During the month of March, we spent lot of hours trying to finish up the robot at NASA AMES in Mountain View.   We usually did not get back home until 2 AM in the morning.

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1/24: Monday- We decided on moving our building headquarters from the garage to a more official space- an office space in Evergreen Square that used to be the UPS store! Its equipped with a restroom too! Awesome, isn’t it? Anyways, we had people apply for grants to Rockwell Collins and Flextronics. Worked on CADing, programming, and on the electric board.

1/25: Tuesday- loads of CADing, programing, and working on electric board. Also made a trip to Frye’s to buy more tools and materials. Named our newly acquired organizing box “Pandora’s Box” ;]

1/28: Friday- Finally get to stop the garage rotations and settle down in the Evergreen Square! So we started the move by transporting all our tools, tables, and chairs into the space. But…. our rack and pole were too large to fit into our vehicles. So, sadly, we had to disassemble it into pieces, transport it, then reassemble it. It did take some time, but fortunately, it went smoother than expected. =) Also brought in all the crates of building materials accumulated from the past build seasons. After what seemed like eons of un-packaging, tearing plastic bags, and sorting, we organized everything! Along all this, more CADing and programming as usual.

1/29: Saturday- epic CADing! Almost done CADing all the individual pieces. Started on assembling the parts.

1/30: Sunday- assembling, assembling. Aiming to send the complete CAD to All FAB soon to start CNCing the parts.

This Friday, several of our team members met with Mr. Son Ho of All FAB Precision Sheetmetal, Inc. He has agreed sponsor the team by providing CNC and Metal Shop services and donating materials. We would like to thank Mr. Tran for putting us  in contact with Mr. Ho.

We continued to work on our electronics board and discussed ideas for our mini-bot.

Saturday (1/22/11):

Saturday we met at Ritu’s house and continued to CAD parts of the robot. We also filled out grants and discussed our plans for the upcoming week.

We also talked briefly about Cal Game 2010 which will be held at Lynbrook High School on Friday Oct. 23 and Saturday Oct. 24.   They are still looking for volunteers to help out  in this event.    If you are interested in volunteering in this event, you should do it soon by  click on this link :  http://groups.google.com/group/wrrf-community/web/2010-cal-games-volunteers?hl=en

• Finished our bump
• Robot can maneuver over bump

Here are some of the thoughts of our team members:

“The FIRST experience. Thrilled by science and technology. Inspirited by the partnership of team members. Energized by the feat of engineering. Motivated by the wisdom of mentors. I am inspired.”
- Jeff Chan

“Over the 6-week build period, our team not only managed to build an extraordinary robot, but also learn new techniques and create memories along the way. Starting out as rookies, our team was far from perfection, but each mistake was well worth it. We took the mistakes to our advantage and learned from them, bringing us one step closer to creating a better robot. Though we may have been exhausted, angry, and bitter at times, we managed to pull through with stronger bond than ever before. “
- Katherine Huynh

“It’s been so long since I’ve had a goal I’ve almost forgotten how good it feels. Spending long hours with close friends, working towards, and achieving a shared vision. It’s been a great learning experience, and I can’t wait till we do it again next year.”
- Brian David

“Coming into FIRST as a Rookie Team, we did not know what to expect. Of course we knew the next 6 weeks were going to be filled with hard work, team meetings with open end times, dedication, and a lot of perserverance, but that did not stop Team 2854 from making a fully functional robot. At the end of the 6 weeks, when shipment day arrived, it was saddening to ship off the robot, knowing that we would see our hardwork in a month or so. A strong bond developed between the members after all those long hours spent working on programming or building what had seemed to be an impossible task. Although we all attended the same school, not all the members had known each other previous to the Kickoff. As the season continued, the members became more like a team pulled together by one reason: their love for robots.”
- Jacqueline Tran

“Working on the robot was full of hard work, determination, and cooperation by everyone which is what, helped us to finish the robot. This experience has been changing and has showed me that with teamwork anything can get done. I have learned on a big project like this there will always mistakes, but that is what helps us learn and grow as a team.”
-Jimmy Tran

