Reflexions: Total Recall - Day 27 and Visitors from Superintendent's Consortium

Today was a very good day in the shop.

It started out with a group of visiting Superintendents from a Consortium of Successful school which Dr. Wellman participates in. I had a chance to visit with them for a few minutes about our program and the importance/impact of robotics in the school. They each received a a FIRST robotics pamphlet, a Chap Robotics team pamphlet and a document I prepared for them stressing the importance of our program. The document is attached.

The robotics team began during the class day. Second period David worked on the servo mounts. Claude, Grey and Bryce came in during their lunch (which they do nearly every day, by the way) to work on SolidWORKS drawings of various parts and assemblies of the robot. Lauren and I researched videos on the internet about marble tracks and marble contraptions.

During 6th and 7th periods, we worked on a variety of parts of the robot including: new size deck, motor mounts for the small motors, plywood support strap for the inside of the bucket and pieces for the arm. Very few of these projects were completed so they continued after school. Projects that were completed before the night was over were:

Back door will raise and lower - it seems to work very well at this point
Pulley for the door were cut from Lexan and Plywood
Door motor mount was cut, drilled and bent
New bucket was cut to fit on the deck
Support struts were glued into place for the ramp inside the deck
Tinned loop wires for the data port
Springs for data port held in place with tinned wires and wood screws
Data port fingers were cut, filed and sanded
Data port fingers were drilled so that they would fit over the springs and wires
Grey worked with Miguel on SolidWORKS Cosmos stress analysis on the wheel design so we can lighten the wheels
Layout/drawings began on the standoffs for the arm
Arm designs were refined and contemplated
Sheet metal was cut for the front of gadget grabber
One piece of the wooden arm was cut
Jonny worked on reading the data port and was successful in telling what the port was stating

Work continues on the BEST award, display and website. I am concerned about the display. This group seems to be moving slower than I would like. They seem to think that it will get done. Michelle and Grant have some designs for the T-shirt revolving around the Willie Wonka "Nerds" theme.

Before we left the shop for the evening, the team tested the bucket door releasing 80 gadgets into the manual processing center. The results were very exciting. They also tested more gadgets but we had some difficulty with some getting stuck in the corners and getting lodged and not coming out.