2019 Team Magma FRC Build Season

The Kalani High School Team Magma is FRC 3008.

Kickoff

I attended the FRC Kickoff with the Kalani High School robotics team on Saturday morning, January 5, while Andrea watched the video stream from home and printed the manual when the encryption password was released.

We met in the McKinley High School courtyard at 5:00 AM.

Waiting in the auditorium for the kickoff video live from New Hampshire. Click the image to see the full resolution version.

Photo by Anne Torige via Facebook.

Photo by Team Magma via Facebook.

Week One

Kalani High School's robotics team's build season got underway the Sunday after the kick-off.

Sunday

We met Sunday the sixth at 11:00 AM.

Gathering in the shop waiting for the meeting to begin.

Discussing the six week build schedule.

Discussing robot priorities. Photo by team captain Carmen Lam

Monday

We met Monday, a student holiday, at 10:00 AM.

Introductory meeting in the main room.

Design meeting in the "cave."

Explaining design ideas.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a regular school day and work night, meeting from 5:00 to 9:00 PM.

We started, as usual, with the daily tag-up meeting.

The software development team assembled the kit-bot as a development test-bed.

Students did a software tutorial in the "cave."

The ball intake prototype worked perfectly on the first try.

Wednesday

I attended Wednesday, January 9, from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.

The team does the "I'm excited" ritual to begin each session.

The daily tag-up meeting.

Verifying the step climbing ability of the eight wheel design with a prototype.

Saturday

Eric Cotton, mentor with FRC team 230, visited team 3008 in the afternoon.

Another view of the electrical test-bed (on table) and the mechanical prototype (on floor).

Week Two

Tuesday

The daily tag-up meeting on Tuesday the 15th of January.

Assembling the programming test-bed.

Continuing to improve the mechanical prototype.

The programming team.

A typical evening at the Team Magma robotics laboratory.

Week Three

Tuesday

My daughter Malia went with me to robotics on Tuesday of week three. This is the daily tag-up meeting. Later a gave a little talk
on computing mechanical advantage for a lift given a weight and a motor stall torque.

Week Four

I attended some of the evening build sessions in week four.

Monday

Two main drive gear assemblies have been built and some frame pieces cut.

Working on the CAD model.

PR team doing video recording.

Operating the NC mill.

Tuesday

I went to robotics in the evening and the robot is coming together.

The daily tag-up meeting.

Doing the math for the cascade lift.

Friday

Team members attend the daily tag-up meeting on February 1.

The daily tag-up meeting.

The programming test-bed robot is on the floor while students work to assemble the competition robot on the bench.

Week Five

Monday

I arrived Monday, February 4, at quarter to five for a regular build session evening and stayed for an hour.

The robot is coming along with a driveable base. Front view.

Rear view.

Three quarter view.

The daily tag-up meeting.

Setting up the new 3D printer.

Wednesday

Wednesday evening Andrea and I brought dinner to the robotics team. Here a student works on the secondary electronics board.

Mentors Donny and Wayland were there too and Mr. Lum (not shown).

Everybody's busy.

Table saw and mill work.

Week Six

Monday

Monday, February 11, was a student day off while teachers had an event at the Convention Center, so the team was in the shop from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM. Andrea was chaperone that day, and I came in for an hour at lunch time and brought her lunch.

Students got down the pit booth frame pieces to get ready to ship to our first regional competition in Minnesota.

A temporary camera mount has been added to the robot for the programming team to test with.

Tyler and Noah work on the lift and scoring mechanism.

Meanwhile the PR team works in the cave.

Noah shows two team members how to use the NC mill.

Running the NC mill. Photo by Andrea.

Friday

Friday evening I went into robotics. Students ponder painting numbers on the bumpers.

Installing a shaft onto the robot.

Working on programming the camera (green lights) for driver vision.

Presidents Day

Monday, February 18, was a school holiday and the last full work day of the robotics build season before the robot must be bagged for shipment no later than midnight on Tuesday, February 19. Andrea chaperoned in the day from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and a parent volunteered to be there from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. I came in at 11:00 AM and brought some fried chicken and potato salad for lunch.