Team 5056 MegaHurtz Blog - Buchanan High School Tech Club

MegaHurtz 5056 at the Memorial Day parade

5/27/2014

9:30 AM Monday May 26
That what time we had to be in the line-up for this year's Memorial Day parade. Near the front and right behind the Miss Buchanan float, Buchanan High School Robotics Team MegaHurtz 5056 definitely turned some heads. Our robot was positioned on top of the Ranger and banners flanked the sides and rear bed thanking our sponsors and promoting us as the 2014 "Rookie Inspiration Award Winners." In the rear bed where two 12" loudspeakers and an 18" sub woofer blasting out a beat our walking team members could move to. Each team member that was on foot also passed out team buttons and candy to the little ones as we passed.

Season Wrap-up

5/23/2014

Our Rookie season has now officially ended. We've had our post-season parent meeting and just recently formed an Advisory Board of mentors, parents and volunteers to help guide the team moving forward. As we conclude one year and look forward to the next, here are a few things our team members have learned.

Sometimes the immediate feedback we get when we tell people the length of the build season is, "Wow! Six weeks? That's a lot of time!" It's really not, and in order to create a fully functional robot with correct coding and testing, you must balance the time given and be as efficient as possible. Make sure you've got your priorities straight from day one. It's hard on the team if you're away for sports or not keeping up with your grades and can't help out when needed. Get involved in what's happening. If you want to be a programmer, but seem lost, this is the perfect opportunity to learn. At competition, always remember to be respectful to all teams at all times. Like you, they've worked long hours and poured a lot of effort into their robot. You'll find that teams are looking out for you, even if you're going against them at some point! Sportsmanship is put above rivalry. If you need help or have a question, all you have to do is ask.
~ Alexis M. (Student)

During the robotics season I learned a few things. I learned that I didn't have to know anything about robotics to be able to help out. That it isn't as easy as it looks, build a robot and compete, that's kind of the the whole thing. Well that's not true, there's so much more to it. Friendship...that was a major props besides building an amazing robot. A few words to other rookie teams for next year, if you work hard then you should look forward to doing great and having fun. Competitions are CRAZY FUN, definitely doing this for the rest of high school!
~ Autumne P. (Student)

1) time management is important
2) you don't have to limit yourself
3) a team can do anything
4) everyone has something they're good at
5) there's a whole other community of kids just like me (geeks)
6) robots aren't just science fiction
~ Sydney H. (Student)

"It is extremely difficult to describe FIRST and what it's like to be apart of this culture. The only way is go and feel it for yourself."
~ Wayne W. (Mentor)

"We learned time and effort with lots of teamwork means we can accomplish anything."
~ Cody M. (Student)

Lansing District Robotics Competition Day 1

4/4/2014

Yesterday was interesting. Lansing is about 2.5 hours from Buchanan when the weather is nice. Unfortunately yesterday, the weather was not nice. It wasn't snowing. That we can be grateful for, but it was pouring down rain the entire ride up. There was not a single moment the entire drive where it was not coming down in buckets. This obviously created some issue with visibility and driving in general. About 20 minutes outside of Lansing and a break at the hotel, a piece of plywood blew up from the road and smacked into one of our vans. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the van didn't fair as well. The front grill on the lower section was complete busted and it was necessary to break off a large dangling piece so that we could safety continue to drive. I'm sure the school will not be happy with us, but it was not anyone's fault and everything is OK.

Mason High School in Mason Michigan hosted our competition. It is a rather large school in what seems to be the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately our pit area was much smaller than the 10x10 we should have and there were no dividers between pits. This made for a very cramped work space with us and our neighbors constantly encouching on each others area.

