I turn to chiefdelphi in a time of slight crisis on team 125. Here is a brief recap of what is going on:
Due to a shipping mishap our robot is still in boston… We are competing at the arizona regional which happens to start thursday. Our team is leaving tomorrow at 2 pm to start our journey to Phoenix…
We have talked to fedex and we have arranged for the robot to be OVERNIGHTED to the arizona regional. The robot will not leave until tomorrow so it gives it less than 24 hours to make its way from boston to phoenix.
The problem is everything needs to go right for the robot to have a chance at making it to the regional on thursday. Theres a solid chance the robot will not make it to the regional until thursday night, or even some time on friday.
With all of this we are trying to make sure we have our plan Bs and Cs in order in case something were to not go our way. Were asking if your team has any extra materials, kit bot frames, wheels, motors, electronics, batteries you name it and you could bring them along with your supplies we would greatly appreciate it.
We also ran into another problem involving the lack of ability to bring batteries with us on the plane. We have 1 battery in the crate i believe, however as most of you know this does not go very far. We also have no means of bringing a cart over to arizona so if your team has anything that rolls we would greatly appreciate it if you could help us out and bring that with you.
If you would like to contact me directly you can email me at anytime at mortgeek[AT]gmail[DOT]com. We leave boston at 4:50 pm eastern time and arrive in arizona at 10:40 pm mountain time.
Thank you to everyone in advance for anything you can provide. We really appreciate it and we hope that the robot we worked so hard on actually shows up…
We’re about 200 miles from phoenix, so we can’t be as much help as we’d like to…but we are bringing our leftover kit parts with us for those who need them. Probably not a big help, but there are wheels in there, and all the non-CIM motors.
I’ll be checking out what parts we have left over tomorrow, and see what we can bring you guys.
We have a small extra cart and a bunch of old batteries that we can probably bring. I just need to get to our closet of stuff and check with the rest of team of what were not using.
Marcus, just a reminder that batteries prior to 2007 are illegal for competition, so only 6 of our total batteries (the 4 from last year and the 2 this year) are legal.
I’ll be an extra hand for team 125 once I arrive if they’re in need of a programmer of just another worker. I won’t be getting to the competition until lunch break on Thursday but I don’t have any project I’m really helping my team with until Friday when scouting starts to get important.
As part of the van loading crew for 1726 I’ll do my best to sneak our spare kit bot chassis and some of our spare electronics (distribution blocks etc) into the van. Sorry to hear about the mishap.
Just sent your request to my team, will you need any helping hands? we could also probably find someone that can do part runs to the local stores if needed.
This team has instituted a program in the Boston area called “Ask an Engineer” that is dedicated to helping out other teams, no matter where they are from, get through the process of building a robot and building an team from the engineering perspective. It has become wildly successful in MA.
The whole premise is, if your team gets stuck and needs a resource, needs a question answered, needs a part machined, needs some CAD work, needs information on how to write an effective Chairman’s Award, needs website help…needs ANYTHING related to a FIRST team, “Ask an Engineer” can provide it.
I personally witnessed them in action in 2007 at the Boston Regional get 9 Rookie teams up and running on Thursday! They have a work ethic and a passion for FIRST like you wouldn’t believe!!
My whole point is this: they have given to the program soooo much. Now they are in a bind and they need help. Let’s give some back folks…get them some hardware out in AZ just in case their robot does not make it in time. You’ll see a competitive robot come out of this with the 125 NUTRONS name all over it!!!
A small cart would be absolutely perfect…any batteries you can spare would be fine as well.
Cory we checked with our airline yesterday. We asked if we could check non spillable lead acid batteries and got a stern “NO”. We told him they were non spillable so they will be fine, he again gave us a “NO”. I do not know why, but apparently its a no.
We also hope our trip is speedy.
Awesome thank you.
Capable hands are somethign we have plenty of however we may need parts and what not so that would be awesome, thank you.
We are leaving today at 2 pm and we are hoping the robot is on route to phoenix by then. Hopefully all of you will get to see it.
Hmm… I wonder if we took all of the motors off of Speed Racer if the remaining chassis would meet the 25-pound limit for upgrade parts? Speed Racer could just be tucked into a big suitcase and you wouldn’t even need a cart!
Airlines seem to have a way of not knowing everything at times–I’ve been told that buttons weren’t a good idea by one airline, but had absolutely no trouble at at least two TSA checkpoints. If you can find a non-traveling buddy, I’d try bringing the batteries to the airport with all the documentation you can muster. If TSA or the gate staff say no, just leave the batteries with said buddy. It’s a shot.
Just to reiterate what Mr. Henry said earlier in the thread… if you can help team 125 out in any way, please do! These guys (and gals) are the real deal!
About half of the teams at the Boston regional have benefited from the help of this team over the years, especially now with the “Ask an Engineer” program. I would go out on a limb to say a bunch of these teams wouldn’t have been able to even compete at least years regional if it wasn’t for the NUTRONS. They strip their team down to high schoolers and 1 college student for the events, and dedicate all of their additional mentors and students to helping other teams. It is quite amazing.
looks like we can bring them, if in a box and labeled, only thing is the wording about it having to be with the wheel chair of mobility device could snag us, and even though Air Tran allows it, in the end its up to the FAA/TSA to decide if it can come.
Air Tran? I know 330 has brought batteries on the plane before on Air Tran. They were in boxes or the kit totes. The boxes then went into the crate for the return trip. Only one box was sent back, and we had covered for that by having someone who wasn’t going wait until the bags and boxes were checked.