GUESS WHATTTT??? No, this time it has nothing to do with butts. Maybe. Do robots have butts? Anyway. The robot we have been working for Recycle Rush... MOVED!!! *cries real tears.* The build, electronics, and programming teams worked together in "perfect" (adjectives are subjective) synergy, and got the electronics board mounted to the robot. The motors got wired in, and the programmers got to make code for the robot. And lo and behold, the magical wheels turned and moved the robot forward! HALLELUJAH! Praise the robo-God.
However, all teams still have a ways to go. The build team is still figuring out how to support the entire robot. It's big, it's not that bad, and it's pretty ugly. (At the moment.) The builders are also continuing to work on the pulley system, as well as perfecting the claw systems. The cars on the pulley, which contain the claws, must work with each other, and that is currently what is being worked on. The electronics team is putting together all kinds of boards. For last year's robot Chuck and for our final robot for this year. They're always busy with stuff. Tiny zip ties, crimping, wire stripping, and wago tooling galore. The programming team, unfortunately, is on standby. Without a completed robot, they cannot work on any code. They've soaked in a lot of lessons from programming Professor French, and they are DYING TO CODE A ROBOT. DIGGING THEIR GRAVES AS WE SPEAK. RISING FROM THE DEAD TO TELL US, "uaaaauuuugggghhhh," which translates to WE NEED A ROBOT NOW. In other news, we had another Pronto birthday on day 21. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATE!!! Day 21. Wow. Three weeks have past. Are we in panic mode? Yes. But we are calm. Because the build season is officially old enough to buy booze. And now you know why none of my writing makes any sense. Just kidding. That was a joke. Stop doubting me. Party hard (by building a robot), Team Pronto! To my nonexistent fans and frequent readers: I've been pretty lazy about updating this as often as I should. I'm so sorry! I'm like an absent father. Missing my child's first drive, sweet sixteen, high school graduation, college admittance. My god, I'm horrible. At any rate, it's already the fourth week in the build season. Three out of six weeks have passed, and we're halfway through the season. Time flies when you're having "fun!"
But let's get to the big juicy, meaty, catch-you-up stuff. The team hit some bumps these past couple days, ranging from design flaws and miscommunication to discovering cracks in our team's structure. Despite this, the team knows that they no longer have the luxury of time. Dreaming about getting the robot done in the fourth week are no officially over. Now is not the time for dreams, it is now time to make those dreams a reality! The programmers, without an actual robot to program, have simply been furthering their understanding of robot code. Their handy kit-bot, which has been nicknamed Sensor Bot, has been a handy tool for them to experiment with autonomous code and other miscellaneous coding methods. And here is your weekly reminder that I often have no idea what I'm talking about when I'm writing about the programmers. Oops. Javajavabooleanboolean. The electronics team ran into their own little bump in the ballroom dance of life (totally just took that metaphor from English class) when they discovered that the chassis team did not communicate with them the structure of the chassis. They had to reconstruct their board, but as of now, they are almost done with it! It actually has to be mounted upside-down now. Screw gravity! (More importantly, screw physics. Why does it have to be so hard to understand if it's all around us. D:< ) The build team has a lot of stuff going on. Many, many thing going on. Progress is coming along, but it's kind of like the progress you see at the DMV. But it all seriousness, Everything is coming along really nicely. The pulley team actually has their pulleys all constructed. They have their axels, strings, belts, and motors all ready to run. And even the claws are on the track as well! And guess what? "What?" You ask. "What what?" I ask, in response. "What, what in the butt," you reply, because you're just that type of person. But what's really in the butt is that it can pick up two totes with our double claw action and set those two totes down on each other!! I AM SO AMAZE RIGHT NOW. (And completely overjoyed.) A second chassis frame has also been completely constructed. Things are really coming together. In addition, the team has devoted a group of builders to pursue arms that will go on the front of the robot that will pull in totes. It's really cool. Cooler than I can make it sound. Finally, there are a couple builders making a bench out of a surf board. The bench will be donated to the Booster Auction, and the team may gain some funds if someone buys it. Pulling in the dough. Sorry for the big waterfall of text. Want to have a tl;dr? Well, we did things. Progress was made. We are picking up the pace and cutting the slack. TIME STOPS FOR NO MAN. *explosions* Manipulate those totes, Team Pronto! (but not their feelings. That would be mean.) Perhaps you have already long forgotten me. It has been ages, generations, and centuries. I am a figment of the past, but I have a story to tell... of the last four build days.
