Team 1596 Mission
Team Motto
_____________________________________________________
4-19-10
We're back from Atlanta! Our robot did very well, and even though we didn't win, we had a good experience and that's all that really matters! Unfortunately, the Dome didn't have any internet access points, so we could not update the website while we were down there, but trust us when we say, our robot was awesome! We fixed the kicker so we could score more balls, and we got the most points out of our scoring points in every game! Yesterday, Sunday, we drove all the way back up to the Sault so we are all tired, but we're pumped and ready for our final event: the banquet! After this we will have elections for a new President; Vice President; Secretary; Tresurer; ect. and the new robot season will begin. Be ready for lots of events this summer because we hope to be involved in the community even more than we were this last season!
4-12-10
Everyone is preparing for the long trip down to Atlanta, Georgia, and excitement is traveling throughout everyone's veins. We have also heard that some of the teams we've made friends with are going to be there too, such as NC Gears and Team Spork. We shipped the robot last Friday, and now just have to wait until tomorrow, or Wednesday to leave. We hope to see you there!
4-8-10
We had a board meeting today, and we are about $4,000 short of what we need for travel/food/board down in Atlanta. We are looking for as many donations as possible, even just twenty dollars! If you are able to donate, please click here: How to Donate. We really do need as much money as can be donated! Thank you in advance, and have a wonderful week.
4-7-10
Here we go, another update. We apologize for the later-than-monday update, but our team has just gotten some fantastic news! For all of you not familiar with FIRST rules, every three years your team is eligable to go to nationals, even if you don't make it to States, and if you choose to you can put your team number into the roster to be chosen. This year, we put in our name and: Guess What!! Team 1596, the Instigators is going to the 2010 National Competition (or I guess Worlds) in Atlanta, Georgia!!! We have been planning, and drawing up numbers, and everyone is super excited to be going. We will update next monday, and then probably durring the competition as well.
Follow us on Twitter for updates:
Click Here
and Facebook:
Click Here
We hope to see as many teams and people there!
3-22-10
We've been taking this week as a recuperating week, and have a board meeting this thursday to discuss our recruiting tactics, fundraising, and plans for classes this summer. Next week is Spring Break for all of us, so there won't be an update, but we'll be back in two weeks! :)
3-15-10
We have come back from our Ann Arbor Regional, where we did exceptionally well compared to Traverse City! Our robot was impressive at defense, and we were chosen for the top fifth seeded aliance team. We, unfortunately did not make it to States because we didn't get many scoring points, but we are still keeping the robot bagged just in case! Now we are working towards recruiting, and fundraising for next year! Thanks for all the love and support from this season, and we hope to have your support for the 2011 season.
3-8-10
We're back from Traverse City, our first district event, and unfortunately we didn't work as well as we hoped. We have found out that our kicker is dreadfully slow, and the drive system is not good. What we are working on right now is fixing our drive system, and thinking of more ideas for a new kicker. At the district event we saw a, team 1918 NC Gears, use a shovel type kicker and they were excellent, going on to win. So we are trying to figure out how to do something like that. We are also thinking of how to work with Labview coding and apparently our gyroscope is not working. We are confident that our robot will be spectacular for Ann Arbor and will be successful. :) We'll see you all in Ann Arbor!
2-24-10
WOO HOO! Our robot is finally bagged and tagged! With the finishing touches to complete, we are ready for our first district competition in Traverse City. Now we just have to work out the fine details of travel arrangements and have a preparation meeting.
2-15-10
It's now week five and we're a little bit behind schedule. But we have all of the parts drawn up on the computer in Pro-E, a chassis welded up, and the fine-tuning of the programming has begun. The kicker assembly is also in the final stages of assembly. Our electronics board is being designed to custom fit the chassis of the robot this year. With our final day to work on the robot only a week away, we're going to be putting in long hours this week.
2-8-10
Most of the parts have been drawn up in Pro-E. The weekend came around and we started welding together a frame. We now have a frame welded together with wheels. Another group of students have begun assembling the kicker along with its pull back mechanism. Our electronics team has started work on designing the electronics board. Overall, everything is looking good and decently on track. We should be done and ready to go by bag day.
2-1-10
We have built most of the frame and now we are working on where we're going to put everything inside it. We are beginning to Pro-E some more things, and we're starting to feel the pressure! Hopefully we can get a lot done this week, and start building a lot more next week.
1-25-10
This week we have been working even more on prototyping, we've been trying to work the camera so that we can use it while driving, and we've been figuring out where to place everything on the robot. We also have been working on the kicker somemmore, and we have the foot done, and we're just trying to work out the details on where it will be positioned. Our electronics team has been working on new ways to put the electronics board in the robot, so that we will have more space for everything else, and its going pretty well!
1-18-10
We have been working very hard this build season, and even off build season, to educate our students, and prepare for Breakaway. We've developed a prototype for the drive system and the kicker. We tested the mechanium wheels over our carpeted bump and we succeeded in passing over it in most situations. Since they worked so well we decided we would use mechanium wheels instead of tank treads since they are much easier for movement. The mechanism we created for the kicker is similar to some kind of cross bow, and we tested it Sunday, 1/17/10, and proved we could kick, from the other side of the field, and score. We are excited for what we will come up with soon, we're in the middle of working on the hanging mechanism for the final stage.
1-11-10
For the past few days we really have only been reading the rules for Breakway, but we do have some prototyping started. Since our incident in 2008 we have been intent on learning all of the rules for the games, so that our robots are within requirements, and so we're ready to compete! We are almost done going through the rules, and afterwards we will focus more on prototyping the robot.