Sunday, September 13, 2009

FIRST (SUNDAY) TECH CHALLENGE (MEETING)

Thank you to all you techies that came today :) I like the game strategies that we came up with and I like our "GENERAL" model of the robot

I will post up the paper plans of our robot model once I can get the scanner working so keep checking back here

Now that we've sorted ourselves into two broad groups (hardware and software) the next thing we need to do is get everyone aquainted with the basic hardware and software then each group can specialize in certain aspects after that. REMEMBER: hardware and software are interlinked so don't think the hardware/software people don't need to learn the other stuff - YOU NEED TO KNOW THE BASICS FOR BOTH :)

Here's the general game strategy we came up with today:
AUTONOMOUS PERIOD
White lines – how will it guide itself (Jerry’s soccer game): to open a ball dispenser
Color sensor – for a guide to open dispenser
Hopper to hold the ball àto collect balls and score/fire
Baseball machines?
Tennis ball collector device à to collect balls

AUTONOMOUS PERIOD
Open the gates via levers à program to open close on and far one and pick the one depending on where we are placed.
First few balls shot into high goal
If we have to open the lever further away we only want to open levers (no balls)
If we have to open the lever closer we want to shoot our first loaded balls (in high goal) and then open the close lever (8 balls)

CONTROLLED
Use IR sensor to line up to shoot into high goal and also make sure you use the white lines for a guide

QUESTIONS:
Open the other color’s lever so that the other team can’t get the points?
A bit chaotic I know (I'll write up a clearer run down for our log book) but you all get the picture. Thank you to JERRY for bringing his camera today and everyone else who managed to bring their laptops. Also, special thanks to Mr. Lineback for letting us use his room and all his cool knick-knacks (document projector, big projector, whiteboard, computers).
The Kit should be coming so as I said today if the KIT comes before Friday we are having a meeting!! I will email and update here if that happens. ALSO! I realized it is outdoor ed week next week so some of you (including myself) will not be here on Sunday, So we'll be meeting the following Sunday for 6hours instead make sure you have done the ROBOTC TUTORIAL I sent out and read up on the GAME MANUAL ETC. by then! :)
It looks like all is underway...keep up the AWESOME WORK TORREY TECHIES!


Monday, September 7, 2009

How to write on this blog...

We will be taking turns to write an entry in this blog so I'll go through the "how to become a Torrey Techie blogger" now:
  1. Sign in using the username and password that I sent you via email for this blog (p.s. if you don't have a gmail account yet make one before you sign into the Torrey Techies blog)
  2. Now close that window and open a new tab and type in "torreytechies.blogspot.com"
  3. Click customize on the top right hand corner
  4. Click settings in the top left hand corner
  5. Click Permissions in the top right corner
  6. Add yourself as an author
  7. Go to your gmail and accept the invite to become a blogger for this site
  8. DONE :) now you can blog (don't actually blog yet)

Easy right? Please do this by Wednesday's meeting :D

Thanks

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Welcome

Fellow Techies,

Here is the first blog post for the Torrey Techies!
This blog will serve as the Torrey Techies' progress log for the First Tech Challenge.
Please try to bring a camera to each meeting so we can take photos/videos and post them here.
See you all Wednesday (Sept. 09) at lunch in Dr. Domanico's room to start on our mini project.

Su