End of Week 4

Posted on February 8, 2011 by butlerc

Well team time is running short and we are kinda behind. Mechanical people are really going to need to kick it up a notch. Last Saturday was a sad day for the robotics team in regards to attendance. Only about 4 people showed up and there was only 2 of us for the first 2 hours. Saturday we had a yummy free meal courtesy of me, We had smoked sausage, grilled at the room, as well as brats, Cesar salad, and chips w/ salsa. For evening snack we had tortilla chips and cheese dip, courtesy of Alexander and his mom. THANKS! it was great.

NOTICE TO THE TEAM:

we have been getting visited often by officals that determine weather or not our shop can stay open based on safety. We have been warned verbaly as to the cleanliness of the room. So for now on after every task you must clean up your tools before returning to the next task.

Progress of the robot:

The tensioners have been finished, the slots in the manipulator outer arms should be done today or tomorrow based on Sam and Conrad’s progress.

Jan has started on the bumpers, however it looks as though she will need to purchase material to finish them.

Chris and Rolika put a new piece of material on the front of the robot to secure the manipulator to.

As a mentor i would like to recommend that we cover the entire robot with 1/8″ poly carbonate sheets, approximately 1.00ea at Alro. This is to meet the pinch point safety requirements for the chain drive train as well as protection of the wiring board against other robots.

check the team email for the list of items to be done by the end of the week.

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End of week three update:

Posted on February 1, 2011 by butlerc

Progress has been slow but steady. We are currently on track for getting a functioning AndyMark drive train by the end of the week.  The team has also be getting certified by Chris Butler in the general operation and Safety with the welder, mill before it broke, and the radial saw. Cameron and Rolika are now certified on the welders therefore they are able to do basic flat welds well and non-critical angle welds. The mill is in progress to be repaired by the end of friday night. Chris and Rolika did the dirty job of taking the mill apart and putting the parts in order to reassemble it. With the entire group we moved the scarily heavy table to access the movement table piece. Chris is going to WCC and seeing if he can mooch a screw from WCC’s Industrial Technology Department. After the mill is assembled we will begin to assemble the manipulator to the drive train as well as finish the manipulator. The Programing people arrived last night after everyone left on 1/30. The robot program was loaded into the robot and motors spun YAY!!!.

We still have tons of little things and a few big things to complete but with some serious dedication and hard work i am sure that we will be able to complete the robot on a timely schedule.

If drivers have not been selected it would be best to select them soon so that they can decide how they want the operators interface to be designed.

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End of week two: our progress so far

Posted on January 21, 2011 by alexandertmills

Tomorrow week two of build season comes to a close. With only four weeks left, there’s a lot left to do. Here’s what’s going on right now, and our progress (copied from team email).

Chris Butler, Sam, and Darrell managed to remove the drive train from the 2007 robot, Kurohitsuji, and are in the process of migrating that drive train to the new bot.

Lilly and Cristina are working on the math and science behind an electromagnet for the minibot (confirm this, someone?). This is underway, and looks very interesting.

Rolika and Alexander are mapping out the electronics board for the robot. We have a demo version for Mike Huang and Nima to start working with, and we’re working on creating the final version.

Henry is working on designing our t-shirt. If anyone has anything they want on it, send him an email. Henry also works on managing the website with Alexander.

Cameron is working on “manual computer aided drafting (MCAD)”, as Snapir puts it, and CAD. He’s working on drafting the new drive train, and then the payload.

Mike Huang and Nima are also working on the electronics, as well as the program for the robot in Java. I’m still waiting for Mike Huang and Arun (mentor) to write me a programming language named Oolong, since tea > coffee.

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Introducing Myself to anyone new

Posted on January 19, 2011 by butlerc

For those of you who do not know me i am chris,

I am a computer network engineering student in transition between WCC and EMU. I have taught network security at Wcc and have worked in wired and wireless implementation of corporate networks. I own my own consulting company catering to the law and health care fields. I have training in Cisco, Avaya, 3com and Procurve.

I am i believe the mechanical subgroup mentor, (that is if you would like my help). I am modestly qualified in to do this job, and hope to bring forth knowledge to share with everyone regarding welding, lathe, mill, and basic mechanic skills. I hope to pass on my problem solving skills and hope to encourage everyone to work hard and push.

