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| Would we be SAFE at the end of our second event? |
Another short just-under-two-weeks passed between our first event at Glacier Peak and our second at Sundome in central Washington. Also I promise this post will be shorter than the previous post. Just two sections to cover - our event preparation, and the event itself. Like the hands of a clock, let's spin through Weeks 9 and 10! (Students: Clocks used to be analog and contained multiple overlapping dials - called hands - to visualize time.)
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| Glacier Peak Competition! |
Depending on the moment, it feels like kick-off was either just yesterday, or an eternity ago. From that first livestream, watching Robot-in-3-Days, following Open Alliance threads (including the EveryBot!), designing, manufacturing, (re-designing), assembling, breaking, testing, and tuning - we've now completed our first competition event. Re-typing all that, I'm going to say it's been a long build season. Let's pull up a comfy chair by the fireplace, and enjoy our Week 8 preparations and the Glacier Peak Competition.
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| Full size practice field to test and tune our contraptions. Not pictured: our robot... |
Week 7 was filled with many hours in the shop and troubleshooting at the practice field. You may ask, are we caught up now? Absolutely not. Are we terrified? Yep! Our schedule may be challenging, but it’s half the fun. However, it’s not so fun when you're at the practice field, and you're trying to fix issues with the gyroscope (also known as the Pigeon) instead of running cycles. Anyways, spread your wings and let's soar through Week 7!
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| It was going to be a challenge getting into Week 6 without posting a properly spoiler image so I won't even try to bury the lede. |
During Week 6 we were able to make up one of our missed days from Week 5. Did we catch up on all of our work? <Snape voice> Not hardly. With two weeks until our first competition we still have a few planned items to work on, though this week we've also discovered a few unplanned items. So grab your board and let's skate through Week 6!
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| A flurry of parts! As we disassemble an old prototype... |
Week 5 should have been a whirlwind of parts, prints, bolts, and more - but instead the whirling wind cast snow down upon our region, and we lost half of our shop days for the week. Needless to say, we did not catch-up our Week 4 goals, nor did we meet our Week 5 goals. It's fortunately warm inside, but it's cold outside - so grab some heavy mittens and let's brush off Week 5.
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| Everyone hard at work, chasing the Week 4 goals. |
Cold has turned into wet and cold here in the PNW. Fortunately the shop is nice and warm! With the conclusion of week 4, we are halfway through our build season - 4 weeks from now, we will be a competition. Let's unearth our Week 4 - grab your shovel and let's dig in!
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| A common scene: Laptop connected to robot, Everyone staring. |
Finally the passage of time seems to be back to normal; Week 3 felt like a standard, full-length week. And yet Week 3 is also over. Some things are starting to get built, other things getting bought. Details are getting ironed out by design and software. So grab your swim fins, and let's dive in!
