Dilema...

[Yov]

Our teacher told us it'd be 7 days a week, from 4 PM to 2 AM.
It put everyone off pretty much (not me actually), glad to hear it's not that much (for other team member's sake).

[Steve W]

Simple question that is not. There are teams that work on their robots 3 - 4 times a week for 4 hours. Then there are teams like mine. I personally arrive after work ( 3:30 pm) and work till about 11:00 pm every night. Saturdays 9 am till 8 pm and Sundays 2 pm till 11 pm. Closer to ship there may be one or two all nighters. There are others on the team that show up once or twice a week. A lot depends on how complex you want to make it and how dedicated all of the students are. Each year I have said we will follow the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method yet last year was one of our more complex robots. This did not have to be. If time is a factor, you want to enjoy the experience and you don't want to wear your mentors out, just remember KISS.

[Allison K]

Originally Posted by Yov

Our teacher told us it'd be 7 days a week, from 4 PM to 2 AM.
It put everyone off pretty much (not me actually), glad to hear it's not that much (for other team member's sake).

Haha. On my team there was always a group of us that were there until all hours of the morning, but it was by choice.

Mentors at 11 - "Time to start wrapping things up"
Students at 11 - "Okay just let us finish this one part"

Mentors at 12 - "Done yet"
Students at 12 - "Yes but it didn't work just let us try one more idea"

Mentors at 1 - "It's really getting late, finish up"
Students at 1 - "Do we have too"
Mentors - "Yes, we need sleep"
Students - "There's plenty of floor space"

And so on ... all night.

[aaronbr28040]

When you actually start doing the work it seems like you have been working an hour when you've actually been there for 4 hours. I remember thinking it was a huge time commitment when I first heard about the team at my high school but I never really thought about how much time I put into the team when build season started. It got to the point that I felt that I couldnt spend as much time working on the bot. They had to force me to leave every night.
-Aaron

[Yov]

We actually have couches (kinda) in our robotics class heh

As long as I can tell my classmates that there are less hours involved than originally thought, it's good news.

[Ryan M.]

Actually, apparently it doesn't vary that much.

In the first week or two, my team meets 3 days during the week and pretty much all day Saturday.

After that time, which is where we discussed design and stuff, we split up into groups which will work on various aspects of the design. For instance, last year we have a goal grabber team, a hopper team, an arm team, a drive train team, and a controls team. Each of these groups was responsible for getting their work down and was allowed to come in when they felt in necessary. I showed up every day, because I'm a loser like that () and I had time, but some groups continued to meet just a few times each week, as they had relatively simple jobs.

And the simple jobs thing brings up a point. As a rookie team, or even as a more experienced team, simple is good. It takes less time, is less likely to fail, etc. But even simple still means you stay up till midnight the day before ship.

[Yov]

Well actually we'll probably be working more hours than most caus we have a literature final RIGHT in the middle of the time frame, and it requires study time, so it would be made up for in regular day overtime.
That is unless we manage to move the final

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Yov

Well not all of us here speak english heh...

Ut-oh. Time to see if theres a suitable vBulletin translation available. (it has multi-language support for a reason..)

I suppose that won't help with the posting, though. Hrm.

[MissInformation]

And don't be surprised if you and your team members get so hooked that you find yourself spending more and more time on the robot just for the fun of it...

My team starts off meeting Monday-Thursday, 7 to 9 (p.m.) and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to until about 5 p.m. As the weeks progress, it goes from 6 to 10 (p.m.) and Saturdays will push back as far as the janitors will keep the school open and as long as the adult supervising the room can stay (I'm usually that adult on Saturdays, and I'm easy to convince to stay). Two years ago, we really started enforcing a time limit on meetings and we found that having a time limit on the meetings seemed to help focus students on doing the work that needed to be done.

If you still think you'll need to do some convincing of your team members, try showing them some of the existing teams' websites; often they have photos posted of their teams in action. Team 116's photo site can be found here:

http://www.invisiblerobot.com/robotics/#PRE2005

I really hope you can convince your team to participate in FIRST, not only because I think FIRST is wonderful, but also because I'm excited to hear updates on how your team advances!

Heidi

[Yov]

Uh...
I think I'll just give them the jist of it in our native tongue

[Franchesca]

Originally Posted by Yov

Well actually we'll probably be working more hours than most caus we have a literature final RIGHT in the middle of the time frame, and it requires study time, so it would be made up for in regular day overtime.
That is unless we manage to move the final

Well, I think it'll be hard to move a final, but I would recommend you to try to come up with some sort of schedule that doesn't compromise your school work. You, along with everyone in your team must find a way to balance their school work with the amount of work that you have to dedicate to FIRST and building the robot. Make sure that you specify that to them that way, they are prepared for it when the time comes.

Good Luck!! And AGAIN: WELCOME TO FIRST!!

[Yov]

Well we're not really in FIRST yet, you may have won me over but I have a class full of sceptics...
Moving a final really isn't that hard actually, the school system here is very different than in the USA as far as I can gather, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself, enough research/learning 3d programs/looking at robot pics for today, I'm getting my hopes up a bit too high.

[Billfred]

Going back to the time thing...

At 1293 last year, we met Tuesday nights 6-8 PM (ish), then Saturdays from about 9 to 5. The week of shipping, we did have a few later nights, but we were normally out by 10:00 PM (after starting around 4:00).

Would more time be useful? Probably. Would more time be necessary for the completion of the robot? Doubtful.

[Ken Loyd]

Originally Posted by Yov

We actually have couches (kinda) in our robotics class heh

As long as I can tell my classmates that there are less hours involved than originally thought, it's good news.

Yov,

We work on our robot every night after school and on Saturday. We have several students on our team, so we break up the work schedule so that students only work two nights a week and half a day on Saturday. This allows more students to have "hands on" with the robot. It also allows them time for their other classwork. Very few of our students ever suffer "burnout". Most of the time the mentors need to force students to go home.

Ken

Ken

[Tom Bottiglieri]

FIRST is like riding a bike. At first it may seem hard and confusing, but after a few tries you get the hang of it and its smooth sailing from then on out.