It’s so exciting to be in competition season now! Good luck to all teams participating. We’re watching webcasts and getting more and more excited for next week in Oshawa!
Programming is happening so we can test our shooter tomorrow in the warehouse.
Knitting is happening so everyone has a team hat for competition. We’ve got only a few more to go!
Today’s major project involved a lot of vacuuming! We have spent the last few meetings working on creating a vacuum former to create our chain guards. Today we put the finishing touches on, and gave it a try.
We needed to make a mold for our chain guard, which included some creative measurements through the bag. We’re really glad the bags are clear! After our measuring we used styrofoam, cardboard and duct tape to create a 3-D shape that melted plastic would form to.
Since thin Lexan is about $80 a sheet, we had the brilliant idea of using crazy carpets instead. They are on sale now–we’ve not had much snow this winter! We were lucky to find some in our team colours at Canadian Tire.
The crazy carpet was cut out to fit on our frame.
We used a staple gun to attach it. It’s important to put the staples close together. We used a hammer to make sure the staples were secure.
Next came the vacuum contest….which vacuum sucked the most! Our vacuum from our workroom had holes in the tube and a clogged filter. The custodian’s vacuum was not much better. Thankfully one mentor lives really close to the school–her vacuum sucked the best!
We put the plastic into the oven which had been set to broil. We watched as the plastic went wavy, then flat. When it is flat, it is ready to go.
The vacuum was turned on, the mold was placed on the vacuum box, and the plastic sheet overturned on top of it all. Using oven mitts and a heat gun we massaged the plastic in place around the mold. There’s a bit of a learning curve with this process. Sometimes there are holes. After our 4th try we got a really good one!
We chilled it in the fridge to cool it down a bit.
Then we removed the plastic from the frame and took the mold out and cut around our shape to reveal the coolest chain guard ever!
We’re taking our vacuum forming supplies and our robot shooter to Transformix tomorrow to keep working.
Our orders have been coming in so we’re unpacking boxes, and moving forward with our plans. The biggest excitement came when boxes of electrical components were unpacked.
In other great news, we got some machining done today! Thanks to our Queen’s mentors who spent lots of time in the shop and accomplished so much.
When the pieces came back to our work room, we deburred…
There’s more machining to come in the next few days. Here’s another cool part that we’re using for our robot. 
Does anyone know what it is?
“The muffins are SO DELICIOUS!” -Liam, grade 9
After snack time we got back to work putting together the wheel assemblies for our robot. Working together is always more fun!
We got to work on our top secret project
A few snips later and it looked like this.
Some more secret business involves our strategy for flipping the bridge down. We’ve been working for a few days to develop a good idea. Today we moved our sketches onto CAD.
Some shenanigans took place repeatedly today. Over the course of the evening almost everyone ended up trapped at one time or another. Here’s proof that even a Tweedle can get caught! Despite being caught, the Tweedle is still smiling!
Part way through our work session today we took a time out to learn about talking with the public, particularly to judges and to the media. We are lucky that CKWS TV, our local TV station is interested in following us through build season, checking in from time to time, watching our robot grow and develop, and watching us come together as a team.
We look forward to the opportunity to share FIRST Robotics with the rest of Kingston!
Some of our mentors are working very hard on their knitting. 
This season we’re knitting little hats to be give-away buttons for competitions. We’re known for our hats!
We had a wonderful ham supper from Jan and Ann tonight, and some special treats for Chinese New Year! 
After dinner, we got right back to work. Some of us are trying to get the camera code to work properly.
Our Chairman’s video is really starting to take shape. 
…and we had a great session to edit our Chairman’s essay.
Plenty of us are working on the very confusing bumper math. 
We’re trying to make reversible bumpers again this year, but in a slightly different configuration. It’s a pretty good math problem! We did lots of research today, and called different stores to source fabric and white Sharpie markers.
Our prototyping team is looking at various ways to manipulate the bridge. We’re coming up with some good ideas! It helps to work with such a big creative group.
For those of us who are in the know…this picture marks a rather momentous occasion. We’re starting to work on the next part.
Lots of us are tired out from long hours at robotics.
Nap time is much more comfy with bumpers as pillows!
We made LOTS of cookies!
We’re thankful to everyone who is pulling strings to help us out. We are lucky to have a great support system, including our own superhero!
The test chassis got used again by our programmers to test some code.
4. Tweedles can knit!
We decided to suspend a weight from a meter above our robot to mimic anything we might build up there, and then give it a try. We installed plywood chain guards to keep us all safe.
Some of us spent a great deal of time doing calculations, doing research and gathering our materials.
We discussed the plans for the 
Our group split up for rotations of CAD tutorial work–some of us are getting really good at the practical applications of CAD.
We held a brainstorming rotation for Chairman’s report ideas, and activities we should engage in over the year to help our community and build up our team. We also walked everyone through the 
The remaining station was a super top secret design challenge. Groups had 30 minutes and a variety of materials (wheels, newspaper, straws, plastecine, skewers, cardboard, wood, screws, saws, measuring devices, and lots of tape) to construct a vehicle that was powered by a balloon that could travel the farthest down the school hallway.
Because of our short ceilings, we cut the pole to fit in our classroom. We have a longer pole that we can use in the hallway or when we get our warehouse/test area set up.
Prototyping continues on minibot and manipulators for our host bot.
We were pleased to have Richard from Transformix helping out today with wiring for our minibot designs. There’s lots of math involved with figuring out proper circuitry.
We tried hooking up our new circuits, which involved a few soldering lessons. Webinar writing continued throughout the day. Over the next few days we will be loading them on Youtube and creating a webinar section on this site.
What would you like to see in a webinar?
Today we were thrilled to have lots of parents visit us to see our progress. Robotics is a family affair: feel free to come and visit any time!
We appreciate all the support, and the cookies and muffins that our families deliver to us! There’s a meal sign up sheet by the lab door, we hope that we’ll get some families signing up to provide evening meals when we stay late. Thanks to those who already have signed up!
-
-
-
-
Important Dates and Deadlines
Links
Blog Keywords
award brainstorming breakaway build season bumpers CAD Chairman's Report communication community competition construction Cyber Falcons dance demo design electrical families field field trip First Robotics FLL FRC fundraising GTR kick off Logomotion Machining media mentors New York City Regional organization pre-season challenge programming prototype Queen's University rebound rumble safety scouting sponsors team building testing thank you Transformix video WAFFLES
