Who is behind schedule
 

I know this is something everyone is dealing with and i know everyone gets behind some point in build season. I would just like to see were everyone stands in this whole thing.

Well let me start with my team we didnt are kit till this past monday January 19th and we are missing about half the stuff in it, i know everyone is missing stuff. Every year we set up a calander on what needs to get done on what days and from day one of this season we have gotten behind. We really just finalized are design yesterday January 24th and now we have to build. |After looking at the calander we made i figured we are about a week and 1/2 behind and we still havent heard from FIRST about are missing parts so that is even gonna set us back farther and on top of that the gears we wanted they are back ordered and wont be in for 3 to 4 weeks so ya htats are storry.

Tell any mishaps if you have any or if you are on schedule.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

last week the machine shop @ USF got half way through our parts and just decided they don't have anymore time for it.....that was wonderful we got set back a few days....

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

I don't know about being behind but 862 is farther along at this point in time this year than we were at the same time last year. :]

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We decided to take a week off.

No, seriously.

Well, ok, our teacher/mentor, who without we cannot work in the school, had to go to some conference in Florida. He's coming back tonight.

We do have this entire week (save Friday) to work all day, due to NYS Regents testing, and then we have another week off in two weeks to work straight through, so we'll get it done.

I mean, for the past two years, we've gotten the entire robot built in the last week, so we're probably way ahead of schedule, even with taking a week off :-p.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

No finalized design (exams)
No building
We are pretty far behind
all is not lost, we were farther behind at this point last year and were still able to win a regional!

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Well I don't think we're as far behind as others here, but we're getting behind on our schedule.
We were supposed to have a driving chassis by the end of the day yesterday, but we're not quite there yet.
We're trying to set up more work time during the day. We've currently only had 2 3-4 hour meetings, and 1 5 hour meeting a week. It's really not enough.
But our controls are almost done, which is ahead of sched., I think, so I'm feeling ok.
I'm just waiting for our wheels to arrive on my doorstep.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

well good luck to all, ya i forgot to mention that we usually finish the robot in the last week, but we always want to finish cause we need to practice especailly this year and what was nice was the massive snow storm last year that delayed shipping for 2 days.....I hate to say to you all that live all in the snow but i am hoping for another snow storm to extend build time

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

we came up with a schedule for the robot before the season started. and according to it, we are extremely far behind. we just finalized our design on friday, and started to build yesterday. building meaning we have the metal for our chassis all cut and some of the aluminum mounted on it, but no wheels in it yet ...

we have not been able to meet all week (except for friday) because of exams all last week .. and they go on until wednesday this coming week !!!

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

I think we're a bit ahead, joe.

granted we're suppose to start building everything tommorrow, but i don't think we finished CADing it. Meh! whatever. :rolleyes:

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Well, well!
I wouldn't say we are behind considering last year, when we spent 4 weeks just to come up with a design and prototype it, and then found a thousand faults in it!!!

Oh wel, the Diamond Eagles have come up with a design (despite exams)
Well, it's weird bcause we have a team of about 30, and about 3 students, which would me and 2 other, and 2-3 teachers basically came up with the design
Still need the approval of the whole team! Anyways, we don't have scale dimensions for everything, but for most things that are important!
As soon as exams finish, we are going to get back to this with full force, I think we will have a moving chassis, a week from now, and prototype? if we do one, a week and half from now!

Is that behind schedule?
I thought we were... LoL!

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

I think that Team 237 is more ahead at this point then we have been in any other year. That is kind of ironic too because the only people in the shop making parts are all second year team members, first year allowed in the shop. It is definitly interesting, but I think we are on schedule as of now.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

This year I have spent alot more time designing it in CAD. The entire robot will be in CAD, down to the electronics. But in the end, it makes things go SOOoo much faster when building.
I would say that my team is ahead, except for the drivetrain.
This year i wanted to do a 2sp shifter, but with no experience, not a lot of room on the bot and only 4 weeks left, were going to go with a single spd.

Kevin

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We are pretty far behind. We have no finalized design yet (pretty far from close). We have started building a little bit, but we are here for ten hours today so we should be able to get a nice start (I hope). Oh yeah, and finals are next week.

One month to go

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We are way ahead of schedule for a change, we finished our design session a week ahead of time as oposed to 2 weeks last year. Our prototyping is well under way, and a basic drive train has been built. We have been meeting for 3-4 hours each day on weekdays and 8 hours a day on weekends;)

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Our teams head mentor decided to walk out on us Friday. Thankfully the other guy suck around to help out. Still our team is low on human resources (13 members), and if things keep going the way they are, we are going to be way behind. The ironic part is, most of the team feels we are moving faster without the head teacher.
How many teams rely only on the students to accomplish the work? (Not just building the robot, but ordering parts, finding money etc)

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Our team is mostly student lead
Usually it's the teachers assisting the students, when it comes to building, programming, fundraising etc.

