Final build post 3

Day 5-  Well really all we did today was wiring and programming. The robots have already been built and we are working on our computer programming and getting all the variables done. 

Day 6- so. Today we got the programming done with and have started doing a few test runs. They didn't really turn out so well. So we added the protection wrapping on the two robots and hopefully it would work better. I think it helped. Not much but still. Anyways our robot seems to be having some major problems which could greatly affect our competition tomorrow. Hopefully it will be fixed and ours can at least put up a fight against others but I honestly don't know and won't know until Monday since I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled. 

Final build post 2

Day 4- well today we fixed the arms gearing and put the other arm on the second robot. We may again have to re gear it but that's not really a major problem. Anyways Dillon and Shoe were working on the programming and apparently it's not hard just annoying. So it looks like we can program the robots and controllers to do specific things with certain buttons. This is a major asset for us and I would say an advantage against other groups. 

Last build post 1.

Well on the first day we got the first base done and got half of the gearing on. We also finished the arm and it's base but at the time it wasn't attached. 

Day-2:  I was absent on this day due to a dentist appointment, but it appears that the first robot was finished. The arm doesn't really seem to work right and if it does, it is impossible to control right. And it seems that my group or at least two of themstarted the second robot. Well I had thought we were only doing one and after the first one worked perfectly and even then only maybe would we start the second robot. Looks like the time I was gone they jumped at the chance to completely screw with what I thought we agreed with but I wasn't here so I don't really get a say in things. Whatever. Our robot will not be able to get the 10 point bonus while Josh and Dillon seem ever so optimistic it may be able to. Well guess we need to make sure that we can actually pick up balls and put the over the wall and score the mini soccer balls in the top goal or something. Guess the best we can do now depends on how hard we work to improve and make better this robot. 

Day 3: Well today we got a bit done I guess. The two robots well I'm still kind of against it but it is what it is. We accomplished a bit today I guess. We got farther on the second robot and apparently they are going to be the same exact thing as each other. So while Josh was working on the second one. Dillon and I were working on getting the first ones arm to work and we define tilt ran into problems. It seems that the motor isn't strong enough. We had it geared and are switching it tomorrow. We may have to go direct or gear it better but what happens happens.  Anyways besides the problems with the arm we have found problems in the wiring. The wiring does change from regular since we have jumpers in and are using two robots. There is definitely problems with getting one to work how we want it to while working on the boundaries set by the cortex. So in the end we are going to try and manually program it from the computer as long as shoe can find the software. We will be the first of our class to actually manually program. Hell we will be the first of the school to do so. This could either be very beneficial or a complete waste of time. Guess we will find out Monday. 

Build Reflection

Well our robot has a rather distinctive feature to it which is that it is two robots.  We have a cord and by using a jumper chip and two controllers plus a cable connecting the controllers, we can have practically two robots on the field.  We have two separate drivers with the robots doing different things giving us an advantage in the playing field.  Another feature of our robots is that they are geared.  At the start we had one with large gears for power and the other regular but that didn't work so well so we got some more regular gears and they are both moderately fast and powerful.  They have all the speed and power we need for them so it works out fine.  Two things I would've done differently would be to get more cord for the robot, but we couldn't really do that since the protection we used on it well there wasn't anymore of it so we couldn't really do that anyways.  Another thing I would've done differently would have been to start with the regular gears instead of trying the big gears since it wasn't worth it and in the end we only wasted time.  To be honest for the competition I thought we would do okay.  I could guarantee that we weren't going to finish first while others in my group were rather.. optimistic.. about that.  In the end it looks like we did pretty good.  I wasn't there for a day and apparently the group really screwed up on one of the matches, but it seems like we will at least finish in the top three from what I know has taken place.  Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure we will.

Free Build #2

Well for this build our robot is doing rather well. Our group has finished building and everything looks like it will do good in the competition. Since our group finished second in the relay build, we were given a jumper another controler and a cord to connect our controllers together. So since we had this we decided to take advantage of that and build two robots. Our budget is perfectly fine. We have plenty of money left and haven't really had too buy that much. Well there was really only one major problem and that was working on the gearig for the second robot. After messing around with it, we got it so we didn't have to buy more wheels and didn't have to buy more gears. 

Our group is working together great I guess. In the group Dillon and I are the main builders while Josh and Lance help with smaller things. Over all everything has turned out fine. Our robot has been built and things are looking good. 

Relay Build

Well I found out that I and my group work decently under pressure. We never really had to rethink about how our group works because we already divided the work and worked like that. The only difference was we had to copy what was already made and we didn't have instructions nor could we go on our own.  When looking at problems like this it is important to stay calm and work together. Even if only one person could work on the robot at a time, you still have to stay as a group and work together on what is needed to succeed. I think my group did fine and I wouldn't do anything differently than we already did. 

 On the second day we got to work with   partners and it made things easier faster and more efficient. More people could be working at the same time even if they were working on different things or we're working on the same things. I still prefer working with partners since it was better and made things much more efficient. 

Free. Build

For the free build, our group used the 5 wheel omni drive. Advantages to this was that it was faster and could move well and if you could control it well, it was very  controlled and easy to keep in a straight line. Disadvantages this were that it was harder to learn how to control and was harder to build. If we had the chance to start over, we wouldn't really change anything and I wouldn't copy any other group.