One more sleep before competition! We’re getting excited about going to Oshawa for the Greater Toronto East Regional Competition.
We met after school to organize our scouting supplies, pack the pit area, and tie up any loose ends related to the robot and its components. Thanks to Transformix for doing a last minute welding job for us! 
We got two deliveries today. One was from FESTO, bringing us pneumatics supplies and some cool swag to distribute at competition.
We also got our T-Shirt order today! K-Bots, please bring in your $10 (per shirt) tomorrow! Mentors got jerseys this year for Rebound Rumble. Thanks very much to all who helped organize our very large shirt order, and prepare the shirts for distribution.
K-Bots: carpools leave from the school at 4PM. The carpool list is posted in our workroom. Sleep well tonight!
We’re making armour to hold 
…it is so important to thank everyone for all they have done to get us to this point in the season. 
While shooter testing continued, some last minute components were being machined at Transformix engineering.
Fingers crossed we’ll be able to add these 1.55lbs to the robot, and that the part will work as intended! Thursday’s moments of unbagging the robot will be dramatic and busy indeed, as we will need to attach various things, and modify various things before heading for inspection.
We programmed the shooter to accurately score on the top basket from many locations. With a little more time, we’ll have it working every single shot!
We enjoyed watching the SanDiego regional webcast today. We’re picking up on a few strategic ideas as we watch.
We’re preparing for our tournament…making lists of tools to pack, and checklists of things to do between matches. One of the things we’re doing before the tournament is to repair any faulty battery leads, so we have our full complement of batteries ready to go.
These guards weigh less than Lexan, and will therefore allow more weight in the final component design that we’re working on.
The pieces are all coming together. We look forward to seeing all of the robots in action in Oshawa in a few days.
Congrats to our friends FIRST Team 772, 
We’re starting to really notice the time passing. Some of us are feeling the time crunch! There are only 5 more days until we are competing in Oshawa, and we’re still working on some critical components. We’ll figure something out in the nick of time!
Our skills at vacuum forming chain guards is increasing by the day. We made another mould today, and will work on our final moulds tomorrow. Thank goodness for all the Timbits consumed today. We needed the cardboard to help stabilize the styrofoam!
Between designing, scouting, programming, shooting, and vacuum forming we got pretty hungry. Pizza sure was delicious! Speaking of food, K-Bots: if you have not yet put in your food order for Oshawa, you need to contact Colleen.
While we ate, our new friend the Roomba helped clean up some of our carpet. It’s mesmorizing to sit and watch it move around and around.
Come see the Roomba and the rest of the excitement at the warehouse tomorrow from 10AM-6PM. Bring your own food!
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.
We also re-made the shooter stand that we started yesterday, which ended up being really tippy. This time we made sure that everything was nice and square, and all the same length. 
In the end, we had a nice square table that could support the ball shooter….
…and what’s best is that it is exactly the same height as the robot! 
In other news, we realized that a lot of our tools are still at the Transformix warehouse, so when we were working on some electrical projects we ended up using a kettle steam to shrink the heatshrink around the wires.
We’re working Friday from 5PM-10PM at KCVI. This is the last date to submit trip forms and fees.
After school many parents volunteered to drive us to Transformix Engineering where we ate snacks and did homework….
…and worked on programming the robot….
…and finishing up the wiring.
Thanks so much to Transformix for letting us use their space for the weekend and letting us bag and tag tonight. We’re making ourselves at home! There are Queen’s jackets everywhere!
We had a few visitors come to see the last exciting moments where our robot was driving around and shooting baskets. It’s really thrilling to see everything come together at the last minute and work like it was supposed to!
Chris, from FESTO, was excited to see the pneumatic components in action. He’s arranging FESTO giveaways for competition this season.
We also had our follow-up with CKWS TV. It was exciting to have media present for the final moments of our build. Bag and Tag was officially documented this year, and a two part series about our team will air Monday and Tuesday at the 6pm news on CKWS.
One minor hiccup that we had to negotiate before bagging the robot was our bumper design. After recent clarification our original split number bumper was deemed to be against the rules. We quickly made some patches to sew on. 
There were still plenty of people taking naps on the sidelines…It will take time to regain all of the lost sleep from recent days.
