FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

As a rookie, I can tell you that i have never been more excited and passionate about anything i can remember. :D

yesterday we completed our bot mechanically and let me tell you.... i was jumping up and down like a 12 year old girl going to a boy-band concert :ahh:

we totally over estimated the forces and heights and ended up with an arm that can stack the highest goal more than 10 tetras up.... :D

we will be posting pictures soon (when the photographer=web developer and when it's the website crunch time, he's kind of busy).

I'd like to thank FIRST for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I've learned so much!

victors, spikes, programming, interrupts, pots, AWG wires, aluminum welding, force calculations, stability calculations, gear ratios, product design, 3d sketches, drilling, using jig saws, WEARING SAFETY GLASSES, vice grips, PVC glue, reading catalogs, understanding new terms, applied trigonometry and analytical geometry.... the list goes on!
:yikes:

GO FIRST!

-Leav

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

hehehe...you've caught the bug:) you're now officially addicted!

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Its a good bug too. :)

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

It is a wonderful feeling, I know. During my rookie year, everything to me was like eye candy... I am always looking at other peoples robots, and be amazed at what some people think of for their robots. I see our machine shop in action, and just be in awe at what some components in the machine shop can do.. I fell in love with the CNC cutting device when I saw it in action. I am now pursuing a career in engineering, and none of this would have happened to me, and anyone else if it weren't for FIRST.
Thank you Dean Kamen, Woodie Flowers, Dave Lavery, and everyone else for making everyones dream come true. :)

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

The feelings mutual :D

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Haha yes FIRST definately holds the key to my heart...and everything that goes with it (except maybe the evil chop saw in the basement)

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Resistance is futile.

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Here I am, sitting at my computer, stubbornly refusing to go to bed even though my eyes keep trying to close on their own, wondering why I keep going to meeting after meeting, night after night, wondering if I'll survive this upcoming weekend or if I should just roll myself up into our practice carpet until spring, cringing when I think of the thousands of photos I have to go through, the multitude of buttons that have to be made and then along comes a post like this, which points out, ever so sweetly, why I give the first two months of the year to my team. Which is very good because the carpet thing wouldn't have worked anyhow, seeing as how they'll be using it tomorrow.

So thanks for the smile!

Heidi

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

I'm glad FIRST is impacting many new rookies. I hear the good and bad from teams and I'm glad to hear the good. FIRST made my life way cooler starting in 7th grade. I wanted badly just to see the competition that my big bro was going to and well yeah since then I've been hook. FIRST bug just has a way of getting you. :)

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

i had that exact same experience when I first got invovled. To tell the truth, I didn't even plan to participate the first time I had hard of the robotics team at school. I was thinking: "engineering? not for me" But I was pressured into it by all my friends and lo and behold, 4 years later, I am a victim of FIRST addiction.

I always wanted to know, how do they do it?

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!! IT REALLY IS!!! (those caps were justified i tell ya)

I've learned so much its absurd. I don't know how it all fit into my head. This is my fourth year and while it is still far from easy, I feel like i know robotics like the back of my hand. Weight of a cubic inch of aluminum, easy, .1 pounds. 3d model of a forklift to stack a tetra 10 feet, piece of cake. Do they make neoprene mesh that we can add to our wheels to give them insane traction, yup.(oops ;)) Theres so much more beyond the engineering that I can't even describe. Running a team, driving a robot, cheering like a lunatic just let out from an insane asylum. But I'm going to stop now because its late and I have homework I should be doing instead of sitting up reading chiefdelphi.

One happy addict here.

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Leav-And you're just excited about the robot part. Wait till you meet all the other people! Thanks for reminding us how much fun this can be.

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Welcome to FIRST, its a new way of life.
My rookie year I loved everything that i saw, in our shop and build area and then on to the comps, My rookie year I took a picture of every bot at the comps that i went to, well not all cause I couldn't get all the bots at Nat's but I got about half of them. And remember that it only gets better from here... :)

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

The addiction never goes away... trust me. It's now inside of you, watch out before you decide to go to college here in the USA and eat/sleep/breath FIRST in every day (assuming you go to a school that's addicted to FIRST, there's another thread about that topic).

Congrats! We look forward to your presence at FIRSTahoics Anonymous!

Re: FIRST IS AMAZING!!!!
 

Wait till the Israel Regional, then you'll really be excited.