Week 2 - PhyXTgears Build Season Progress

January 16th 2014 we began building prototypes and parts of the Aerial Assist arena.

We built the low goals to test our kicking prototype for the robot.

This is the kicking mechanism we had come up with.

Constructing The chassy for the robot.

Small weekly chores:

-Lots of CAD drawings

-Lots of videos/interviews

-Lots of progress with the robot design

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Week 1 - Aerial Assist Robot Build

On January 4th, 2014 we found what our new challenge would be -- Aerial Assist! We spent the rest of that day reading through the manual trying to get a good grasp of the game rules, possible strategies, and what type of robot we might like to build. Just as we were getting inspired to start working--- a snowstorm hit. After being delayed a few days, we started build season week 1.

Highlights from Week 1:

- Sloppy Joe's for lunch  on Saturday

- Good progress on the game field

- Good progress on the prototype

Ringing in the New Year 2014 ~ Muncie New Year's Eve Ball Drop

For over five years, Team 1720 has built and maintained the ball that drops in Muncie's New Year's Eve celebration. This year we added a GoPro camera to the ball to get an aerial view of the crowd. The ball was dropped from a crane timed with the New York City Times Square celebration. The event went smoothly even though it was cold. :)

 

Open House Here We Come!!!

Tonight everyone is mostly working on cleaning for our open house on December 3rd. We will be showcasing our previous robots and all the great things we have to come here at 1720 Phyxtgears.

There will be short videos to show you all that we have to offer you. Videos for the Building, Workroom, CAD team (Computer Aided Design,) and for the mechanical side of things.

There will be light snacks (But they won't float away I promise!)

This is a great way to learn more information about our robotics team in case you are intrested in joining or just want to know a little more about the fun that goes on here at Phyxtgears. There will be a sign-up sheet available for you to sign if you are interested in joining so we can give you more information.

The open house is again on December 3rd from 6:30-8:30pm at our work shop in the Morrison Mock Industrial Plaza. We hope to see you there!

Jamie Bennett
1720 Blogger

Working in the work room AND the Computer room!

Tonight has been rather busy as there has been a lot to do in the computer room, and the work room.

This evening in the work room people have been hard at work. Our most recent robot (Green Go) needed a wheel bracket job and so people are hard at work on those. "We are fixing Green Go" stated my brother Jeremiah. Ryan is pretty much in charge of doing things to Green Go. At the moment along with some other complicated terms here what went on: Ryan is working on putting brackets on the robot and he is working on getting the motors to move so they can change the belt sizes so they can turn the wheels. Along with other things, that's all I got from the Work Room tonight.

In the computer room, Anna Dodd has been hard at work on the videos for the open house. "The hours have been long. But I believe that the finished product will be well worth it!" Said Anna when asked about her work in progress.  Michael, our student animation mentor, along with other things and according to him an "Awesome Person." is working with Caleb and Jacob on some fun animation projects.

This Saturday we have a cage match at Brownsburg High it will be all day from 8-4:30, there will be thirteen other teams from across Indianan present. Some of the adults are working on the budgets and seating arrangements for the cars. It doesn't sound like much but we would be stuck here if it weren't for them!

So that is the update for this week! If I forgot someone or something I'm sorry but there is only so much awesomeness I can generate in one night, and if I included everyone in every article the whole blog would explode!

Hope you all enjoyed my first blog post,

Jamie B.
1720 blogger