• 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

• Finished assembling the rollers

• Finally mounted the encoders

• Cut all the plastic to size

• Re-soldered and re-wired everything….again

• Ran into a problem with the left motor, but it was just a connection problem

• Started working on the driver station, and decided on a 2 layer station

• Mounted the second level of electronics (the bridge, and 2 jaguars)

• Made all the wires neater with zip ties

• Figured out a way to mount the slope so that the orbit balls will come up better

• Mounted the Fisher Price motor for the front roller, along with a sprocket, chain, bearings…

• Bought bright, neon orange spray paint for our team number on the bumpers

• Mounted two more triangular plates on the frame

• Worked on rollers more

• Figured out that the ABS was going to be too big to just screw onto the PVC, so slivers of the ABS were cut from the piping and then fitted onto the PVC.

• We were able to cut the conveyor belting into strips and mounted most of them onto the rollers

• All the ordered materials arrived: encoder mount, extra round tubing, and the conveyor belting

• Replaced the wires and crimps on the electronics board (crimps kept falling out, and some of the jaguar wires weren’t the correct size)

• The battery mount was screwed onto the frame

• Mounted two more triangular plates on the frame for support

• We were photographed by our school’s yearbook team

We managed to finish 1 and a half of these rollers, but we need a total of 3.

• Started to make rollers
• Cut metal pieces/bars to mount the rollers onto the superstructure

• Finished bumpers

• Cut, sanded, pounded, measured, center-punched the metal pieces supporting the basic frame

• Cut 3 inches off the wooden board holding the electrical components to make space for the ramp

• Asked about plastic for sides of the robot (~$100 for a 4′ x 8′ piece)

Starting work on the superstructure……

A picture of the robot at the end of the workday.

• Wired up the signal/diagnostic light.
• Attempted to install the accelerometer, gyro, and encoders, but we didn’t have a soldering gun at the time.
• We also prepared the angles and wood boards for mounting the bumpers.

The bumpers are almost ready to be mounted onto our robot.

Hard at work…modeling and programming.

Brian and Jeffrey working on the wood board bumper mounts.

• We got the camera up and running, and it now tracks the pink and green trailer colors

• Finished the prototype

• Changed the design by adding in a few more rollers and decreased the angle of the slope

• Had a successful test of the roller and shooter.

• Cut the all the needed bumpers at the right angle

• Cut and sanded all the L-brackets for the bumpers

• Drilled the holes for the L-bracket pin

Measuring out the bumper length…

We tested out the camera’s color tracking abilities.

Assembling the hopper.

Screw fail! :