10th Post: 9/26/14

Current Robot (Front View)

End of the Week: Not as we Expected

Blogger Robert Hard at Work

The competition this week didn't go as well as we planned.  We lost our first match by default because we couldn't connect program to move our robot.  Luckily the competition was double elimination and we had a second chance but lost to the next team we faced and were out of the competition.  For the rest of the week the class talked about the competition and different ideas for future competitions so we weren't able to add much to the robot.

9th Post: 9/22/14

Beginning of the Week: The Games Begin!

Today marks the beginning of competition which will probably last throughout the whole week.  We only have two simple goals for the week which are to at least win against some of our opponents and make any necessary modifications or additions to the robot while not in a match.   

Charging Brain Pre-Game

Lining up Robot (We are on left)

8th Post: 9/19/14

End of the Week: Competition Delayed

This week we were definitely able to complete our goals as they were projected to finished in two days before competition.  Wednesday the VEX (type of robot) programming wasn't working which delayed the competition until today (Friday).  Luckily we are using Tetrix (the other type of robot) so we didn't have that problem.  But today Mr.Martin isn't here so we won't be doing the competition until further noticed.  Now all we do is stare at our robot until we find something wrong about it. 

Completed Front View of Robot

We got Bored and Gave the Brain a "Seat-belt"

7th Post: 9/15/14

Martin Approves 

Beginning of the Week: Competition Week

We are in our final week of building, today and tomorrow are the last two days of pure building before competition starts on Wednesday.  All we plan to do this week is secure the brain on the robot so we can get it to finally move by finishing and perfecting the code.  Other than that, we can just hope to do well in the competition against our classmates.

Brain Loosely Placed on Robot

6th Post: 9/12/14

End of the Week: IT'S ALIVE!!!

We finally have our battery!  Martin started writing code and was able to get the robot slightly moving.  After observing one of the motors was a little twitchy and limiting the movement of the robot we replaced it.  While replacing the motor we had to take one of the wheels off so today we are putting it back on and that's as far as we can go because unfortunately Martin isn't here today.  The only other things we will be doing today is perfecting the hardware of the robot. 

Robot Status (Wheel is back on already)

New Motor

Cable System

New Mount for On/Off Switch

5th Post: 9/8/14

Beginning of the Week: Brain Power

Robot Current Status

Here we are in another week, as competition day gets closer and closer. This week we plan to finally get a working battery on our robot so it can finally move and effectively participate in the competition. We don't actually have a battery yet, but have been guaranteed one by the end of this week. So while we are waiting for that we have been rearranging the robot to better fit the brain, battery, and wires while Martin is starting the coding for the robot.

Martin Beginning to Code

4th Post: 9/5/14

End of the Week: Competition Partial Success

This week were completed most of our goals and the competition started yesterday.  We were able to install everything we wanted on the robot except for the brain because we had no working battery for it.  So unfortunately we partially competed in the competition with the robot.  Since it wasn't able to move we had to place it on the mat even though it should be moving onto the mat by it self and also we couldn't move the flag to our side to start the countdown for victory.  Although, the device on the robot that is supposed to prevent it from being moved over to the other side kept the other team from ever pulling our bot anywhere as if it were an immovable object which was a psychological victory for us.  Two Wednesdays from now (9/17) we will compete again and should definitely have a working battery.  So for the time being we are just rebuilding and reorganizing the robot.

Rewiring for Better Organization 

Re-adjusting the Wheels and Chassis