This year, we brought all three of our remaining robots, Catalyst, Bearenstein, and Odyssey.

Unfortunately, during the parade, due to the fact that Odyssey uses four CIMs to drive itself, we did not complete the parade route with a running robot, as we used our two batteries we had along with us.

However, after the parade, we did see many people visit our booth, and we were able to demonstrate the robot there. We allowed anyone who wished to drive Odyssey. They were allowed to drive around our booth, as well as over the “bump” that I’ve described.

Also, this year introduces a new parade meme. During our club’s first year, there was rain at the Maple Valley Days parade, so we were unable to run that year’s robot, Epic. Instead, one member, I believe Andrew Kerr, dressed up in a cardboard robot suit. By the end of the parade, the suit was falling apart and an 8 year old kid shouted “That’s not a robot!” This year, another kid was heard saying “Why are they carrying a triangle?” in reference to the bump, which is definitely NOT a triangle. It is a trapezoidal prism.

Unfortunately, half way through Sunday, our left side bogey wheels were unable to articulate, and they have yet to be repaired.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see our booth, we’ll be back next year!

So far, we’ve been running the mill with just spraying with WD-40 as a coolant, but once we get actual coolant running across the tool, we can cut even faster than with just WD-40.

The hard part of making a drain to recycle the coolant is mostly complete, Mr. Prelesnik, a fabrication mentor put in a drain hole, through the shower vinyl that covers the table the mill rests on.

Unfortunately, we cut a lubricating tube because our Z-limit switch didn’t function. Thankfully, that part is easily replaceable.

The mill is actually a manual -> CNC conversion done by IH CNC. Kudos to them as they gave us help over the phone, even at 21:00 their time zone.

I’ll eventually post pictures.

We are working on making improvements to our robot, that hopefully will give us a better performance on the field.

At the beginning of the elimination tournament, our first match we touched the opposing alliance’s tower during the finale, and judges are deciding h0ow to handle that situation during the elimination, they are claiming our entire alliance got disqualified, after they had said our robot just got a red card, which meant only our robot could not complete next match.

I’m slightly confused by the situation, but I am very pleased that we made it into the elimination tournament.

Also to facilitate more ranting, one of the mentors decided he has so much knowledge and that he needs to take over the club’s website. Thing is, he ain’t smart, at all. He doesn’t know about the PulseAudio exploit and went and used Fedora 8, a vulnerable version, in a world facing environment. The opposite of a good idea.

So now I’m debating whether I should just quit the club because I can’t get those two problem people out of my way from participating the way I want to.

We got a loaner trailer for our stuff, while our own trailer is finished being made and decorated. We were packing it last night, and we must finish that today.

I’ll post from Portland.

I just need two more teachers to sign my permission form, then I am leaving on Wednesday, after school.

I’m driving down with other robotics club students, and we’ll make the drive fun.

There will be more when I get down there.

EDIT: All my teachers have signed my permission form, so I’m good to go!

The Build Season started on January 9th, with the season kickoff. On that day, FIRST announces the game robots are to play in competition that season. After the announcement of the game, our club went back to our school to think of strategies to play the game this year. We get 6 weeks to design and build the robot from scratch.

Our team has a fairly long way to go, and only 8 days to get there. I’m feeling that we’re going to finish just barely ahead of time, and we’ll do very well at competitions.

The source of the delay in state was a teacher strike, which our own G. Liu discussed in a post right here.

The pure source of the teacher strike, the absolute root of the issues G. Liu stated as the source of the strike is money. The Kent School District’s lack of it. Kent lacks money to pay for building refurbishments that add classrooms, to pay for new teachers, and other issues.

The other problem is that Kent has way too much property covered by them. This specific point means that their schools are packed. There’s also 4 grades packed into the high schools, and 6 packed into elementary schools. Tahoma’s scheme of K-5 in Elementary, 6 and 7 in Middle, 8 and 9 in Junior High, and 10-12 in Senior High works very well. It provides a gradual approach to High School for students and gives a more gentle narrowing of schools. Tahoma has 4 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, one junior high and one senior high (as well as a “High School Alternative”). Kent has 28 elementary schools, 6 middle schools and 5 high schools.

Kent School District is about to be the next GM, going through an awkward “restructuring” to solve their problem. (GM still makes lousy cars though.)

Hopefully though Kent can survive at least until December without further strikes.