Are you all suffering from insomnia? Do you keep thinking of ways to design that robot while your still in bed? I just wanted to know if I’m the only one who gets up from bed at 1am suddenly wondering if the drills is more efficient at high or low gear.
(i actually got up just to look).
-anton
ps: pls gooddd, make it all stoppp!! the evil voices in my head!
I wish I could say it was just you… but… I have the same problem! I was up until 3am last night (morning!) debating the finer points of the drill motor transmission with fellow FIRST-addicts. This is maddening I tell you! MADDENING! 
(In case you didn’t find out, ye ole spreadsheet on the screen says the transmissions are 10% more efficent in high gear.)
I finally started keeping a sketch pad and flashlight on the nightstand …
I don’t think I’ve gone to sleep any time before 1 AM due to designing since the kickoff.
1am is when I usually go to bed. It doesn’t help that I keep having drive train ideas all the time.
The 1am trend seems to be a FIRST-wide epidemic. It’s been my average bed time as well… some force keeps me at my computer until the wee hours of the morning searching for random FIRST information. Perhaps there was some sort of drug in the kit…
WOW, I hate to copy everyone but 1AM is about the time for me. And I am sure all of you agree we go surfing through this forum a little to much lookign for ideas. I think it will be a great competition this year. Good luck to all teams. From the ComBBAT 21 Team. And of course, me, Mike.
P.S. I now have a sleeping bed on the floor so if I fall out of my bed with the “next best idea” I dont hurt myself in the process.
Yeah, I know, it seems spooky, we all going to bed at the same time and all, but we have a spiffy new motor that needs a spiffy new transmission! I’m up to the wee hours of the night designing drivetrain and debating strategy with myself, and I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.
WOW !
do all of you people spend all day on this robot thing ???
we do maybe 3 hours every day after school, thats about it…
how much time you guys spend on this ???
Martin
907
*Originally posted by Martin *
**WOW !
do all of you people spend all day on this robot thing ???
we do maybe 3 hours every day after school, thats about it…
how much time you guys spend on this ???Martin
907 **
Judging by your team number, I’ll assume you are a rookie team… Give yourself the 6 weeks… by the end, you’ll know 
Well ComBBAT spends 3 hours a day after school monday thru thursday. Then 6 hours on Saturday. Also any additional time that might be needed. The reason we stay up all night is thinking of good ideas and/or working on stuff at home. At least that is us. To win this thing remember you have to eat, drink, walk, sleep, think, and talk F.I.R.S.T.
We at 550 are students at Warren County Technical School, NJ, so we do robot-related activities six hours a day during school, every day. We meet for two hours after school every Tuesday and Thursday and sometimes Monday and Wednesday, in addition to 4-10 hours each Saturday and an occasional team lunch. We have every tool that we need to use close at hand, every day, whether it be a hammer or a CNC milling machine. The team core is a group of around a dozen students, but there are at least 100 students involved in our program. Planning and such is done generally individually and then discussed within the week. We’re a lot better organized now then we were a year ago when we were just begining to get a feel for FIRST. I’d suggest that a rookie team finish design and strategy by Monday, January 14, so you can get to building soon. Best of luck to all.
-Dan, who really knows what it feels like to be a rookie team.
*Originally posted by Martin *
**WOW !
do all of you people spend all day on this robot thing ???
we do maybe 3 hours every day after school, thats about it…
how much time you guys spend on this ???
Martin
907 **
If you stop working on any part of your “robot thing” you aren’t spending enough time on it. When you read that you have no life outside of FIRST for 6 weeks believe it. I know its hard to imagine but it’s the truth. Here is a phrase that is used often: What is sleep and where can I download it? THere are other common phrases but that is one to live by. Ideas will wake you up in the middle of the night and require immediate thought. I suggest the paper and flashlight by the bed, as said by Ed.
I personally am up into the wee hours myself, but thats mostly because I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn most mornings. It isn’t uncommon for me to still be awake at 3 or 4am I spend six weeks saying “what if…” to the brainiacs on my team. I figure if they can explain what they are thinking to me and I can understand it they will be able to find any bugs in the plan. That’s what happens when you have to break a design down really simply.
I am a fresmen that loves my sleep, but since this weekend, I have gone to bed at 12 (sorry). You really don’t have a life for 6 weeks. I sped 12 hours at school, then go home, eat, do homework, reasearch for FIRST, go on the boards, and then (mabey, if something I like is on) watch TV. If something I don’t like is on, I put in a tape of last years reagional to research. See, no life. As if I had one before FIRST;) 
…
usually i get to bed at a decent time, but i make sure i fall asleep thinking about designs, that way my subconscious unravels stuff the whole night and when i wake up i have answers. I know this doesnt sound too believable but try it, just keep thinking and youll drift off that way. The subconscious is the more intelligent part of the brain anyway
We have that problem licked! We think in our sleep. Multitasking at it’s finest!
Al
Yes, it is true that sleep becomes a very precious commodity…but you have to admit that all of this gets pretty darn exciting!
Many of us on team 811 have closed up shop every night this week at 11:00pm…and I have not climbed into bed until after 1:00am every morning. (I have to get my ChiefDelphi forum “FIX” before I go to sleep 
)
-Quentin
So much talk of thinking of ideas during sleep and of waking up from sleep with an idea.
How do all of you have time for sleep?
-smokescreen
only a few days later, well actually a day i believe, i posted that message…and now i truly understand…today i (not backing missing class) i skipped4th and 5th periods, tahts 2.5 hours and tehn after school 4.5 hours…i came in early in teh morning as well…so that mankes about 7 hours…im going crazy…and our exams start next week !!! Now i know what people mean when they say they are overworked…we got our base FINALLY…love the material 
… hey how many people on average on your teams…we got 10 productive people including me, and bout 7 people who refuse tobe productive, well if internet game sites are productive than they are the most productive of all
well its only 8pm, but im getting up early tommorow so i can get to school to work on the bot…i should be sleeping by 10
nite*
Matin
907
Well, I dunno, maybe its just the west coast or something, but we at GRT have been sticking around about 7-8 hours a day after school on weekdays, and then the classic 14-16 hour-a-day weekends. We’re a bit more time-intensive, and certainly some members are here more than others, and it varies depending on responsibilities. For example, much of the team was dismissed last night at around 7:00, but around 12 of us were debating and designing until 12:30am. It’s just so much fun, we’d rather not get home.
Oh, standard bed-time is around 2:30am. I have homework, too, ya kno…