I worked on both of the previous robots that are still in an array of being assembled in the robotics lab. The older of the bots i did NOT design or create, however i maintained, repaired, and troubleshooted issues with the bot. The newer of the two bots i dabbled in every department on, however i focused on the mechanical due to the limited number of students that were working in this group. I will give tribute to Jerry Slayer our former mechanical mentor who gave up alot of time and stayed with us till the very end. I hope only to be 1/10 the mentor that he was however, i hope to have a few less swear words.

I according to Mr. Snapir am not the most worried about safety, and at my age i have the right to decide that for myself, however because the students in the group are on school property, and the school is responsible for your safety and well being i will be a stickler about safety glasses, closed toed shoes, nothing hanging from your neck, long hair pulled back in a pony tail or bun, and using the equipment as it is meant to be used.

So now that that is done the lighter side. I look forward to working with anyone willing to work with my difficult behind, and look forward to being open to all ideas. I will be the devil’s advocate on all ideas to test them, i do not do this to put your ideas down, but rather to teach you to stand up for yourselves.

LONG LIVE PIHI Samurai!!!

~Chris Butler, Mechanical Mentor, and PiHi Graduate ’08

//Edited by Alexander Mills, 1/20/11 Reason: Sourced

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Meeting summary – 11/08/10

Posted on November 8, 2010 by alexandertmills

We had a meeting today! Hopefully you were there. If you couldn’t make it, hopefully you told us ahead of time. If you simply didn’t come, shame on you.

Here’s a summary of what we discussed today, in list format.

  • Apologies to everyone. There was some confusion (possibly on the administration’s part) last week in regards to the meetings and workshops that occurred. We are sorry for the confusion this caused.

    To clear some things up…

    These organizational meetings are for the teams benefit. We don’t meet that often, but when we do we need you to be there. If you can’t come, that’s fine. Just tell us why. You probably have a good excuse. Please make an effort to tell us in advance, though.

    Every member is required to attend a minimum of two (2) workshops put on by the Huron team this year. We had never intended to set any requirement, but based on the mass swarm of people that came to each (few, if any at a time, came), we deemed it necessary. There are three workshops remaining (see the Workshops section of the website). If you have yet to fill your requirement, here’s your last chance.

  • We officially support three (3) forms of communication: Google Groups, this website, and our Twitter account. We’ll try our best to make sure all important information is published to all three services. Read more about them on our Connections and Services web page.

    Team members have expressed interest in having a Facebook service to get information from. While the team administration does not officially support this service, Henry Pakela has taken it upon himself to maintain an unofficial team portal on Facebook. Read more about the service at the Connections and Services web page.

  • It’s picture time! We’ll be taking our pictures for the Pioneer yearbook this Thursday during lunch. Only one or two people that came to today’s meeting had a conflict with this day, so we decided upon it. More information will be coming later.

  • We need funds. We really don’t want to settle with selling candy (besides, it will take a LOT of candy to get sufficient funding). Does anyone have any ideas for fundraising or sponsorship?

That should be it for now. Thanks for reading this!

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Meeting on Monday

Posted on November 7, 2010 by alexandertmills

As discussed, we’ll be having a mandatory meeting this Monday, November eighth, in the robotics room. The meeting will last approximately forty-five minutes to an hour.

Please make absolutely sure you’ll be there. If you have some obligation, you had until last Friday the fifth to tell us –- plenty of time.

If you’re still not convinced you should come, here is some incentive. We’ll be discussing yearbook pictures at this meeting. If you don’t come, you won’t be in the photo (If you simply don’t want to be in the photo, that’s fine. You still need to come, though).

See you all there!

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A little about this site…

Posted on November 3, 2010 by alexandertmills

Welcome to the official website for the Pi Hi Samurai, Pioneer High School’s FIRST Robotics Team 1076.

Here you will find basic information about our team, access to webmail, our team policies, and general announcements, among other things.

Note, while the site is technically up and running it is still considered to be in beta. That said, despite the bugs we’re still exterminating, it does in fact work. If there’s a bug that’s messing with your head or renders part of the site useless, please leave a comment below to let us know. Chances are, though, we already know about it. If it hasn’t been dealt with in a week, then please do tell us. In that case we probably don’t know about it.

We’ll be updating this site and posting here regularly. Check back often!

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