Blog
Gearing Up - 10/5
What's up guys, it's Josie here.
We discussed plans for our team this season. We finally finished our interview process to expand our team. Our Arizona addiction is coming back in full force with robotics season in full swing. Arya and David lectured us about team expectations, rules, and contracts, which was fun. We finalized our roster, so all the new members got to decide their preferred focuses within the branches of the team. I, for one, am really excited for new members and new ideas, but I suppose we'll see how that goes.
Arizona Count - 8
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Hopeful
PDR, Or Not... - 10/13
Hola, it's Arya again,
Today was originally supposed to be our Preliminary Design Review (PDR), but if you know GigaBite, you know that, of course, did not happen. While I'm slightly frustrated we aren't super prepared, we have time, and I'm willing to postpone the PDR if necessary. Instead, we decided what grippers to prototype using a design matrix. Learning about the design matrix was probably the most valuable takeaway from today's meeting since it is something we can use frequently in the future.
Arizona Count - 5
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Slightly Frustrated
We Need to Pick it Up - 10/27
Bonjour, it's Arya,
I figured a better way to get more things done would be to delegate certain tasks to people, so I went through and came up with objectives, mine, of course, simply being organization. For others, it was things like making the gripper, airplane launcher, and reaching out to sponsors. I'm hoping that this increases efficiency so that we're ready by competition time, since we definitely aren't ready for the scrimmage in a couple days. But of course, it's GigaBite, so I guess we'll see.
Arizona Count - 3
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Hesitantly Hopeful
Motors, Mounts, and Messes - 11/1
Shocker, it's Arya again,
We didn't make it to the scrimmage, so we mostly focused on building the chassis today, but... Connor ordered the wrong motor mounts so that didn't exactly last long. We also realized that we needed to be more organized in a literal sense, our stuff has been all over the STEM room and that doesn't exactly bode well for all of the little kids that are constantly coming in and out all day long. Josie did some researching and was able to find some tool carts and rolling workbenches for us to keep in the STEM room instead. After ordering those, we spent some time organizing the entire room and consolidating all our stuff. The STEM room reset was definitely needed.
Arizona Count - 4
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Motivated
Lots and Lots of Cleaning - 11/8
Guess what...it's Arya!
We made some progress today on the new arm, and it's finally coming together! For the team members that weren't working on the arm, it was a lot more organization and putting things where they should've been in the first place. Today was pretty short so not a lot was done, but I'm hoping that all this organization will end up paying off.
Arizona Count - 4
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Tired
Progress! - 11/13
Ciao, it's Arya,
Much of today's meeting was spent figuring out code. For those of us that weren't doing that, we had linear actuators to assemble and get working, driver hubs to update, and information to add to the website. It was the first meeting in a bit where we were all quite busy and completing various tasks. It was nice to see everyone working on projects they cared about and were passionately completing. I'm feeling a little better about going into this season. Hopefully we keep this energy!
Arizona Count - 6
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Optimistic
PDR...Finally! - 12/1
Hey, Arya again,
We FINALLY had our Preliminary Design Review, over a month and a half late. There were four pitches for different concepts and ideas. Logan pitched the ramp intake, Bodie talked about the arm design, Xai did the hanging mechanism, and Meara presented the paper airplane launcher. I think it was really helpful for all of us to see each other's ideas and get to critique while also asking questions. We also have a sponsorship presentation with Lumos coming up, and I'm very excited for that. Having a PDR was a great idea, and I think it'll be really valuable for us for the rest of this season, and also for future seasons!
Arizona Count - 5
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Excited
Pull it Together Please! - 12/9
It's Arya, I'm back!
After the PDR, we made a final decision on using the linear actuators as the hanging mechanisms. Logan worked on the CAD for the intake while Jay and Jude worked on locking in the speed controls for the driving. Our first league meets are creeping up on us in a month, most of which is Christmas break, so I'm a little worried that we aren't in a great spot for being this far into the season. I'm also hoping to get some more sponsorship presentations soon after seeing how well the one with Lumos went. Hopefully we pull it all together like we always do.
Arizona Count - 3
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Frustrated
A Finally (Kinda) Functioning Intake - 12/14
Once again, it's Arya,
We got the intake working! It took some wheel switching but it's finally sucking up pixels! We need to start finalizing the arm, meaning we need to design and print longer arm pieces and code it. The only issue with the intake at the moment is that it's not completely flush to the ground, so it sometimes struggles to scoop up pixels from underneath. In other news, we got a thousand dollars from Untethered as a returning sponsor, which I personally (and I hope everyone else) am incredibly excited for! I'm happy about the progress we made today with the intake, and I'm hoping that we continue this streak!
Arizona Count - 4
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Hopeful
Meeting - 1/7
Namaste, it's Arya,
It's post Christmas break and the holiday high has finally worn off. We had just a couple meetings over break, but nothing significant changed. Now that we're all back at school and back in the STEM room, our meetings are back in full swing.
Arizona Count - 4
Arya's Mood of the Meeting - Hopeful