On Tuesday it was discovered that the pan we had cut to hold the electronics was too low so we decided to bend and cut a new pan. In addition to a higher pan we cut it back to allow for more room for the kicker. We then hooked up all of the motors and other electronics, and got it ready to drive.

Thursday Tyr moved for the first time. Though the program still had several bugs to work out it was a large step forward.

Friday we didn’t have school due to Parent/Teacher Conferences so we had a workday from noon until five. During that time we worked out the bugs in the programming, finished our bumpers and prototyped the lift mechanism.

The PR team has been working hard to make our award winning website even better for the 2010 season, as well as ordering or 2010 T-shirts, designing the layout for our pit, and working on a scouting spreadsheet.

On Sunday, after a few minor speed bumps, we built our lifting arm. We also worked on the shroud that will stop the balls from getting trapped on the side of our robot.

Monday was President’s Day and we couldn’t get into the school to work until 3:00. So we decided to use the time to relieve some stress and play some laser tag. And I must say that team 1777 is quite good, beating the opposing team by 341,550 points. Once we got to school work began immediately. We continued to work on the website, painted the lift, and built the super structure that will hold the arm while it is down.

With only one week left to build and test our work days are getting longer. The schedule for the rest of the build season is as follows:

• Tuesday Feb 16
  • after school until 8pm
  • All students
• Thursday Feb 18
  • after school until 8pm
  • All students
• Friday Feb 19
  • after school until 4:30pm
  • to get items ready to go to the stage
  • All students
• Saturday Feb 20
  • 8am to 8pm
  • Work in the shops and on the Gym Stage
  • All students morning and afternoon
  • Drive Team – Programmers – Pit Crew all day BUT MOSTLY AFTERNOON
  • Other SMSD teams may be coming in the afternoon to use our field
• Sun Feb 21
  • 8am to 8pm
  • work in the shops and on the Gym Stage
  • All Students afternoon
  • Drive Team – Programmers – Pit Crew – MORNING AND AFTERNOON
  • Other SMSD teams may be coming in the afternoon to use our field
• Mon Feb 22
  • after school until 8pm
  • All students
  • Finish up all aspects of the robot
• Tues Feb 23
  • after school until 5pm
  • Official bag event at 4pm in the CAD/TECH lab

On Tuesday we had an extra extended workday. We put the rest of the wheels onto the ‘bot and cut out the brackets to accommodate the mecanums and the sprockets and chains. We cut, bent, and mounted the pan that will hold the electronics and started to mount the electrical equipment on to Tyr. By the end of our work session today we had all of the required equipment mounted on the robot and had all of the wheels hooked up, but our programmers had already left for the day so we couldn’t take the robot for a drive.

Our PR team has finalized the design for our 2010 t-shirts and will soon order them, check out the T-shirt Designs soon to see what they will look like.

We have a long week ahead of us. Workday on Tuesday, and an extended workday on Thursday. Then we will have a four day weekend due to parent/teacher conferences and Presidents Day, so we will be having workdays all four days. Friday, noon to four, Saturday, nine to five, Sunday, noon to four, and Monday, 2:30 to ten.

Due to budget cuts we will not be allowed into the building until 2:30 p.m. on Monday. SOOOOO we will be unofficially meeting at Power Play at 11:00 a.m. to have lunch and play games and laser tag and other team building activities.

Due to the delay in shipping the wheels as well as snow and many other reasons we are a bit behind schedule. In an attempt to catch up tomorrow will be a full workday until 8. I know this is short notice, so do what you can. Because it was not on the schedule, no food will be provided.

Our wheels have arrived! Some of the team members showed up early today to start putting the wheels together. But, as usual, with progress come problems. We discovered that the mecanum wheels will not fit within the AndyMark Wheel Bracket supplied to us in the Kit of Parts. We spent a good portion of the morning figuring out where we need to cut the brackets to accommodate the mecanums as well as the sprocket and chain to drive them. We got all of the wheels built as well as the two new gear boxes, and mounted one onto the bot.

The PR team is still working on t-shirt and button designs. Today we took our team photos for the year as well as the individual “mug shots” that will be on the website and used for the personal buttons.

The programming team has continued to pursue Java, and has gotten communication between the driver station and the bot, as well as getting the camera to work.

AndyMark is experiencing stock shortages, and has not yet shipped our wheels. While there isn’t much we can put on the robot before the wheels we are continuing to develop our prototype for the kicker, as well as the VEX prototype. Hopefully our wheels will be shipped in time for us to build them during our late Thursday night work session.

Next Saturday (the 30th) at 11:00am we will be taking the official team and individual photos for the year. All students and mentors please plan on attending.

We have officially named the 2010 robot Tyr. We find this name to be fitting because we believe this years game will feature a lot of one-on-one robot interaction, and Tyr is the god of single combat. He is also the god of victory and heroic glory.

Saturday was the Third Annual Pancake Feed and Silent Auction, while there are still numbers to be crunched; our first estimates are that it has been the most successful pancake feed yet. We have now built our basic frame of the robot and our currently using it to prototype what kind of kicker we want to use to move the ball. A few of the team members are also working on creating a small working prototype out of the VEX Robotics materials. We have a small section of the bump to look at and get a better feel as to how the robot will interact with it, and the metals classes will begin construction on one of the towers so we can design our lifting mechanism.

