future with open minds, and creative fingers.

Second Official Meeting!

Although it's really early in the season for us, we're hoping to get off to a great start so that we can finish even better. We're all working hard to overcome the struggle to learn Java, but it's pretty difficult to learn a new language in a few weeks. Our spirit is big and hopeful right now, and can only get bigger.

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Potato Cannons and Lawn Mowers

Our mentor, Tom Pappagallo, invited to his house for a day of fun. It was awesome! Keith Grant was also there.

First, Tom helped us build a potato cannon out of PVC pipe. We decided how long each piece needed to be and then cut the PVC. We made an firing mechanism using a starter from a gas grill. We inserted screws in the pipe at an angle. Then we attached the wires from the firing mechanism to the screw. When the firing mechanism was pushed, an arc was created between the screw tips inside the pipe...success! We then taped the firing mechanism to the pipe.

Next we assembled the pvc pieces to create the cannon. We cleaned the pipe where it would be joined and used PVC glue to connect the pieces. Then we left it to dry.

After a great pizza lunch with Tom’s wife and little daughter, we moved on to the next thing.

 

Tom had gotten three used lawn mower motors so we each had one to take apart. Piece by piece, Tom had us disassemble the motor as he explained how it all worked. We learned a ton. It was very fun!

 

Last, but not least, we moved back to the potato cannon. We had to try it out! We cut the potato and put it in the barrel. Then we put the butane into the combustion chamber. Quintin did the honors and fired. It worked!!!

But the success was short lived. We couldn’t get it to fire again. We think it had to do with the fuel we used. But it was time to leave so we were unable to finish troubleshooting it. Jackson took the cannon home, and we’ll work on it at a later date.

It was a great day!