How many hours?

[ChewyMasterFlex]

Our core team members work from the end of school (2:15) till 6~9, which puts a real strain on our schoolwork, and we spend from 9~6 on weekends. This may explain why one of our senior members failed a french class that is one level below what I am studying, and I'm a Sophomore....

And yet we haven't gotten out of the design phase...are we screwed or what?

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by Jeremy L
we're Wed and Thu 5-8 and Sat 9-4. WE get to sleep.

A mentor of ours says I need to teach the kids sleep hygiene, especially for during the regionals.

[whiskas]

It's summer vacations in Brazil ( unfair advantage? remember Dean's words: it's never a fair thing - though summer does bring its own difficulties ).
Our top5 students are in @ 8 AM and go as late as someone will leave the lab open ( usually last mentor/teacher will close it up around 8-9 PM ). With lunchtime breaks, etc, it ends up between 8-10hrs/day for 40++/wk, not counting weekends ( I haven't been there on a saturday yet ).
The mentors rotate shifts, I go mon/wed/fri, another goes tue/thu/fri, a third college student will do mostly everyday after his classes, and we have the full-time physics and robotics teacher during the typical working day hours.
But no matter the number of hours - we do get behind schedule. There are things hundreds of lab hours can't do ( external jobs, waiting for parts, ad infinitum... )

[Clark Gilbert]

We work 6 days a week, some people do 7.

Sunday- 1pm to 5pm (sometimes 6pm)

Monday thru Thursday- 2:25pm to 6:30(or 7:30)pm

Friday- Off..except for a few people, or a group here and there.

Saturday- 9am-whenever (around 5-6pm)

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

Well, team 1077 meets on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays, 6 hours a day. In total its 18 or so hours a week.... Yet, I know in the final 2 weeks we are going to be meeting 7 days a week trying to get the bot done. We always wait for the last minute.

[GateRunner]

Spam is working Monday thru Thurs., 6 to 8:30, and Sat 9 to 4
Of course, this is still technically the design phase, so thats a minimum.

[RoboCoder]

mondays: 20 students max 5-8 PM
wednesdays/thursdays: 10 students 5-8 PM
sundays: 11-7
tuesdays we have off to give us a bit of a break, as well as fridays and saturdays......maybe have to work more on week before ship day, depending on whether or not we have access to the shop :-P
hope to have drive train running tomorrow, so much relies on a working drive train already signifigant progress on rest of robot, hopefully should start going pretty quickly

[LaurenH]

Team 1064:
M-F: 6 to 10 pm (sometimes students start at 4)
Sat: 9 to 5/7pm
Sun: 10 to 5/6pm

Team 111 last year:
M-F: 5:30 to 10/11pm (for mechanical/electrical) then 10pm to 2/4am (for software)
Sat: 10am to 5/8pm
Sun: 11am to 5/7pm
(You had to love cram time: school to sports to FIRST to shower to school again. Sleep was for the weak or for the ones who could get some sleep behind the player station .)

[kmcclary]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
And yet we haven't gotten out of the design phase...are we screwed or what?

Hoo boy... Not yet, but you will be REAL soon if you don't start building SOMETHING.

Regardless of what your final "payload" is, my advice is to get your MULE going immediately.

Whenever in doubt, make the generic "skateboard" for a mule: Create a "box frame" 28" x 34" x 6-8" inches deep. This gives you an inch clearance all the way around for screw heads, etc., and plenty of volume inside for drivetrain motors, battery, and electronics. Use the provided materials, angle iron, box extrusion, or whatever. Stick a board in the bottom. Just get it MADE. (If you're planning on using the air pump, you may need an extra inch or two of height, or notch the board out.)

