Issaquah Robotics Log
2006 FIRST Competition

Build Period: Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6
Competition Period: Pacific Northwest Regional - Fix-it Window - Davis/Sacramento Regional

When the team showed up at 1:00, there was a big crowd of people gathered outside of the gym. But, there was no alarm going off, so we headed inside. We ran into a custodian who informed us that the fire alarm had gone off and we had to leave. During the 45 minute wait outside, we got to see firemen lifted onto the gym roof and wander around before they let us back in. The mechanism design was completed and fully sketched, after which a shopping list was created and CAD was started. Other members worked on assembly for the practice bot that the software team will use later.

There wasn't a meeting since (hopefully) everyone was at home beginning to study for finals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

There was a full team meeting directly after school in which students wrote out a list of everything that they have accomplished so far. The software team then got last year's code ported to this year's project and linking. The spirit team worked on t-shirts and award applications. They created an online poll for the whole team to take to determine who would like short-sleeved t-shirts (purple), long sleeved t-shirts (purple), pullover, hooded sweatshirts (purple) and/or black tote bags.

Finals seem closer than ever as the first two begin Wednesday. The Fabrication team met and worked on brackets for the drive train, which involved marking, drilling and cutting away excess metal. The mechanism team worked on CAD and tested the ball trough plan.

After surviving the first day of finals, few people were able to come to the meeting. While many people sat at home surrounded by books studying for the next day, the software team was able to work on the sensor code.

With the shorted days due to finals, the fabrication and drive train teams met from 11:30 until 3, but mechanism remained at their 5-8 time. Chris Winters and a photographer, Patrick Hagerty, showed up to observe and document our progress. The fabrication team split up and Erik and Elyssa finished drilling holes for the drive train brackets, while Kayla and Adrien weighed various parts, discovered we need more nuts and bolts for the brackets and managed to assemble the center wheels after many failed attempts. Some of the wheels were mounted to the frame with the nuts and bolts we did have.

Kayla and Adrien working on assembling a center wheel

Erik drilling holes in a bracket

Later, the mechanism team brainstormed a strategy for mounting the shooter and Cathy was there to help integrate the electronics board into the design.

Finals are over!! We had another half day, so electronics and software met from 11:30 to 3. Cathy made an early morning trip to Tacoma Screw to pick up the missing nuts and bolts for the drive train as well as some wire and nylon washers for the electronics team. The software team hooked up the camera and got it tracking using a sample code. They then started to work on integrating that into our code.

software team working on the camera

The electronics team laid out holes on the electronics board, drilled those holes, cut out a section for the battery, screwed all the components onto it and started wiring.

Elyssa cutting the electronics board

The electronics board!!!

Build Period: Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6
Competition Period: Pacific Northwest Regional - Fix-it Window - Davis/Sacramento Regional