Sorry about not updating more frequently, but it has been hard with THE DREADED FINALS' WEEK UPON PRONTONIA. But even though it is the terrible time of the year where all the teachers band together to push students a little beyond sleep deprivation (more like, zombification), Team Pronto has been working harder than ever in an attempt to finish the robot! You must be wondering how the physical robot is doing. WELLLL, they may be on track, but the "track" their on is a little off kilter. While teams are hard at work, (and very efficient work as well) our President and Leader's plans had us with a fully functional robot last week. Thus, we're a little behind. BUT WORRY NO MORE, RANDOM CITIZEN READER, we are so, so close. The claws are up and ready to go after a few little tweaks, the gigantic track system is getting put on the robot, and the chassis is virtually ready, besides the little tweaks to bits and pieces they are working on as we speak (read?). Great work, build team! Can we BUILD IT!? YES WE CAN. BECAUSE WE'RE PERFECT. THERE IS NO FIXING. Meanwhile, the electronics team is also close to completing their mock electronics board for the practice robot. Woo hoo! Programmers have also been working hard on learning how to code for autonomous. Every so often, the kit bot would whirr to life and go like grrr grrr woom woom. Robot speak. We wouldn't understand. Its probably insulting our fashion sense. It's a really difficult week to stay focused, Prontonians, especially with all the finals, sleep deprivation, the State of the Union and fangirling over the president, all the primetime drama TV shows starting up again finally, after the midseason breaks, and the... well, you get the point. Freaking January. Nonetheless, our team is sticking to their guns and getting the work done. Good luck with your classes, and finish the semester strong, Team Pronto! OOPS. OOOOOOPS. Don't fire me. (You probably have enough dirt on me to send me off the face of the planet, but let's not get into the nitty gritty details.)
Weeeeellll, anyway... all teams have been perfectly on track! That pun was totally intended. It has been super exciting to see all the team's work already becoming things that look like robot parts. And it's only been two weeks!!! One of the most exciting things to happen in this three day period has been the creation of the up-to-size pulley system. It's really starting to look like a very scary guillotine. Like, it fits people's head in it and everything. And it stands in the auto shop every build day for people who dare try and defy the will of Prontonia. But everyone treats each other with respect and love. ❤❤❤ (We will tolerate no such revolution or storming of the sheds.) BUT ANYWAY. Yes, the pulley system has been developed, and even with a track system. The groups are now currently trying to figure out how to integrate it onto the robot frame. And on that note, the chassis has also been coming along very nicely. The frame was completed, and the wheels are currently getting put on. The build team has also begun to make a field for us to practice on! Yay builders! Meanwhile, the programmers have been hard at work to prepare themselves for programming the actual robot. The real deal. They have been currently creating code on the one of the kit-bots, practicing crucial code for autonomous such as encoders and turning in autonomous. They've got it working! The electronics have also been hard at work, maintaining and creating electronics boards, as well as making old robots work. A resurrection of Hank! The CAD team has also increased by one, creating a pair that have been CADing hard every day. And also, on Thursday, a most imporant day... PROUDLOVE'S BIRTHDAY! Yippee! We had cake and became robot unicorns. Hooray! (We also got to listen to demonic candles sing 'Happy Birthday' on loop like slightly off key.) So, grrgragrggarggagrgag. Pretty much sums up my feelings. The team has been busy, busy. And next week, the dreaded finals week comes upon us. However, we will continue to work hard on our robot as well as on our school work. (Don't worry, parents. 👌) SLICE THE HEADS OFF OF OUR ENEMIES (and problems), Team Pronto! Progress. It's really nice. But sometimes, you can't really see any physical progress and you start cursing the world and wanting to tear out your pathetic eyes for not being able to see the unseeable and then jump into a fiery pit of lava because burning to death would be a faster death than the anxiety from FRC. That is what I feel like right now. I truly, truly know that we are making lightning fast speed with the work we are doing: drawing detailed schematics, creating comprehensive prototypes, training for the real robot code, and so much more. BUT IT'S LIKE WE'RE AT THE TOP OF THE ROLLER COASTER AND WE'RE SO CLOSE TO FALLING AND I JUST WANT TO SCREAM ALREADY. But yes, I am capable of being patient. Err, somewhat capable. But anyway, enough rambling.
Some notable milestones:
We also had a wonderful dinner provided for the builders by Sam and Ian's moms. Thank you so much!!! Yes, progress can be slow, but it's like itsy bitsy spider. It just kept slowly going up the water spout despite the heavenly rains being more than a jerk to it. Morals to be learned by songs we wish would just leave our memories. Also, ew, spiders. Keep creeping up that spout to success, Team Pronto! Wooooow. We're on week two already!!! Time is flying and we may or may not even be having fun. Time stops for no FRC team!