Today we started off and spent quite a while in the number 1 spot of the rankings. That, unfortunately, did not last all day. We hit a streak of bad luck that caused a spiral drop in our rankings and really hurt team moral. As soon as we got up yesterday, we swapped out the motor used to lift the arm assembly. This new motor would raise and lower several times faster than the van door motor we had been using. That meant valuable seconds saved moving the ball down the field. On our third match the screws holding the motor in place broke. We were able to repair it for the next match but that is when things got really ugly. Not only did our repair not hold up, but we took a direct hit to our open arms that busted two teeth off the left side worm gear. We had to remove the new motor entirely and completely dissasemble the open/close assembly to replace the damaged gear. It took us over 30 minutes to complete the repairs and we were not able to play in one of our scheduled matches because of it.

The good news is that we are currently ranked 18 out of 40 and our robot is holding up well with the repairs. Tomorrow is a new day with at least three matches to go before the alliance selection. We are all hopeful and ready to show everyone what we can do.

- Phillip

St. Joe District FIRST - Day 2

3/29/2014

An amazing day, but also disappointing.

Coming out of the last qualification rounds Team 5056 was ranked 17 out 40 teams. We were certain we would be selected to be one of the 24 teams that would move on to the final competition. Unfortunately, several of the alliance captains chose teams that were ranked below us for reason we do not and will not ever know. There are many factors that go into selecting alliance members. Whatever their reason, we have to believe that they chose based on what they felt was their best option or filled a specific need.

With that in mind, we are still the highest ranked team not in an alliance which places us as the #1 alternate team. There are four teams that stay for alternates in the event that a competing team has a major failure or is disqualified in some way. We are all hopeful we may still yet make it into the competition.

Regardless of where we are or where we're going today, I am extremely proud of these students. We have learned so much these last two days and we have all grown as a team.

St. Joe District FIRST - Day 1

3/28/2014

Below is the view from our driver's station. You can see our bot directly in the middle with the arms pointing up. This photo was taken minutes before starting the most amazing round we've seen yet. Our alliance scored 211 points! Every shot our alliance took had full assist points. That makes a single ball worth 40 points. All because of we all worked together.

Before each match you are given about 10 minutes to work out a strategy with your alliance members. Our job was to get the ball from the human player and pass it to the scoring robot. It worked perfectly! It was exactly what our bot was designed to do. I cannot wait to get the videos uploaded so everyone can see just how amazing this experience really is.

- Phillip

Chili Walk

3/28/2014

The Buchanan Area Chamber of Commerce holds a chili walk annually to help benefit area charities and organizations. This year our Robotics Team was chosen. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to get noticed by our community and raise awareness of all that we're doing here. We also cannot express enough thanks to the Chamber for their help and support.

Competition starts tomorrow!

3/27/2014

So many things have been happening the last few weeks, frankly I'm disappointed we don't have more posted! Tomorrow is our very first competition so today has been spent coordinating everything and making sure we're ready.

Unfortunately, last night we had a major setback. The motor shaft on the arm assembly sheared off and it was a scramble to find a replacement. Fortunately we've secured one and and extra one so we can do the repair in the pits tonight. I plan to update more with photos and video while we're there.

- Phillip

What is up with this weather?!

1/27/2014

Bordering on ridiculous, Mother Nature has had it in for us this year. Today is our fourth snow day and another crucial point in our build season. So far we have been plagued with equipment failures, programming glitches and purchasing problems, but the biggest issues have all revolved around supply. If there is one thing I would recommend to all first year teams, it is "have a wonderful relationship with your school's business manager or purchasing department." It is difficult to explain to accountants why you need something yesterday. It is even more important when your build schedule is constantly interrupted by school cancellations, dangerous road conditions and wind-chills that will literally freeze your face off.

Fortunately, I have the privilege to be working with a dedicated group of students and we are making serious headway. We will, I'm afraid, have to start coming in on weekends as we are getting close to the deadline and still have a long way to go. In the coming two days, however, we should have a bot that we can control wirelessly. We intend on taking it around the school once all the bugs are worked out.