After much thought and deliberation the team has decided to use mecanum wheels on the robot this year. While this will take more time and programming knowledge, but it was decided that the added versatility on the field will be well worth the extra effort. The wheels will be ordered tomorrow, and should arrive by Saturday.

Today was the kickoff of the 2010 FIRST Robotics Season. We will be playing a version of soccer with two 12 inch bumps splitting the field into three equal parts. In the middle of each bump will be a tower that is 7 feet off the ground. If we are suspended by the tower at the end of the game and above the plain of the platform (that is 20 inches off the ground) then we can get bonus points. Each ball scored will be worth one point. Due to the low point value of the elevated robots I believe it is safe to assume that the GDC thinks this will be a low scoring game.

For a better description of the game and the official game animation go here.

At this point we have started our preliminary designs, and will continue to sketch out our ideas for the next week or so before beginning fabrication on the bot.

Next Saturday will be the pancake breakfast, while it will not be in conjunction with the kickoff this year, it is still our largest fundraiser of the year, so bring all of your family and friends.

IMPORTANT!! Due to inclement weather the pancake feed and silent auction has been MOVED to next Saturday, the 16th. All current students can still come to school to watch the kickoff video and start brainstorming for the next robot design, but attendance is strictly voluntary. I know it is last minute, but we can’t control the weather, but please make sure that everyone you sold tickets to knows about the date change.

Clue number two was released earlier today. As far as I can tell the only thing that it shows it that we will be back on carpet this year. Since the kickoff is in three days I highly doubt there will be any more clues this year, but please continue to check the US FIRST site, Bill's Blog and Chief Delphi. See you at the pancake breakfast.

Today the first clue for the 2010 game was released. At this point it is hard to say what the clue is, or how it will affect the game. My guess is that the part is not robust enough to take hits or direct contact with the robot. Feel free to post your thoughts about the clue on WetPaint or on the Official Facebook Page. Enjoy the rest of the break, and remember the pancake breakfast and kickoff on January 9.

The Third Annual Pancake Feed and Silent Auction will be held on the 9th of January, in congruency with the kickoff for the 2010 FIRST season. Doors will open at 7:30 and we will stop serving pancakes at 10:30 and the Silent Auction will be closed at 11:00. Tickets will cost $6 for all the pancakes you can eat. All team members are expected to be in attendance during the breakfast, we will continue to work until around 4. Lunch will be served.

As of this point there have been no clues released, but continue to check this site as well as the US FIRST site, Bill's Blog and Chief Delphi.

The Cow Town ThrowDown served as a great learning experience for all of the members on the team. We encountered some problems in the fact that we couldn’t get the robot to do quite what we wanted it to using the Java code. But by the time we figured this out, it was too late to do anything about it. So at the end of the preliminary rounds we were in 32nd place. However we were selected to be on one of the 8 alliances to compete in the elimination rounds, and continued to the third game of the semi-finals. The CTTD has given several new drivers experience under the lights and pressure of a competition setting, and given them an idea of what to expect at Hale Arena.

November 7th will be the second annual Cow Town ThrowDown. We will be playing Lunacy with 32 other teams from around the KC area from 8:45 until around 4:00 at the Cerner Corporation Campus. We will use this extra competition as an opportunity to get some underclassmen the opportunity to drive the robot in a competition setting, run a full test on our code in Java, and let the new members get a small glimpse as to what awaits us in March. All are welcome to come to this pre-season event, the more people we have in our cheering section the better. Here are directions from the school to Cerner.

We have held a few meetings this year to help set up the structure that we will have this season. We are going to break-up into the three major sub-teams as we have in the past. (Programming, PR, and Build) Each team will have a leader, and then more sub-teams within them, for example a team to work on the chassis, a team to design a manipulator, etc. Hopefully this will help us be more organized, so we know who to go to about each element of the robot.

At 7:00pm on Wednesday September 23rd we will be giving a demonstration of Loki and a general overview of FIRST and our team at Lakeview Village, a senior living community. While the event is geared toward the residents of Lakeview, it is open to the public, so all are welcome to come and watch. We will end the demonstration with an open forum Q`A, and an opportunity to drive the robot.

Once again we will be participating in the school’s Homecoming parade on Friday October 8th. All are welcome to join in the school spirit and see Loki on the parade route (from school down Santa Fe to downtown Overland Park) at 1:15.

It was announced earlier this month that we will be a beta test team for Java. At this point we’re not quite sure what that will entail, but I will try and keep you updated once we find out.

Hello all. I hope you have all had a relaxing summer, but now it’s time for the Robotics team to kick it into gear. Our first meeting of the season will be on Thursday August 27 at 3:00 in room 148. We will be discussing the upcoming year and our plans, as well as fundraising and welcoming new members. Everyone is welcome to come, but the meeting will be focusing on the students. If you know anyone that even might be interested in joining the team invite them to come to the meeting so they can check it out and see if it’s something they would like to do. Hope to see you all then. BRING A FRIEND!!