With 30 minutes to go, we separated our shooting device from the robot to hold back and work on over the next little while. Thank goodness for a withholding allowance!
There was great hustle near the robot, and also in the Transformix lunch room. We cleaned up all of our dishes and food and prepared for the excitement of putting the robot into the bag.
But first…we needed to weigh our robot. Using the bathroom scales gave us one estimate…
…Transformix’s industrial scale gave us another….
With a 20 pound shooter, we’re under weight! 
We gathered at 11:50 to bag our robot. Everyone wanted to be a part of the momentous occasion.
It’s all caught on film!
With a sigh of relief and a few cheers we were done, with a few minutes to spare!
It’s a strange feeling to be done building. We’re used to seeing each other every day, and now we’ll take a day to rest and recover before we start thinking of all that remains to be completed before going to competition. 
We’ll miss each other in the mean time though! Good work everyone. Thanks to all of our families and supporters for helping us through an intense 6 weeks. Enjoy your rest.
Today we continued to cut holes in our robot…
….and we are optimistic about reaching the 120 pound weight limit.
We’re filing down all of our parts to keep things smooth and to lose weight where we can.
As the mechanical team finished up their work, the programmers kept working hard writing code….
….while wires were run between all of the robot’s electrical components.
Our human players took to the field to try their long distance shots.
We had two really great meals which kept us working hard all day.
We’re realizing the importance of washing hands before we eat. Look at all of the dirt!
After getting the mechanical and electrical and pneumatic systems all rigged up, we ran into some issues with our victors…
…and our jags…
We’re working hard to resolve these issues, so we can make our robot fully operational!
Today we started off bright and early in the Transformix Engineering Plant 2 Warehouse.
We worked hard to reassemble our robot to get everything in working order to test some key components that Purolator delivered today! 
We’re so excited to be in the warehouse and wrapping up build season. Some of us are wearing robot themed accessories!
Before too long we set to work putting holes into our robot….EVERYWHERE!
We weighed the robot….and look what the scale said!
Just kidding….that was only part of the robot. We think we’re on target though.
We ate a yummy lunch provided by our parents. It’s so nice to be well taken care of during a very stressful time.
After lunch it was nap time, until we had to construct the field. It takes a lot of power to keep the warped wood lined up properly.
The Cyberfalcons, FIRST team 3710, joined us in the warehouse today, and helped out fastening the field pieces to the carpet with heavy duty velcro.
Hard work leads to more nap time!
Our electrical and programming team worked hard to get all of the sensors connected and working.
Productivity was everywhere….
The Cyberfalcons made bumpers…
We worked on programming….
…and built a human player station….
….and made sparks fly!
Some of our mentors were ABSOLUTELY happy with all of our progress…..while others were a little concerned to see the robot disappearing before their very eyes.
Our families came to visit us and see our progress all day long. All of Mr. Wood’s family was here all at once!
We appreciate our families encouraging us through these last busy days. It’s nice to share the excitement with everyone we love.
Spontaneous sweeping is always a good thing….so is collecting piles of files! Rhyming organization is the best kind.
While waiting for the testing to begin, we entertained ourselves in many different ways….one of which was a crazy hair extravaganza! Thumbs up to everyone!
It was such a great work day today. Thanks to everyone for bringing your best effort, enthusiasm, and patience today. Please also bring your homework tomorrow….there will be some moments of down time where you can get ready for Tuesday. Also….when you arrive tomorrow, say happy birthday to Kevin!
See everyone here at 9AM!
Scouting meetings have happened, and we’ve started working on a database.
Our robot must have done a lot of exercise and eaten a lot of healthy food! Today it lost some weight. We used rivets instead of bolts…. 
We cut holes in everything…
Using the vacuum is important….otherwise the 4 pounds of aluminum shavings would have ended up in the chain.
We nibbled a lot of lexan….
…and a lot of metal…
Challenges were given, and accepted….to get all the nibbling done in half an hour.
We ate MEAT….on a stick! Thanks parents for keeping us fed.
After dinner we cleaned up our workspace. “I used the vacuum! It sucked” -Sam
We packed up our gear to get to the warehouse tonight. We’re making a nest…but we feel it will be empty without you!