- Phillip
- Tech Club Robotics Coach

Rough Starts and Sleepy Students

1/13/2014

Day 4
One of the great things about living in Michigan, as anyone here would sarcastically say, is the weather. Now normally a snow day, after a two-week break especially, would be amazing. When you're planning your first official robotics team meeting, however, it can be a little off putting. Our first snow day was Monday and as the roads had not all been plowed yet, we postponed the meeting and decided that this would be a good opportunity for a little homework.

Tuesday- Another Snow Day

    Seeing as the first snow day had cost us our first meeting, the days off had started a love-hate relationship. This day hadn't cost us much, however, because we had decided that if we could get there, we would have a meeting- regardless of whether or not school was in session. Unfortunately not all of team could make it, due to (of course) the roads, but we made the most of who we had.
    We all met around 1:00, some of us earlier, to start what would be a very eventful day. We decided that since the deadline for missing parts reports was approaching, we should look at everything we have and make sure nothing is missing. We had about two or three people to each kit, which proved to be fairly efficient. In the end, we were only missing one part, which we sent a report for that day.
    Next we wanted to make sure that parts were working the way they should. We started up the laptop that was provided in the rookie kit and it proved functional. Next we got out the battery and charged it, which also went well.
    Along with everything else we did that day, we also reorganized our workspace. After laying down a pile of papers we brainstormed about the goals of our robot, and how we might get it to work. It was not surprising that we ran into some complications with the rules of the game, but hey that's why we brainstorm!
    As a final check off of our to do list, we made lists of materials that we wanted and/or needed that different team members could take home as reference.

Wednesday's Plans

To really seal the deal of the meeting that Tuesday, we came up with a list of goals for the next meeting. Some of them were just things we couldn't get to today, while others were new goals that should get kicked out of the way sooner rather than later.
Our first goal would be to lay out the electronics and control systems and make sure they work well. We also need to stage the computer and make sure everything is in order. We also wanted to look into the different software available and try to figure out all that we wanted to use.

Summary

As our first official meeting, we got a lot done! In our robotics team, we think that it's important to prepare yourself so that you can handle whatever curve balls come at you, so that's just what we're doing! We've been finding out more and more each day that working hard on preparing, while throwing in brainstorm sessions and time with the mentors, is going to be a great plan for our rookie year!

- Sydney

Kick off!

1/10/2014

Day 1

On the day of kick off team 5056Megahurts, like all other rookie teams, could not really understand what we were getting ourselves into. If you would have asked us what would happen that day we could have given you a rough estimate: meet up at this time, watch a video at that time, but capturing the intensity of seeing all the teams in the region, our competitors and possibly even our allies, was something we could only describe after it was over.

Our Experience

Getting things Done

I think that it's important to acknowledge any and all accomplishments you make in a day, and the team does too! Although we hadn't gotten much done as the other teams, the day of kick off was filled with many small victories. One of the most important things we got done was seeing what our robot had to inevitably do. A few of the teammates even started sketching out the field and ideas on some scrap paper. We also successfully collected both our rookie kit, drive kit, and standard kit. We looked at some different robots that were out already and even got some advice from other teams about programming software.

Goals for the Near Future

As important as listing our strengths in a day is, we also made a list of things we needed to do. That day, after the first rookie workshop was finished, we packed up and went back to our workshop at the school. After assigning different jobs to different team members, we made a schedule and outlined what had to get done.

Take inventory of kits and report any missing parts
Make lists of things we need
Establish what our robots main goals will be
Make detailed poster of the field

Looking back at our list days later, we could feel satisfied knowing that we could scratch off almost all of those items.

In Conclusion
Now as far as our own personal experience, there's no way to really tell if all that we had gotten done was as great of a start as could be. But we're a rookie team. This is a new experience for us, and all in all it was a great day. Speaking as a student- I can't wait to progress further into the whole thing. It's a great opportunity and even if we make lots of mistakes, they're mistakes that will guide us next year.

- Sydney