However, being our second year, when it comes to ordering parts, the roles are reversed, the teachers do the leading, and the students do the assisting
Trends are changing, and there are a few guys who sort of go buy the small things themselves. I would certainly inform my teacher, what our robot would require, and tag along to get it, but for most part, the teachers do the ordering.

Because I'm involved with building, I'm not very familiar with what our marketing team is doing, btu from what I know, most fundraising, collecting money, is done by the students.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Currently, I think our team is really far ahead compared to previous years. We had the prototype done during the first week, and as of this weekend, started construction. We sent out outer plates to get machined this weekend, and are currently constructing all our motor mounts, and making final decisions on materials.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

are whole team is student led everything done all descions everything is finalized by students. This is our 4th year, as a rookie team everythign was mostly decided by mentors but after that everything has been put on student shoulders they tought us how to use all the machines now we just have a mentor behind us making shure we are doing everythign right, to give us advice and to make sure we are safe( safety goggles...etc) everything that is ordered is usually by a mentor casue the students are working on other things but 99% of everything is student led

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Our team is somewhat behind, we have been having some problems getting the robot down to a weight that we can work with, we have had to redesign some certian parts and it has put us behind. I have faith in the team that they will finish it.

-Aaron

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

My team is so incredibly behind any form a a schedule. We had a new mentor join and he gave that "we are going to run this team like a business" speech (any of you ever heard that) so he's trying to subdivide everything into mini-teams, so annoying. But yeah currently our robot is an Al box, just the frame >sighs< oh well

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

well usually its better to sub divide the team thats how my team works. There is a chassis group and a special applications group, programming...etc. How we start our meetings is that we are all together talk about what needs to get done and then we split up and get what we need to get done and then come back together and work out everything we find this much easier gets everythign done we need to and each group can tweak each others designs thats how we have worked since are second year

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We're pretty badly behind. Although we have been fortunate enough to receive all the parts in our KOP, everything since then has been a...well...clusterfudge. There was a massive catfight over whether or not we wanted to manipulate the 2X multiplyer. There was a massive catfight between Strategy and Design over what our robot could and needed to have. Our robot design has been raped and pillaged until it's been reduced more times than a...well, I was going to crack some joke about the economy, but I've got nothing. Suffice to say that I am fairly sure that our robot is going to be...less than good.

The biggest peeve for me, as prospective human player, has been the ball crisis. I don't understand how FIRST expects the human players to be able to adapt to a half-pound difference in ball weight, never mind differences in trajectory, rebound, etc.

MEH.

Ah well. There's always next year.

--Petey

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We're behind we're we were last year. Driving chassis with full playing field last year, chassis and playing field not done this year yet. But the schedule is not my biggest concern. We are adding more wheels and heavier wheels to a drivetrain/chassis that was over 70% of our weight last year. We have great upper sub-system ideas that I'm afraid we won't be able to implement because our base is way too heavy..ugh!

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

This is similar to my team this year, as our main mentor's daughter got a place in a sitcom pilot (or something like that), so we, the students, are left to all the fun money and management tasks. It's not too bad, as we actually got one girl who stepped up, and actually has everything under control, so things are moving along pretty well in that regard.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We are way way behind schedule!!! School was cancelled last Wed., Thurs., and Fri. (14th-16th) due to sub zero temps and MLK Jr. Day on the 19th, and no after school activities this past Thursday so we pretty much lost an entire week. Because of the closings we didn't even get our KOP until the 20th! :ahh:
Plus we are having some problems getting students to come. As much as I hate to do it if things keep going the way they have been this season us engineers may have to do most of the building to have any hope of finishing in time. :(

Good luck to all!
Kristin

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We're definitely not where we wanted to be. This is due to a combination of snow days and too many days off (no weekend or Wednesday meetings, and MLK Day off as well).

At least I know we're not alone... :D

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We are about half a day behind our schedule, which I attached.

Did our CDR on Satuday, and reoranized the shop which had become an attrocious mess. And by reorganized the shop, I mean me and the shop manager the past 3 years who was back from college cleaned and berated people at the same time. It was good fun. :)


Wetzel

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

you think your team is low? we have... 7, 8 people this year :ahh: we're behind the schedule set, but ahead of last years :yikes:

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Make that a day and a half behind now, with the possibility of falling behind another day tomorrow if the weather is as bad as they are predicting... or even if it isn't, the schools seem to close down at the drop of a hat around here...