On day 5, our leader said "Let there be proof of concepts." So our team worked and worked, and sooner builders had finished many contraptions. Basically what happened on Saturday for all you tl;dr - ers. We created a very nice pulley system (nicknamed the Guillotine), a couple claw contraptions, and a motor powered belt designed to pull totes into a robot. However, at the end of the day, we decided to devote our time in the build to a pulley system that pulls a set of hooks up to pick up totes and recycle bins. Therefore, today, we spent our time working on the claws, the elevator tracks that they would ride on, the pulley itself, the chassis, and a contraption that would pull totes in. (And as a side note, we took apart Twitchy, one of the robots from the preseason. What a short life it had. I guess it would be like 100 in robot years though.) As always, the programmers an electronics team worked hand in hand to practice coding and wiring on the kit bots, and also our robot from three years ago named Hank. Our CAD master is working hard to create 3D models of the weapons of mass destruction we have planned, and the chassis, of course. And we even have a team working on a mini model of Jonathan's Girlfriend (a cool electronics board)! We had a chow-mendous dinner provided by Alex's mom today, thank you so much!!! And on Saturday, we had Gayle's mom, Jafar's mom, and Eliza Sutton! (Sorry I forgot whose mom and augggghhh) Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to team member Alison!!! Hope you had a great day! Someone told me that they thought we could be done with the robot by week 3. Now, I have some doubts about that, but with the current speed we are going, those doubts are really slowly going away. Never have I seen the team working on concrete ideas so soon! Augh, gosh, much too exciting for me to handle. Godspeed, Team Pronto! Hammers smashing. Saws slicing. The drill press' hum. The really disgusting, ugly sound of the handsaw on metal that makes everyone's ears want to bleed. We're finally back into the autoshop!
Today, groups finally got to make progress in making their ideas come to life in this prototyping phase. Chassis, pulleys, conveyor belt systems, and claws all made lots of progress. Many others also took tasks such as putting together gear boxes or organization. Tomorrow, the groups will continue protyping and hopefully be able to finish in time for presentation on Monday. Meanwhile, programmers and electronics people also got to do their fair share of coolness by getting the kit-bot from previous builds to work with the new electronics that FIRST has provided for us, namely the roboRio, Talons, and new switchboard thingymajig. There's new colors on the switchboard. It looks nice. Ahhh. It was quite refreshing to finally see some people getting their hands dirty and drilling holes into things and cutting pieces off of things. (No, I am not a serial killer.) The team has moved on from brainstorming, and is making fast progress, and it is only our first week! Work that metal, (or wood, in some cases) Team Pronto! Another day, another time to have our minds run. That's what this club is about right? This is "the sport of the mind" after all! So we continued to build upon our ideas with extensive peer reviewed pros and cons that spanned the whiteboards like sculptures of naked men sprawled out on your couch, telling you to "draw me like one of your French girls." Except, this made a lot more sense than the word vomit I just produced. We discussed two main ideas: a pulley system and a belt system for our robot. In the end, we could not choose the best of the two babies to work on, but we ended up decided to prototype these children and see how they fare as adults. (translation of my gibberish: we are going to test each individual part's proof of concept and ability to produce the results needed for the competition game.) The builders then split into five teams for prototyping: the chassis, the belt lift, the pulley, the rack and pinyon claw, and the belt claw. To wrap up the day, they planned what materials were going to be needed for the days allotted to prototyping: tomorrow and Saturday. Meanwhile, the electronics team was working on creating a board for their team and the programmers to work on. The programmers were reportedly "flashing the roboRios," which does not actually mean to flash any private parts, but to actually set up these electronics to receive Java coding, which is the type of code our programmers work in. So finally, we are going to start seeing not only our brains moving (or not moving, for some near the end of the days), we are going to see our hands building, coding, and putting things together! Yyyessssssss hhhahhhaasrehhahadudb *starts salivating* Everyone is super excited to test some ideas, learn how to work with mechanisms, and just in general use the wonderful auto shop our school has blessed us with. Hallelujah! Get pumped, Team Pronto! Due to recent events and concerns, Shorewood canceled school today as well as all after-school activities along with the rest of the Shoreline School District after the long lockdown. Therefore, we will not have a meeting today! Therefore, in the future, today we will have done:
Nothing. However, the Prontonians will continue think about ideas and brew coff-- uh, I meant their brains, during this time off of school. Like, brainstorming, right? I should really let that terrible play on words go very soon. Catch y'all on the flip side, Team Pronto! (the flip side, in this case, is tomorrow. Is that how you use that word?) Another day, and the storm still brews. We picked up from where we were yesterday, and discussed ways to improve and expand the details on the ideas we have thought of. Many others also discussed new ideas. All in all, it was a continuation of yesterday. Keep your brain storming, Team Pronto! |