“I learned that sometimes the best laid plans can fail, and the important thing to remember is to always be flexible and work with what you have. A prototype is just a way to test out an idea, and sometimes, ideas dont work out. It’s important to learn from your earlier mistakes, and use the knowledge gained to perfect your design. In the end, if the final version of the robot surpasses expectations, the experience is made, all the better.”
- Hubert Wang

“It was a great time working with new friends, meeting new people, and working with the power tools (Tim Taylor grunt), electronics, & programming.  I’ve soaked up and learned so many cool things that it’s simply amazing what I missed out on before we joined FIRST and tackled this project. Maybe not the most respectable but one of the things I learned during this 6-week grueling process was “The 5 stages of Sleep Deprevation (in order)”:
1. Confusion
2. Organized Chaos
3. Pissiness
4. Drunkeness (including a bit of singing)
5. Half brain function
All in all, I’ve met some amazing people. I would be shocked if in 10 years these kids weren’t pioneering in their own fields. This club has brought back a sense of friendship and the kind of determination and cooperation you just don’t see these days. Looking back, I’m glad I made this journey and I look forward to doing it all over again next year.”
- Ryan Gordon

“When some of our team members actually brought up the prospect of making a FIRST team, and competing, I was originally against the idea. We had only done BotBall in the past, and I thought that since we have no mentors, or previous experience, the task would be near impossible, however, as time progressed, I began to warm up to the idea and enjoy it more and more. Our team was originally not accustomed to staying up and working for more than 15 hours straight, not being able to tell which day it was, and even making a guessing game out of what time it happened to be. Once we were able to settle in, our productivity shot through the roof. As a rookie team, we were able to build our entire superstructure over the span of just 4 days. Aside from being a blast, this experience has been incredibly educational. Unfortunately, during the course of learning what exactly I had to do, I made a lot of mistakes on the robot, and ended up having to rewire the entire thing 3 or 4 times. And our last workday was one of my most intense days of my life, working on the robot for 22 straight, solid hours certainly took a toll, but we were finally greeted with the satisfaction of finally being able to drive our robot around the field, pick up/shoot the rocks as well as the veteran teams, and being complimented by them. I was filled with a great sense of accomplishment as our team rejoiced. It was a rather somber moment when the FedEx truck came to take our creation away later that morning, leaving what seemed like a gaping hole in the garage where it used to reside. At first, I thought that it was all over, but I soon realize, that it is just the beginning. I know we may not be the best team there, and we might not make it to the very end, but I still take pride in the work I’ve done, and i know that every minute of this project was time well spent……onto the competition!”
- Eric Kauzlarich

• New CIM motors (2)

• New metal plating

• New chain

• Geared up 2:1

• Trimmed the pvc

• Mounted plastic on the side, back, and front ramp

• Had to take it all apart to take off little pieces of covering…for 2 hours

• Got the hood up and working

• Made an extra roller

• Polycord is done

• Bumpers are on

• Camera was mounted…but then the 5V channel on the Power Dist./ Board failed

• Electrical is secure; resoldered again

• Battery mount secured

The robot is up and running.  We had successful trials of testing on the field starting around 3 AM (our first run ever)

Still got a ways to go…

Our robot is ready for our first test run.

Summary for Sunday 2/15:

• Mounted the fisher price motor (replaced the broken one with a “new” one)

• Re-soldered everything to ensure proper/good connection

• Made the wire connectors for the new battery  (soldered it and used shrink tubing this time instead of electrical tape)

• Cut the orange polycord to 85.5″ and melted them together

• Fixed the spacing of the conveyor belting on the rollers

• Greased both ToughBoxes

• Mounted the angled panel of polycarbonate and braced the polycarbonate with metal bars

• Made the hood

• Attached the plastic to the metal framing

• Made the support pieces for the hood

• Cut and drilled holes for the L-brackets that will be holding the support pieces in place

• Finished the driver station

• Had to counter sink the holes for the screws and make cutouts for the joysticks and the control system

• Attached the polycord with the rollers and had a successful test run

• Made changes to the angling of the board in the back by making it closer to the roller

• Had to enlarge the side holes to avoid the metal rod from catching every once in a while

• Changed the positioning of the metal plates from outside to inside to be able to mount the plastic

• Cut and changed the positioning of the metal plates in the front to be able to have more space for the balls

• Had to re-drill the holes to fit the plates