Archives for February 2009

Vex + Exothermics Meeting

Thanks to everyone who attended the Exothermic meeting today! I hope it was a rewarding experience – I definitely learned a lot. I’d like to give a thanks to Exothermic Robotics for inspiring and helping us greatly today. We recieved two giant boxes of parts thanks to the help of Rick and John. Thanks to Preetum for giving us a great overview of 575′s awesome bot and its programming.

Anyways, lets discuss plans again. Tomorrow, I’m not exactly sure how much we will be able to accomplish. But we will meet during tutorial.

Sunday, we will be building a design inspired by Team 525′s bot. Meet at Dennis’s house from 8-5.

After the sunday meeting, we’ll plan how we want to do weekday meetings. Exothermic Robotics has mentioned that we could do build at their place from 4-7 on Tuesday/Thursdays – which could be great because we can get their expertise and practice in their field. If everyone’s interested, we could do that + Wednesday meetings.

Homework: Finish reading the Vex Inventor’s guide by Sunday. Chapter 1 Introduction – Chapter 2 Structure – Chapter 3 Motion – Chapter 4 Power – Chapter 5 Sensors – Chapter 6 Control – Chapter 7 Logic

Vex Meeting and Updates

Thanks to everyone who showed up for the Vex meeting today! If you missed it due to the AMC, read up – we have some important things coming up.

We will be travelling to the LexisNexis Bellevue office tomorrow for a field trip to visit Redmond High’s “Exothermic” Robotics.  This will occur from 4-7PM – you can leave from LexisNexis early if you wish. The address is 2445 140th Ave NE, Suite B200, Bellevue, WA 98005. They’ll have snacks & refreshments so you won’t be hungry. At LexisNexis, we’ll be talking to Exothermic Robotics about our robot design, strategies, and parts. We’ll meet in the commons at 4PM at Interlake High. This is pretty important, so make your best effort to show up. Please leave a comment to let me know of your status, so I can plan for transportation.

We’ll also be meeting at Dennis’s house over the weekends. We’ll have a weekend meeting from 8-5 on Sunday.

Homework: As part of the Vex team, you’ll need to read some materials. I’ll be assigning less than 15 minutes of reading daily, so it should not be hard to keep up. Before tomorrow’s meeting with Exothermic, I would like everyone to read chapters 1 and 2 of the Vex Inventor’s guide. Eric, our rules expert, should read through the rules manuals by Sunday. Dennis, our logistics expert, should familiarize himself with different Vex parts (wait until after the meeting tomorrow – you’ll see a lot of parts tomorrow). If you haven’t already, watch the Vex video.

Links:

Vex Inventor’s Guide – Chapter 1 Introduction – Chapter 2 Structure – Chapter 3 Motion – Chapter 4 Power – Chapter 5 Sensors – Chapter 6 Control – Chapter 7 Logic

Vex Competition Information (videos, rules, specifications)

Vex Competition Parts

Competition Journalism

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The FIRST Robotics Competition

Going into the competition we will have designated photographers, cameramen, livebloggers, and writers. We would like volunteers but we will draft people if we fall short. If you are given a job, you will be expected to produce pictures, videos, notes etc. that give insight into the competition experience. These will be posted on the website and used again next year, so do quality work.

To volunteer, leave a comment on this post saying what you think you can do. Be realistic and only sign up if you plan to follow through.

Banner Design

Hey everyone!
So Hugo has asked me to design a banner and since a lot of you have been dissapointed by the fact that our robot doesn’t have fire anymore, I put that into our banner instead.
The banner is seperate from the flag which is in the process of being ordered (yay Olivier! =D)
The ratio of width to height is currently 4:13

If you have any comments or suggestions about the design, dimensions, etc. feel free to post here and I’ll edit it.
Thanks pplz =3

Banner Design--Final

Meeting on Monday

Hey everybody!

On Monday, there will be a meeting and everybody is welcome to attend. Topic to be discussed are: Hotels, Vex, fundraisers to cover for vex, stuff to bring to the competition and a possible parent meeting that will be happening. Bring ALL your ideas!

Quick Updates

Due to the unanimous decision today, we will purchase and register one kit of VEX parts. The whole thing, including the kit, registration, and extra materials, should average about 700$. Please note however, that this is being done under the condition that the team shall participate in sufficient fundraisers to makeup for the kits. There are numerous ways in which that can be done, and there will be plenty of time to worry about that.

The task list that we must complete before the competition is:

  1. Build all the spare/replacement parts (Build, headed by Kevin)
  2. Finish all the flag/banner/button stuff (Graphics, headed by Angela)
  3. Present a Parent Meeting (PR, headed by Olivier)
  4. Buy spirit Gear (Joint PR-Graphics effort)
  5. make a sign (probably made of cloth) that says “Saints Robotics since we’re required to have our team name on our robot (Graphics, headed by Angela)
  6. gather/prepare extra spray paint, paint, cloth, etc. to bring to
    the competition (Graphics, headed by Angela)

If I missed anything, email me so I can add it into the list.

Pin/Button Designs

Hey everyone, I designed some buttons that we can wear/hand out for the competition.
I’m hoping that each member of Saints Robotics can recieve a pin showing which division (graphics, web design, build, program, or public relations) they are in.

There are two designs that have a black background and fire; these are to hand out to other teams.
On one design, the font is curved. On the other, the font is straight.
Please choose which one you like so I’ll be able to print them.

I also recieved the suggestion of making a pin with our SR symbol.
I will also be adding that to the gallery once I resize it and find a background color.

I posted the designs in the graphics media gallery so it wouldn’t take up so much space on this page.
Please take a look at them and comment here.
Keep in mind that these pins are 2.25″ in diameter (which is actually pretty small).

Also, although I finished designing them, I’ll need help making them.
I’ll be showing people how to make the actual pins tomorrow during tutorial and during the next Wednesday meeting, please come and help out, we need to make A LOT of them.
Thanks everyone! =D

~Angela L.

Looking Towards the FRC Competition

Thanks for all who showed up to today’s meeting to help clean up! As we get closer to the FRC competition on March 26-28, there are a few things we need to start thinking about:

Hotels

The FRC competition is in Seattle. However, as it is over several days, many of us will be staying in a hotel. You should start thinking about if you will be staying at a hotel or staying at home.

Spirit Gear

We should start thinking about buying things to show our school spirit at the competitions. Start thinking about them and start sharing ideas soon.

Vex Robotics

There seems to be some interest for Vex Robotics. At today’s meeting, both Angelas, Larry, Darian, Dominic, and Eric expressed interest. I believe that Kevin, Vivek, Dennis, Teresa, and a few others showed interest during the monday meeting. If we do Vex, we need to decide whether or not we will participate in the upcoming competition at Redmond High. The competition is on March 14th, so we will have an effective build season of around three weeks. However, the robot will be much smaller and thus easier to build. If you are willing to show the dedication and put in the time needed to build the robot, it should work out just fine.

Wednesday Meeting Update

Sorry for the late notice, but Mr. Eden has stepped up to the occasion and will be our mentor for the meeting. As such, the meeting on Wednesday the 18th will be in session. Hugo is out sick, so Kevin Kimura will be running the meeting.

Tasks for Wednesday:

  • Finish the list of spare parts
  • Inventory of tools for competition