I think most of us can related to this cat … so much snow everywhere. Hope everyone is safe. Hopefully still have some wins - good FIRST CHOICE hauls (or like, anything useful?) CAD progress? Software not making you rip what remains of your hair out?
I demo’d a little hack-afternoon project I did at work and it was met very positively, spending a little more time on it now to see if there’s a good product fit.
Seeing FIRST HQ post a message about a decade past due. Calling that a win.
Win: had school grounds closed all week because of snow
Loss: had school grounds closed all week because of snow
I give up, @Zatack7 you win 
After juggling some robot concepts and prototyping we are headed down a path.
Ran through the requirements again and discovered I am way closer to my PhD candidacy exam than I thought, so that’s exciting and terrifying.
we finally received our kit, and we now have our sacred note
Just got our Stage field build done, just have to add the trap and microphones tomorrow. For that, a 12-hour day in the shop should suffice. (I’m considering that its own win!)
Happy end of week 2 everyone, I’m scared we will have seen some 7 or 8 piece autons posted by next Friday (at this pace!)
Don’t worry, we’re supposed to get some rain down here in SoCal over the weekend. I’m sure that’ll be juuuussst fiiiiinnnneee… (Considering the drivers down here can’t drive in GOOD weather!)
Meanwhile, in other news, I’m close to yet another 584 million miles traveled (Sunday).
And the big project at work is outperforming expectations, so far at least. (Now if the accessory units would behave themselves…)
Win: in the last week, my area has received like 4 feet of snowfall. And this was coming from a Christmastime with zero or near zero snow depth. We’ve finally caught up to last year on snow depth but nowhere near on total snowfall.
And we only lost one meeting despite two snow days.
This has been a strange week. We lost the Saturday but then were able to meet Tuesday, not Wednesday because of the cold though. Then Thursday was fine. It’s been snowing like mad almost every day it seems.
Our KitBot Auton is running the basics with the time we had. We got the Speaker built and now will finish the amp and start on the source.
At work a big project I was on is ending so I’ll get back to some stuff I’ve been neglecting. Really missed those other projects so that’s a win definitely.
Final win, we are hiring a former team member as a paid software intern. He starts next week! Gotta keep it in the family! Right now about 40% of the junior staff came through FIRST. Upper level staff is closer to 20% have been involved in some way.
A long-time mentor, who many of you know, has been hospitalized for over a month. (I won’t mention his name or diagnosis for privacy.) Lately he has been showing signs of improvement.
Tell them that we’re all rooting for them here on CD 
It’s been way too long, but I’m finally making progress on my cast iron corn muffin transport case. I have all the foam pieces cut both outside and inside. Gluing left to go, and cutting off a corner of the internal pieces for easy removal. I expect to finish before the weekend is done.
Winter is no longer coming. It arrived with a vengeance (and maybe some dire wolves, hard to say).
Pictures of our souper sekret vacuum shooter on 4-bar on arm on elevator on turret on swerve robot with through the bumper intake are embargoed, so you’ll just have to make do with a winter picture.
Error on line 1 ambiguous type
Are these normal muffins but made from cast-iron corn?
Or are they corn muffins that are made from cast iron?
Or is this a case of transporting both cast iron and corn muffins?
Or is this a case made of cast iron specifically for transporting muffins?
Prototype electrical board was made, and new batteries came. Parts shortages meant we can only make 4 right now. Had to say goodbye to our last 2020 competition battery in our comp. cycle, still at .025 so it’s a decent backup still:
Finals also started two days late, don’t have to do anything though
This is a mostly plastic Pelican style transport case, with closed cell foam rubber padding. I shall use it to transport cast iron pans used for baking corn bread. And OBTW, my latest corn bread recipe is all corn and therefore gluten free.
All Corn Cornbread (gluten free¹)
Yield: 12 to 16 servings
Prep time: 10 to 20 minutes
Baking time: 20 to 25 minutes
Total time: 30 to 45 minutes
Wet ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 cup milk²
½ tsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp vegetable oil³
Dry Ingredients:
1 cup corn flour (masa flour)¹
⅝ cup corn meal¹
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
Also, water as needed.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400-425°F. If using cast iron pans⁴, also pre-heat the pans.
Break the eggs into a 2qt (or larger) bowl⁵ and beat (until whites are broken up and yolk well mixed).
Mix in other wet ingredients.
Add dry ingredients, mix until all are moistened.
Add water as needed and mix in to make a batter which pours smoothly.
A whisk taken out of the batter should shed most of the batter and mostly stop dripping
within two seconds.
If using cast iron pans, remove from oven with oven mitts.
Spray inside surfaces of pan(s) generously with cooking oil (e.g. Pam).
Pour batter into pans. Batter will roughly double in volume during baking, so not much more than half full.
Place pans in oven and bake until a wooden toothpick comes out clean, usually 20-25 minutes.
[Holding the pans with oven mitts], the cornbread should fall cleanly out with the pan inverted and
given a good shake. If not, be more generous with the cooking spray next time.
Notes:
The recipe just says milk. Both recipes I based this on called for
skim milk, but I used what I had on hand, which meant 2% for the v1
and test v2 runs at home, and whole milk for the production run
at church. If made with skim milk, a bit more oil may be desired.
Any vegetable oil should work. I used olive oil every time
because this is what I had easiest on hand at both home and church.
I cooked these in Lodge cast iron 8 section wedge muffin pans (BW8WP);
each does a half recipe (yes, I have four pans for the double recipe;
I am fitting a Pelican style case with closed cell foam so I can
transport them safely). Cast iron gives a nice toasty crust
that I like. I am fairly confident this single recipe will not overflow
an 8x8x2 inch pan, and don't expect a double recipe to
overflow a 9x13x2 pan, but I haven't tested either and would put
a cookie sheet or at least a sheet of aluminum foil underneath at
least the first time to catch a spill should it happen.
Especially if using muffin pans, I recommend mixing this in a bowl with a handle and
spout suitable for the pour to simplify both the pour and cleanup. I used some
3.6 qt Osnell USA plastic mixing bowls with pour spout from Amazon to mix all three
test cooks, including the half and double batches. All three sizes worked well,
and were easy cleanup. The greatest thing about these bowls was that they have large
radius curves, incredibly friendly to a whisk both at mixing and scraping.
Not the win we were hoping for, but we turned a wheel in space.
My last orthopedic visit cleared me to get out of the cast, into a boot. Also cleared to start the six month physical therapy regime. Fingers crossed that I can drive by mid-Feb. Thank you science for titanium plates and screws!
We got our really old CNC, which has previously only worked cutting plastics/wood, to finally cut metal with success! It’s nice to be able to make custom parts in house.
And we sent robot metal off to be anodized last Friday, putting us solidly ahead of where we were this time last year.
Me personally, received our first shipment of new machines for the school’s manufacturing lab (2 mill/drills and a 53" foot shear). The days of ripping sheet metal on a bandsaw before using the shear are gone. Thank goodness. (3 new lathes are due to arrive early February, which will take me back up into the double digits on lathes, which will really help in my classes).
Win: It snowed and we luckily didn’t get locked out of our shop because of it
Not a win: Its been below 32F for the past week and will finally go above tomorrow… after which it will rain for 2 days.