We're back at it again

First of all if this is your first time visiting our blog/website welcome! We are The PhyXTGears FRC (FIRST Robotics Challenge) Team #1720. We are the only team in the Muncie/Delaware County area, and we have high school students from all over Delaware and surrounding counties. If you are interested in getting more information about FIRST or our robotics program, feel free to e-mail us at phyxtgears@gmail.com. Or visit FIRST directly at www.usfirst.org.

This week our main focus was cleaning in preparation for our upcoming open house. Said open house will be next week (November 13th) from 6:30-8PM. Come out and see us at 3620 West White River Boulevard, Muncie IN 47304! *Note, if you are currently a team member please still come at 6 to make sure everything is perfect!

Other things going on this week include every one cleaning and sweeping. Tommy got the job of sweeping out the table saw. Trent and Matthew S. are still working to try and repair some of our shelves from last week. Dakotah fixed our welding equipment and was teaching people how to weld by the end of the night.

Re-arranging is in order

Caution! Welding in progress!

Madeline the broom master!

Hannah cleaning up after Madeline

Jessica B.
Blog and Media Correspondence Team

Rainy Day Robotics

Today is a rainy day here in Muncie but that doesn't mean we can't get things done! It's been sort of a do random things night.

Tyler has been working on parts for a saw. Garry is working with Moriah on making paper towel holders for our renegade paper towels! We can't have them rolling around our building! Trent is fixing some of our broken tools, and apparently we have a lot of them. Matthew S. is fixing some of our shelves, only it's the ones that have all of our sheet metal and scraps on them. So that means they have to be cleaned off all the way before it can be fixed in the first place. Michael has been practicing his welding tonight too.

There wasn't a workshop tonight but that means we have more time to clean and get ready for our open house on November 13th. Anna and Ashley have been working on photos and videos, while I have been working on blogging and press release things.

CAGE and other things

First things first, our alliance came in second at CAGE Match!  I believe this is the furthest our team has ever made it in a competition.

Not much needed to be done after the competition, save for general clean-up.  A few reparations and improvements were made to our machines and equipment, including the pneumatic display box and two saws.  Eventually successful efforts were made to fix our robot sizing box, which wasn't fitting together very well.

The software on the new year's eve ball was updated to display 2012-2013, rather than 2011-2012, in preparation for the coming new year.

As a final note, we now have two new sponsors!  Thanks to both Taurus Tool and the Industrial Center Credit Union for their support!

Matthew Shaffer

Keep moving forward

Major announcements!!!
1) There will be a 1720 robotics open house on November 13th!
2) Donations are still needed for Cage Match so check your e-mail for the list of what to bring.
3) We will be meeting at 5:30 pm this Friday (the 19th) to pack for Cage, then we will be leaving early Saturday morning.

In other news, the workshop tonight was on the physics of gears. Here are a few of the notes.

Gears
-Driver - Gear with power turning it
-Follower - Gear doing something useful
-Idler - Gear turned by driver and turning follower
-Gear Train - Many gears in a row
-Geared Up - Large driver, small follower to speed gear train up
-Geared Down - Small driver, large follower to increase torque
*Note: You can not have both speed and torque you have to choose which one you need more.
Speed = RPM or RPS (Rotations Per Minute/Second or other time unit)
Torque = Inch-oz or Foot-pounds

In the computer lab today The Andrews and Maddy were working on building code for the robot. Anna and I have been working on team media and blog projects. That's about it for this side of the building.

On the other side in the mechanical room, several things have been happening. Several people helped Gary to get rid of an old vice that we can't use any more. Robot drive team practice has also been going on tonight, in preparation for Cage Match this weekend. The programmers also worked to put the robot back into tank drive.

Jessica Bennett
Mechanical and Media team

It's time for some changes!

Today a lot of progress was made in the machine shop trying to convert it to a partial playing field. So far most of the equipment has been moved and carpet has been moved in to it's place. Hannah and Madeline did their part by cleaning and making sure things stayed organized. Ashley was the photographer for tonight. Anna has been working on a sponsorship video, while I have been making sure our Twitter is up to date and the blogs are getting written. Also in the computer room the new set up is complete, with wires that are neatly zip-tied in place.

The workshop for tonight was on the Digital World. Mike talked about different kind of digital buffers (also known as gates) and Micro Controllers.

Also, in other news
1) If any one is planing on going to Cage Match all of your membership forms must be turned in ASAP!!!!
2) We need a volunteer parent to coordinate food and transportation for Cage Match so that we can get there and back and so that we have food for the day.
3) Heads up for planing people, so far we are going to be meeting here at Morison Mock at 5:30am Saturday October 20th to leave for Cage Match all together no later than 6am.