Week 6 and still not finished!
 

:( WARNING: This is a head coach venting!

It's Sunday at the beginning of week 6, 11am. 14" of the white stuff is on the ground and still falling! 2nd year in FIRST and the robot still isn't finshed. Chassis, done! Electrical panels mocked up but not fabricated in polycarbonate yet. Shooter, done. Tilt and swivel assembly for shooter about 65% done. Ball collector/conveyor, about 50%. Ball hopper, less than that. Crate, not built yet! Like last year, we have a great design, but because we try to stick with the philosophy "student designed, student built", things just take a long time. Programming, 85% done. We are submitting an Inventor design for the 1st time along with a 3ds Max animation. Animation, done; Inventor submission, not yet. Website, done and being updated daily! Chaimans award submission, in progress; Woodie Flowers Award, the same. We are doing outreach to a team in a local urban area. 2 of 3 engineer/mentors are currently out of the country. 2 of our teacher/advisors are inactive because of work/family obligations. I guess we bit off more than we could chew, again! We'll get it all done, but...I just wish we could figure this out. :eek:

Phil Paspalas
Head Coach - Team 1676
The Pascack Pioneers
2005 NJ Rookie All-Stars
Runner-up: Montclair Mayhem
Champions: Ramp Riot (Thanks 25!)

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

You are much further along that we are.

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

Ditto...

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

same here... we just drove for the first time yesterday, and we found a few problems

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

Ya..I gott admit same here.. We have quite a bit to do this week.

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

well 1568, is almost done but big problems lie ahead...we have about a week left and:
the shooter is done but not mounted, yesterday we finished the ball pick up mechanism and mounted it...works with a 99.9 % accuaracy by the way, we still need to mount and build a hopper..
Just for kicks:
the bot..Regit 2 weighs 101 lbs, without the battery,

but, this is one of the things FIRST is about...teamwork and countless manhourrs to build a highly effective bot...good luck to all the teams out there still building away

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

Hey at least u guys HAVE students..

I'm practically the only student building along with 2 mentors, the rest...

plays dodgeball

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

Yeah, well Team 204 has some more work to do, we are the entirely finish but like 65% done. We are still working on some stuff and finishing trying to get more sponsors for us to attend the Championship.

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

With reference to the real robot (not prototypes), we have our frame machined and welded. The machining for everything is probably 2/3-5/7 complete. The conveyor has not been started. No assemby has taken place. However, we have been programming non-stop since the start of week 2.

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

FIRST is an eternal learning process. No one ever "get's it right" because the challanges change every year. Just be ready to roll with the punches and deal with what comes your way.
From the sound of things you guys will be fine. So relax.

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

there is ONLY one way to have your robot done 1 week before ship date so that your drivers can have practice before it goes in the crate:

Schedule and Milestones.

BEFORE the kickoff you must have a schedule that indicates what must be done by the end of each of the 6 weeks. Those accomplishments are your major milestones.

If you dont meet your milestones by the end of the 1st week, you must either pull an all nighter (that weekend) to get back on schedule, or revise your plans to make your robot simpler. Every weekend its the same - project status review and if needed a plan to recover or simplify.

Once you are behind schedule its very difficult to catch up. If you let your milestones slip for 4 or 5 weeks, you are in deep weeds! If you could not do a task 2 weeks ago how will you magically do it this week, along with all the other things that are suppose to get done this week?

Project management is crucial for a successful FIRST team.

Project management is crucial for every successful engineering team!

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

I know the feeling, this is my 6th year in First and every year we have our struggles. Believe me it will hopefully come together just keep on moving forward and try not to look back on what has happened in the last 5 weeks. Good Luck!

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

we are done with our robot completely

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

I think there's alot of teams that wish they could say that right now.

I remember tossing an idea around right after kickoff of having the officers inform the rest of the team that we only have 5 weeks to finish this year... just to assure we'll have a good week to test and stuff. Deadlines seem to have some motivation in them.

Oh well, one week to go, we just have to make sure we have a robot by then.

Re: Week 6 and still not finished!
 

You'll finish. You are further along than we have been in during previous years. Remember that most teams have a 3 day weekend due to President's Day. My team actually has Friday-Monday off becuase Friday is a teacher inservice day and Monday is President's Day.