Doom Day

The rookie team presented Aragog (in all its slightly incomplete glory) to the varsity team today, was evaluated on knowledege of mechanics, electronics, and other important things... and survived!

Additionally, we've started considering which sub-team each individual rookie will be joining. For some of us, the choice was easy -- Henry's been a programmer through and through for a while now, and several of our members like working with their hands over anything else. For others, anything looked good. As the season goes on, though, they'll find a place. We can be sure of it.

Now the question is: what do we do with the two build sessions we have left until kick-off? The most popular option seems to be completing Aragog as a full team, so I suppose that's what will occupy our time next week. Until then, congrats to all around, and here's looking to a bright and gleaming future for the Robolions!

Here's An Idea...

2012 is still the better part of a month away, but here's a good New Year's Resolution for the Robolions team: Become thoroughly acquainted with the rules of the game BEFORE beginning work on the robot.

That is all.

New Camera!!

We got our new camera today! Here are just a few pictures to update our adoring fans on our progress:

 James and Crystal, working on the Rookie Team's robot

 Daniel, working on the Classmate PC

Henry and Walter working on the computer

We just had to have some fun with the camera. It's pretty nice :)

In other news, tonight was a very successful parent's meeting! I feel like the parents now understand the method behind our madness a little more now. They know why their kids spend hours holed up in a robotics lab in the school basement. They all seemed to be pretty okay with that.

That's all for now!!

Captain Grace

Work Continues

As Doom Day draws ever nearer and Aragog takes shape, it is up to one lone figure to create a script by which our noble team might prove itself worthy to its superiors and thus evade catastrophic destruction. That figure... is me.

Well, in all seriousness, I've started work on the PowerPoint presentation that we rookies will use on "Doom Day" to present Aragog. All of us are required to help present in some way, to show that they actually did something and didn't stand around guzzling our food the whole time. I know none of us have, but we all still have to help present.

The presentation is coming along smoothly, although it's fairly desultory and humorous, in rather the style of my first few sentences. I'm not sure if that'll fly on Doom Day, but it's best to at least get it out of my system before I start writing what we'll seriously use.

Quorra's Camera and Other Progress

We have now mounted a functional camera to Quorra so that we can see what she sees! However, Dan's still working on the programming needed to let us connect with the camera feed without a big ugly wire. More on that when he finishes.

In Rookie news, we mounted the board to the chassis.... but it turned out Marquise wanted a different board cut, and his measurements weren't followed. This, however, is because we experienced a communication error -- this is why we need to consistently leave notes on what we should do at our next build session, and then READ the notes when we come in. But progress is undisturbed; we've successfully mounted Aragog's battery, and we're working on the CRio as I write! So, all's well that ends well.

Captain's Log

Hey guys! This is your Captain speaking. I'll be writing these Captain's Logs posts every so often

to just give you guys a view of what our practices are looking like, what kind of progress we're making, et cetera.

Today we tested out a new schedule! We started the practice off with a meeting stating what we wanted to accomplish today, and wrote it on the board. I also announced the changes in our meeting set up. We now take a set 15-minute snack break, and this has improved our productivity considerably. Instead of having everyone sporadically taking breaks whenever they want, we are able to focus and get the work done, then take a break to refresh our minds.

We also found our old FTC Engineering Notebook from 2009. It was interesting to read through it and see the progress we made, as well as our reflections of frustration and impatience at times. I'm thinking that we're going to keep an engineering notebook this year as well, it will help keep us organized and give us time to really think about what we're doing.

I have to say, I'm especially proud of the Rookies for the work they did today. They set their goal, got to work, and achieved 99% of it today (they still have to finish bolting the board to the chassis, but that won't take long.) It makes me really excited for the rest of the season! I know they are going to do well!

Upcoming Events

Parent Night- December 13th from 7-8. Students, please arrive at 6 so we can get an hour of work done before the parents arrive.

Rookie Team Presentation- December 16th. !!!

KICKOFF- JANUARY 7TH

7 practices until kickoff!!!!

Follow us on Twitter @Robolions3397

"Like" us on Facebook- UCHS Robolions

We'll keep you updated!

Signing out,

Gracie D, Captain

Moving Right Along

We have now invaded, converted, and established our new room. We just need to move a bunch of cardboard, wood, and other materials in, and then we will have completely moved in! :D

As for Aragog, well, we've got the frame done and we're working on his pincers now. So far, we've decided they'll be 15 inches long and 3 inches wide. Why? Don't ask me, I don't think spatially. There's got to be some sort of reason, though. :P