10/20/11

First week of the second term. It's been pretty hectic for me, I've been busy building the Lego fields along with the rest of the Ref's. Also Ledge gave me my first project as video editor. It was simple; all I had to do was to put segments of a movie together. I also installed a new graphics card on Bianca's computer.

Today in the morning, all of the Ref's presented the field and rules to Ledge. The presentation went well. The Ref's are hoping to finish most if not all of the tables by tomorrow. Later today Martin and I will take our applications and money to Gateway Community College for our machine shop classes that start on Saturday!

10-7-11

This week I helped set up the two new computers that were donated to us by Intel. I also installed a new graphics card onto the vault's computer. After I installed some software that Ledge wanted. On Thursday of this past week we to "Bots High" screening at the Madcap theatre. We thought that there would be a panel discussion before the movie;  they couldn't get equipment to set it up so there was no panel discussion. The movie itself was not a very good representation of FIRST robotics teams and especially our team.

9-15-2011

This week has been a busy one. First off, this past weekend a couple of students and I attended the FLL kickoff. After the kickoff we went to a regional directors meeting, which was interesting. On Monday and Tuesday Martin, Kelly, and I worked on different parts of our science fair project. Wednesday the team had a meeting about the Falcon Retreat 2. The meeting went well and the officers were considering some of our ideas. Today Rangel, Dillon, and I went to ASU Prep. Academy. This was my first time mentoring this school. The ASU prep. team started slow because of misplacing of items and certain software not being installed on the computers. After mentoring we went back to school where Martin and Kelly were showing Ledge our newest torpedo. Martin, Kelly, and I also started a new torpedo that we hope to finish by tomorrow.

9-6-11

I helped give the construction workshop along with Dillon and Martin. We had groups I was the drill group. Also I went to tutoring to raise my grade. Martin, Kelly, and myself were also working on our science fair project. We've decided to test different types of metals as well as different types of gases.

8-31-11

Today Martin, Kelly, Ledge, and I were in a conference call with someone at Gateway Community College. The conference call was about taking machining and CADing classes at GCU. We also talked about price and a suitable hour for students to go on a weekday. In the end it came down to six hours a week for four weeks in October. Also we had a Lego ref. meeting, where we decided who would have to buy their own shirts, who were the head ref. for what tables, and how much they needed to buy supplies. Yesterday Kelly, Martin, and I tried to melt a hole into the toypedo. It was going well except the entire toypedo became harder to control and didn't go in as straight as we had hoped. It also produced a lot of smoke therefore we threw that idea out.

Today in the morning I took pictures of all our prototype torpedo's with their measurements . After school we had a conference call with ASU about the science festival sometime in February or March. As the conference call was in session I decided to take a couple of notes.

8-15-11

Today Kelly, Joach, Martin, Alexis, and myself worked on creating prototype torpedo's for the AUV. The first one we made was of a plastic material, it was about half a inch long. We tested in air and it worked awesome, in water not so well. On our second attempt we made a larger torpedo of the same material but double the length. That one also ended up in failure. Our third and final try of the day was made of aluminum. The aluminum torpedo worked okay but was not very hydrodynamic. Our next plan is to add some fins to make it more hydrodynamic. As a result I am reading up on the concept of hydrodynamics.

8-12-11

Today after school Timmy and I went to the library to print out some tax credit brochures and letters. We didn't get to print them today so we have to wait untill Monday morning. Also the team had a movie Friday where we watched "October Sky". Although the movie was playing I went in and out of the room to see how much progress David had made on fixing several small problems on the lathe. Finally we didn't get to start making our prototype projectile for the AUVSI, we'll have to start them Monday morning.

3/30/11

Tuesday I helped Elizabeth make the new pneumatics board. We made it smaller and more compact. Yesterday Eddie, Timmy, Ledge, Rangel, and I worked on replacing the minibot deployment system. After that Martin and I had to tighten the sprockets on the wheels because some where loose.

2/21/2011

Today I went to Southwest Fasteners, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot in search for supplies. Afterwords I rounded some sharp edges, made some gussets for the piston on the alignment device. Second Dillon, Gonzo, and I another alignment device for Dulce. After, I made a mount for a server that releases the alignment device. Finally we cleaned up a little for tomorrow.

2/10/11

Today Hugo, Carlos, Gonzo, and I worked on making the robot cart fully functional and capable of holding the robot with the bumpers. Earlier this week I was looking up a buss fuse for Ledge. On Wednesday Martin and I went to Grainger to purchase the buss fuse.

2/1/11

Today Eddie, Liz, Dillon, Timmy, Carlos, Carols, Joach, Martin, and I worked on getting the new wheels(arrived today) robot ready by putting the tread on, milling them down, and putting sprockets on them. Also we started cutting the chain for Dulce, but could not finish it because of a lack of chain.

Publish Post

1/29/11

Today Eddie, Elizabeth, Martin, and I worked on cutting the chain for the transmissions. Also we mounted the chain. Then we did that we went to our play room to test it out, it turns out that one side was a lot faster than the other so we spent a couple hours trouble shooting. Turns out it was an electrical error. One of the motor speed controllers wasn't working properly, so we had to replace it. After that I helped Bianca with the electrical for Dulce.

1/25/11

Today I've been helping Eddie make components for the arm and clean up the shafts for the transmissions a little. Also I have been helping out a tiny bit with electrical. For electrical, today Isabel and I did some soldering for the battery connectors.

1/13/11

Today a couple of us from the team went to pick up the fiberglass from the maintenance department. After we got all the fiberglass we ordered a few of people from the team started cutting down the 20 foot pieces into 10 foot pieces. As soon as the pieces need for the frame were cut down to size Eddie, Elizabeth, Shamir, Dillon, and I started cutting pieces for the frame. Also Dillon, Jorge(Timmy), and Carlos started working on the gussets for the frame.

1/12/11

Today during luch Martin, Eddie, Ricardo, Elizabeth, and I built a quick prototype arm. After school we tested the arm to see how well it could pick up the tubes without having to stop. We saw that it was not only good but fast at picking up the tubes without stopping.