Interviewing team members, Pi-cast, and team updates!
Volume 13 Issue 4 January 30, 2020 Welcome back to the Knockout News
Meet the Electrical Team!
by Kailey Hanvey
Electrical is made up of six wonderful, humorous students who deserve some recognition. Here is a little bit about them!
What is your favorite part about FIRST?
Brandon: ROBOTS!
Sandro: Probably... the skills you learn.
Paige: My favorite part is having the opportunity to teach others.
Zach: The opportunities that I get from it.
Kayla: The people, there are some pretty rad people.
Evan: Probably... the community because everyone is willing to help and they have really good energy and they are really good people.
How has being on a FIRST team inspired you?
Evan: Being in electrical has inspired me to go to college and study electrical engineering.
Brandon: It inspired me to make new friends.
Sandro: It has helped with my people skills and teamwork.
Paige: When I started the team I was really shy and went along with what everyone else was doing but now I have strong leadership skills and want to be in charge more.
Zach: It has given me a goal for my future.
Kayla: It has inspired me to learn more about subjects I didn’t expect to be interested in.
Do you plan to pursue a career with what you are currently doing? If so, how?
Evan: Yes, I am going to college to study electrical engineering to become an electrical engineer.
Brandon: Probably.
Sandro: Yes, I will study coding in college.
Paige: I am planning to pursue an Applied Engineering Sciences degree with a concentration in supply chain management. This will be drawing in both engineering concepts I learned from being on the electrical team, and also the large scale management skills I have learned from being an event lead and Vice Build Supervisor.
Zach: Yeah, I want to go to college for electrical engineering.
Kayla: Sorta, I want to go into chemical engineering.
Electrical Update
This past week has been quite hectic for the electrical team, as we’ve had to keep up with the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and Mechanical teams. We’ve mostly been creating and finalizing the electrical boards that will go on the practice and competition robots. This year, the team has decided to use Lexan as the base instead of blackboard. Lexan is a clear and more flexible
poly-carbonate material, which means it is less susceptible to breakage. We also decided to use our new CNC machines to cut each board. We used the CNC to cut many holes so we can put the various robot components where we wanted. We’ve also coded the serializer (game ball containment) and set up velocity control (ensuring all motors move at the proper speed) on the practice robot. As of now, we are going to try and finalize the two electrical boards.
Why FIRST is Important to Me
by Kailey Hanvey
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is very important to many different people for many different reasons. For me personally, FIRST has helped me achieve new passions along with new friends. When I first came to Armada, I didn’t know anyone, but thanks to FIRST, and The Fighting Pi, the opportunity of robotics was available to me. Through robotics, I met many kind, heartwarming people who are always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need.
I started out on the mechanical team where there are some wonderful people like Mayra, the Mechanical Captain, and Cody, mechanical team member, who know exactly what they are doing and how to help others who do not. After realizing that the mechanical team wasn’t my cup of tea, I moved on to the media team where I learned how much I love computer technologies and digital art, like PhotoShop. In times of confusion, Harry, the Media Captain, is always right there to help. Many people have an abundance of reasons for why FIRST is important to them. After someone joins a FIRST team, they will have new memories and skills to last a lifetime, and that is the very reason FIRST is so important to me: it has given me fresh skills, wonderful friends, and stories I will be telling forever.
Quote of the Week:
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." –Steve Jobs
The electrical sub-team has been preparing the robot’s code for the upcoming season. We planned out how many motors we’ll need on each part of the robot and how many canisters we’ll need to power the pneumatics system. Afterward, we listed what controls we would need and what would be the most efficient and user-friendly way to map them onto the controller (to minimize accidental clicks that could become problematic). We’re currently working on implementing the actual code that will be executed when certain buttons are pressed on the controller.
Quote of the Week:
"Sometimes you just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you." -Dr. Phil
