Blog

Today at the NASA lab, several students and mentors were working together to clean up the workspace and prepare for the build season.

The computer workstations upstairs were put together after the painting.  All of the wires were nicely ziptied and the process of software updates began.  In the next few days, we need to update all of the computers with current versions of SolidWorks and other crucial software.  Furthermore, we need to build a wired network at the lab so that we can share printers between the computers.  On the white boards, vinyl stickers were cut to label each teams' white board.

Downstairs, Devastator was prepared to be removed from the NASA lab for semi-permanent storage at Bellarmine so that it can be used for team outreach events and demonstrations.  This freed up space under the south stairwell so that we were able to move the vertical bandsaw into its own cavity, improving the safety of the workspace.  We also spread out the sanding and grinding area and moved a wall-mounted shop vac out of the sheet metal area into the sanding and grinding area so dust and debris can be vaccumed up.

In the sheet metal and welding corner of the lab, work continued to prepare the area.  We re-arranged the extremely heavy equipment, putting the welder in a position so that its cord could reach the outlet and so that it is easily accessible.  To accommodate these changes, we had to slightly adjust the positioning of the sheet metal shear and break and move the large arbor press into the machine shop.

In the general work area, we continued cleaning and organization and also began resurfacing the workbenches so that they have nice, smooth surfaces to work on.

Everything is coming along great and we are very excited for the Saturday FRC kickoff.

Today the mezzanine floor was completely dry which allowed the tables and chairs to be moved back upstairs.  A few students were present and helped set up the computers and get things ready for the upcoming FRC build season.  The office supplies and mentors cabinets were also sorted, leaving only a few tasks left to be completed tomorrow and Thursday.

VEX Team 254D has been working hard since their last tournament to improve on their design as much as possible.  After a lot of work, their robot successfully high hangs on the ladder for a whopping 20 points!

All of the Team 254 VEX Teams are busy pulling together their robots before their Thursday deadline.

Today, more team members met at the NASA lab to apply a second coat of paint to the floor on the upstairs mezzanine.  The newly painted surface looks great and we will move the furniture upstairs tomorrow once the paint dries.  Furthermore, we mopped and vacuumed the floor downstairs and organized the tool chest, the white shelves and the cabinet in the machine shop.

Today, several team members met at the NASA lab to paint the floor of the upstairs mezzanine.  Two weeks ago, we sanded the floor to remove the chipping paint and last week new paint was able to be purchased.  To prevent chipping, we are using a urethane-based industrial paint.  Tomorrow, we will meet again to apply a second coat of paint.

Hey team,

First, I apologize that last weeks update didn't get put up. I wrote it, but for some reason it didn't post...

So, last weekend (12/4 specifically), teams 254A, B, and D competed in the Pan Pacific tournament, and 254C, E, H, and S competed in Fairfield. 254A and B took home their championship, and thanks to some great scouting 254E and H dominated at Fairfield. CheesyScout was used at Fairfield, and appeared to mostly work.

On the spirit side from last week, James Garbanati has agreed to lead a refurbishing of the mascot costume. Major grievances to be fixed are the amount of air flow in the costume, and the washability of the costume. The plan is to put more ventilation in the head, and to make it possible to wash the sweat out of it, instead of just febreezing the hell out of it after each tournament. If you are interested in helping James, email him at [email protected]

For today's meeting, the results of this Saturday's San Ramon tournament were announced. 254D and H competed. Although both were experiencing field-related difficulties, H ended up ranking, and both D and H were picked in the first round. Unfortunately, they were picked by different alliances, and so were pitted against each other in the quarterfinals, where H prevailed and went on to win the whole tournament. However, D went straight to the driver's challenge field after their defeat, and scored a 72, winning the challenge by 17 points and qualifying them for the championship as well. This brings our total VEX teams that have qualified to 5, being A, B, D, E, and H.