Heidi

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

I am a week behind because I took a week long ski vaction in Vail. Good thing I am only in charge of programming :D There is nothing to program yet it is only the start of Week 3.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Well, i guess it depends on whose schedule you´re talking about...
We´re behind on our team schedule...our team, being from south america, we actually have 5 weeks bcuz our robot takes longer to ship to U.S. and we´re worried if that if we ship it feb 24 it wont get there in time for our regional (nj, first week of march)...our strategy is still a bit undefined.
I guess compared to other teams, however, we may be ahead...
our design´s done & everybody´s working like MAD (with the exception of THOSE few :yikes: ). Well we don´t have school til feb so we just pretty much spend our entire day working on our bot

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Last year we only had 5 people on the team

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We've had an exam period for the past week, so you guessed it, we worked on the robot and bombed our exams (except for my c++ programming exam :D ). Our robot was shipped to our team captain's house the day before exams, along with the TIG wleder, 150 lb argon tank (not quite nitrous, but 3600 psi still makes for a quick ride :yikes: ), shop tools and a variety of other goodies.

We spent our first week designing and making plans. From the second week on, we've been building. We're done our drive, plow and telescoping arm. We just need the 'guts' (electrical, programming). Sees as though our construction head was right, we'll have the final 2 weeks left for painting and souping up.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

lol this is funny. My team spent a week and a half bickering over the design and then scratched it and came up with a completly new one. so if that is not behind schedule I don't know what is. :ahh: oh well we are a week ahead of what we were last year.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

:yikes: :ahh: as of 1-28-2004 team NYACK will be pulling some over-nighters. all we have now is a piece of ply-wood attached to the beams. :ahh: :yikes:

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

66 is just about on track, but today is our second snow day in a row, so we're looking at meeting anyway. We are probably two weeks ahead of where we were at this time last season. Good luck everyone!

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Last year...man oh man...took us a full 2 weeks to come up with a basic idea for what we wanted to do. The last 4 weeks, we ran off the seat of our pants improvising at every build meeting, which were only scheduled 3 times a week. This year, God has been very goodto us. We had a set design within a week and a half and began buiding not long after that. We plan on having a chasis with wheels and possibly a drive train by the end of the week. We'll then have 3 weeks to practice driving, test autonomous and tweak it so that it will work (some fun stuff right there ;) ) and build our arm...that seems to be a popular design...Like I said, God has blessed us even more so than He did last year :]

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

FYI
Dean Kamen's #1 reality rule of project development is

"Fall behind early"

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We're way ahead of schedule compared to last year, about right were we actually want to be...

I only took use about 5 days to decide all the robot stuff (arm/hook/plow....), as compared to the week+ that it took last year.

We also burned our drill motors :ahh: , 2 weeks sooner than last year!!!
We're obviously way ahead :yikes:

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We're behind schedule... I guess that is ok for us because we are rookies this will be our first time doing this and its kinda hard, but the most hardest thing is getting back on time and stuff and getting the money that we need for it... Blah
well wish everyone good luck

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

right now: it's the third week lull

but all in all, my team is actually on top of things... we'll wait to see if we are behind schedule when the sixth week rolls around and we don't have a robot :D

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Team 814 isn't that far behind...But behind, never the less.
I guess one major factor of that is we only meet 5 days a week, and we ususally get kicked out of our work space earlier than we want to...All of the experienced members are busy tuesday/thursday afternoons and, well, what are new members supposed to do when there's no experienced members to tell/teach them what to do?
We haven't done anything but chassy and drive train. We don't have an arm design yet, and we haven't even touched electronics or programming. I think it's safe to say we're behind but it's also safe to say we will be shipping a fully-functional robot come the 24th...

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

we're not doing too bad. we've got our robot driving, and have stress-tested it. now it's time to lighten it :-) and we've got some other actuators working, but our biggest one yet (secret weapon muchos) has yet to be built. but i guess we're doing okay.

jason

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Here we are at the end of the third week and the status of Digital Fusion's code: Nothing written. :D

We should be starting actual coding on Saturday though. :)

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

Team 179's doing OK, but I wanted to let people know those pistons are delivering VERY SLOWLY. I ordered last Wednesday 21st and they just shipped yesterday the 29th and tracking says I'll get them on 2/4. So that's a 2 week lead time. Be prepared! Also we still haven't gotten all our KOP. This is frustrating, but I understand the onrush of all these teams. Just wanted to let people know to consider express shipping those piston orders.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

I take that back... we're wicked behind. Overnighters are called for once again :rolleyes: .

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

We are very on time Our team meets all week and every one of them works on somthing theres never a Clean Hand when we go home

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we are a little behind scince our cylinders are not getting to us until monday our ontroller board is on its way and we still have no parts that we were missing.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

The question should not be whether your behind schedule or ahead of schedule....instead it should be are you done or not!

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We just assembled the proto frame in the last couple of days. But we still have not received the gears we need from the supplier. PIC always has a 2 week lead time. So, we will not be able to put wheels on it until 2 weeks before shipping. This is not unusual for us; it also happened last year.

Re: Who is behind schedule
 

SNOW SNOW SNOW put us back and it could not have happened at a worse time,design finalization. Tomorrow we work double time 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
The only thing we have close to being done is our playing field and we are still waiting on our chin up bar. And worst of all we are going to see more of that four letter word SNOW :mad: