2020 Team Magma FRC Build Season

The Kalani High School Team Magma is FRC 3008.

Kickoff

Andrea and I joined the Kalani High School robotics team (FRC 3008, Team Magma) at McKinley High School for the annual FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff (every year on the first Saturday in January).


We met outside the auditorium at 4:30 AM and did the "I'm excited" ritual. Photo by Team Magma via Facebook.


Our team sat mostly in the third and fourth rows in the high school auditorium.


Waiting for the telecast to begin. Photo by Andrea.


Counting down to the kickoff at 5:30 AM.


Team photo after the game reveal.


Team photo.


Mentors discuss the game.

Week One

Week one began on Sunday, January 5. The team met at the Kalani High School building F shop at 11:00 AM.

Sunday


The session started with a meeting to assign concept design tasks.


Meanwhile there was a meeting for parents.


Brainstorming design ideas.


Discussing design ideas. Photo by Team Magma via Facebook.

Monday


Monday morning I made a sketch of my hook deployer concept. I will see if we can construct a prototype in the evening.


Team leader Mija set up the chop saw while freshman Andrew watched.


Mija and Andrew worked together to build the prototype hook deployer.


The prototype assembly progresses.


All done and it works.

Tuesday


Tuesday's robotics session started with the daily tag-up meeting.


Getting ready to use the chop saw on some extruded aluminum as a parent volunteer watches.


Last year's robot will be used as a testbed for this year's programming.


Everyone is busy.

Wednesday


Wednesday evening started as usual with the "I'm Excited" ritual.


Using the chop saw for further prototyping.

Thursday


Thursday the ninth I brought neighbor Pete along to robotics as a potential mentor. He has a daughter who goes to Kalani High School.


Getting ready for the team student photograph.


The team student photograph.

Saturday


I went to robotics Saturday morning. Mija was setting up a Web repository for software files.


Three students worked in the cave.

Week Two

Build season continued as the team met nightly at the Kalani High School building J robotics lab.

Monday

Sunday work is held in reserve. Monday the 13th was the first work day of week two.


When I arrived around 5:30 PM the programming team had the test bed up and running.


The mechanical team was building a control panel wheel for testing the robot prototype.


Operating the mill.


Lining up for dinner.


Testing the control panel positioner. It works.

Tuesday


Students at work.


Programming team at work.


Parent and mentor booster meeting in the cave.


Dinner break at 7:00 PM.


Operating the mill. I told the operator to tuck in his hoodie strings right after I took this photo.


CAD designers at work.

FRC Build Season Week Three

Monday

Monday the 20th was Martin Luther King day, a school holiday, and the team met for regular week night work at 5:00 PM.


The PR team at work in the "cave."


The design team at work in the main room.


Mr. Kwock helped make bearing blocks on the mill.


Kareem and Jefferson cut one-by-two extrusion for the chassis.

Tuesday

A regular work night starting at 5:00 PM.


The PR team at work in the cave.


Disassembling last year's robot for parts. Later I helped Chris do the robot lifting winch drum size calculation.

Friday

A regular work night starting at 5:00 PM.


Friday evening, Becky and I went to robotics where she talked about her experiences at Beach Cities Robotics (FRC 294) at the daily meeting.


Replacing belt pulleys with sprockets on the six robot wheels.

Week Four

Monday

Monday the team met for regular week night work at 5:00 PM.


Daily team meeting. We are behind schedule.

Tuesday


The daily status meeting.


Mentor Uncle Donny in the programming room.


It was a productive evening.


Mentor Wayland Kwock and student Mathew running the mills.


Button making.


Working on the lift winch prototype.


Dinner break for pizza.


The robot frame is partially assembled.

Thursday


A student year book photographer attended again to take photos. Here the students do their "I'm excited" ritual.


Photographing the daily status meeting.


Assembling the robot chassis while parent chaperone (Matt's own mother) applies a bandage to his cut finger (minor injury).


Mentor Uncle Donny with the programming team.

Friday


Setting up the chop saw to cut some aluminum hex shaft.


Drilling a pilot hole in the end of a piece of hex shaft.


At work on a Friday night.

Week Five

Monday


Status meeting Monday night.


Working to install the drive train gear boxes into the chassis.

Tuesday


Tuesday night Andrea was chaperone and she provided dinner of pulled chicken. Working on the robot chassis.


Working on the intake/scorer.


Making progress on mounting the motors. Photo by Andrea.


Dinner break.

Kevin Ryan, friend of mine, and fellow former mentor at FRC 294, Beach Cities Robotics, posted these YouTube links on Facebook, reminiscing about the 2008 robotics competition seasons:

We won the San Diego Regional competition that year and went on to compete in the world competition. Two years later (2010) we (FRC 294) won the World Championship in Atlanta, Georgia.

Week Six

Monday


Monday afternoon Mr. Silver opened the lab at 2:30 PM, as it was a student day off. I arrived at 3:40 PM, and only one student was present.

Tuesday


We left at six to make our two other meetings. Andrea dropped me off at the Kalani High School robotics lab where bumper making was underway.


Andrea went on to the AHP meeting at Grace Chapel in Aina Haina. Twenty students were busy building the robot.


Lots to do and lots being done.


All the students were busy.


Designers and the PR team in the cave.


Dinner break. Sandwiches again. Fourth time for me, so I passed and went straight for the cookies.

Friday

Friday, February 14, is Valentine's Day.


The daily status meeting at 5:00 PM.


Figuring out how to put the bumpers on.


Working on the ball handling mechanism.

Week Seven

The FIRST build season rules changed this year, and teams may continue working on their robots right up until their first regional competition.

Monday

Monday, February 17, is President's Day, a school holiday.


Monday the 17th the team met at 5:00 PM to continue work on the robot.


Work continued on the bumpers and game piece mechansims.


A nice looking robot.

Friday


The robotics team works on the robot through week seven. Photo by Team Magma via Facebook.


Testing and adjusting the robot. Photo by Team Magma via Facebook.

Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com


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Last updated February 22, 2020 by Dr. Rick Wagner. Copyright © 2020, all rights reserved.