For spirit, it has been decided that we will be creating a new flag, replacing the one that was lost last season at the championships, which was replacing the one that was lost two seasons before that at the championships, which was probably replacing a flag lost way before any of those, most likely at a championship. It was immediately agreed upon that we would not lose this one, at a championship or otherwise. It was debated whether or not to make 2 flags, one with the FRC swoosh and one with the Vex swoosh, and it was agreed to wait until it had been decided whether the Vex swoosh violated copyright or government logo standards on whether or not to make two flags. If you are interested in helping me create this flag, email me at [email protected]

That's about it. Go Poofs,

Erik

On December 11th, 254D and 254H traveled to San Ramon to represent Bellarmine at its fifth tournament of the season.  After technical difficulties with the field and limited time, the teams played 3 qualification matches leaving 254D with a 1-2 record and 254H with a 2-1 record.  The 6th seeded alliance went on to pick 254D and lost in the quarterfinals to a dominant alliance carrying 254H.  The third seeded team, 3129A, picked 254H and 4804A and ended up winning the tournament.  However, the winning did not stop there.  254D, after being knocked out of eliminations, was determined to win Robot Skills and scored 72 points.  The tournament and robot skills wins bring home two more qualifications for World Championships leaving the Poofs with 5 spots to Worlds for 254A, 254B, 254E, 254H, and a newly added 254D.

On another note, all vex robots needed to be done by the end of this semester.  Although every robot is competition-ready, many teams are making a few repairs and fixes to their robots after being in competition in the past few weeks.  In the heat of this competition, the JVN Design Challenge entry never got finished.  Lack of concrete deadlines and motivation lead to the downfall of this project.

In light of increased competition for Vex, Derrick Dominic was able to contact NASA employee, Dr. Wendy Holforty in order to obtain Vex pneumatic kits for the team.  Due to liability concerns and respect for Dr. Holforty's parts, a release form must be made before any teams can borrow these parts.  Some teams have already expressed interest in the kits and it will be exciting to see what they are used for.

The goal by the end of the week is to have all the Vex teams prepared for the winter break to make the changes and fixes they need to.  The parts locker will be open on Monday, and probably Tuesday.  The kits will be handed out near the end of the week after forms get filled out.  There might also be an overall team design / team meeting for the Vex participants over break for those interested in learning and discussing more about the team's goals coming next semester.

-Roshan

We had a meeting on Thursday at Bellarmine, in which we covered a lot. By this week’s meeting, we will have finalized the programming team’s organization into the two groups, and everyone will have their assignments. We have split the team into two groups, one working primarily on the simulator that Dmitriy developed, and another on the actual robot. This Friday, most of the programming team met at the lab to work on the robot, which was a pretty successful meeting. We were able to play around and experiment with the various capabilities of the robot, and we were able to create and execute a simple autonomous program. We have 5 people who are interested in being full-time programmers, which is a good number for the programming team.

For this week, no meeting was held. At the large team meeting I personally contacted everyone who has not turned in their assignment. In addition, I gave them the names again so that they can go back and check. Finally, someone on the archiving team agreed to take the large list that we have to search for any deficiencies so that he can update them himself. This week should be a time for consolidating the lists.

Friday the 10th marked our third and final CAD Friday and our final FRC Friday of the semester.  We had a great time and started to explore some of the more advanced assembly and sketch features of SolidWorks.  Although it would have been nice to have more time so that we could have gone into more depth and gone over more features of SolidWorks, we had a great opportunity to give many students a broad overview of the program.  Overall, I think that the FRC Friday program this semester was very successful and I hope we try something similar again in future years.

Today, we had our second Machine Tools Training of the semester with two more students getting trained on how to use the machine tools at the lab.  For reference, I’ve put up a list of the students who are trained (historical list no longer available).  If you would like to sign up for machine tools training in the coming weeks, sign ups are closed for this historical event.

As the semester wraps to a close, we have very little time left to get everything ready for the FRC season.  We have scheduled Open Lab time for December 20-23.  Please sign up for this time (signups for this historical event are closed) and come in if you are interested in working on Programming, CAD or just helping get the lab ready for build.  There are no space limitations but if nobody signs up, we will likely cancel the session and the lab won't be open :(  There are still numerous items on the lab to-do list that need to get done and we need as much help as we can get.  Let me know if you have any questions for this.

Remember, students interested in CAD and programming: Coming to the workshops alone is not enough to become a CAD or Programming master.  To gain all the skills neccesary for the robot work, you will have to put in some extra time outside of the workshops.  Coming to the open lab days (mentioned above) is an excellent opportunity to get the much-needed experience with CAD or Programming.

26 Days Until The 2011 FRC Season Begins!
Happy Holidays and Go Poofs!
Nick Eyre