Put the provided drivetrain assemblies in the back, and casters in the front. Rules allow ANY wheels this year. If you don't like the provided wheels go to any hardware store or lawnmower supply, check out their wagon and lawnmower wheels, and while there pick up some sprockets, chain, and some master links for your desired final gear ratio. If necessary, a Dremel with a cutting disk works fine as a chain breaker. Just make sure you have enough ground clearance to crest the top of the ramp without hanging up on the upper lip, and you've got a mule that'll go ANYWHERE on this field.

With a board across the top (and access holes for battery, et al), you now have a basic drive chassis with a pristine flat surface to mount any old payload you wish, and billboards for sides. Note: If you don't want to use boards, you may need to add corner braces for frame stiffness. The gumball can be mounted somewhere on top later once you know where your payload will live.

This should take you two days at most to make, and will get you back on track.

Good luck!

- Keith

[Mimi Brown]

nd yet we haven't gotten out of the design phase...are we screwed or what?

Ths happned to us last year...it is a bad bad BAD situation to be in. One thing u can do is, on the weekend, sit down with the team and hash out your design. Dont let anyone leave until you are done, and consider that day your freeze date for modifying design.


Our team works every day the first week, then monday, thursday, saturday for two weeks, and then extended schedule (read--all free time) for the rest of the time.

But, i think the main question here should be how much pop/caffeine u consume, not how much time u spend building

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
And yet we haven't gotten out of the design phase...are we screwed or what?

That was part of the reason we had a very bad year last year. This year we had a design done in a very timely manner.

[ngreen]

We've been meeting 7 days a week
weekday our meeting begins at 5:45, we get lasanga today! and end at 10. Last Saturday the team( I was gone for SAT II's and a basketball tournament) began selling our raffle tickets at Kansas Day celebrations at 8 and were still working when I got back from my game at 8, and we worked for another 3 hours.
Sunday we meet when we can, we met from 10-3 last sunday, robotics is my religion, because of the superbowl. The time has paid off mostly, we are working of where to mount the pneumatic cyclinders on are working drivetrain. Once that is figured out we will be very near to test time.

[Katie Reynolds]

Wait ... are you counting the hours each individual puts into one week, or how many hours your team works in one week?

Our (original) team schedule:

Monday - Friday 3:30 - 9:00
Saturday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday off

Our team schedule (4 weeks into the build)

Monday - Friday 3:30 - 10:00
Saturday 8:00 am - 10:00/11:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Heh.

Anyway, the number of hours each contributing individual puts in is well over thirty hours. Our team puts in close to 500 man hours a week.

- Katie

[Macdaddy549]

WE'RE BETTER THIS YEAR. WE WORK FROM 6-9 TUESDAY AND THURSDAY AND 9-3 ON SATURDAY. WE MAKE THIS AS PRODUCTIVE AS POSSIBLE. WHY YOU ASK? BECAUSE IN THE PAST WE WERE HERE EVERYDAY AFTER SCHOOL TILL 9 PM TAKING ONE STEP FORWARD AND 3 BACK. NOW WE WE HAVE A TEAM THAT JUST WORKS ON THE DRIVE TRAIN, ONE THAT WORKS ON ELECTRONICS, ONE PROGRAMMING, AND TWO OTHER TEAMS THAT DO THERE STUFF. OUR MACHINE SHOP STUDENTS DO A LOT OF BUILDING DURING THE DAY FOR US. THE'RE A GREAT ASSET TO US!!! I'VE FOUND THAT IF I HOLD EVERYONE TO THESE TEAMS, EVERTHING MOVES MUCH SMOOTHER. TRY IT NEXT YEAR. I'M NOT STRESSED LIKE LAST YEAR WHEN WE NEVER SPLIT INTO TEAMS.

[Harrison]

Our main ppl work for the most part every day.

Monday to Friday we work from after school (3:00pm ish) until we all decide to go home (around 9:30-10:00pm at this stage).

Saturday, 9:00am until as late as 9:00pm.

Sunday, we usually take off, because we have homework from the entire week to do and catch up on.....plus we're mostly dead.

(ie right now, its 11:17pm, and I have been home for about an hour so far today)