Written By Dylan C, Medha G
1/7 The Day After Kickoff
Being a Sunday afternoon, everyone was anxious to start work on prototyping the assigned subsystems they received on the kickoff. Starting at noon the party was slowly getting started. As Bob Marley said best, “We’re jammin’ ” and jamming we were. We had a speaker to keep the mood high and the hours short as we got to work.
For six hours, a few members started work on solutions for shooting. Everyone in the room on Sunday attempted to work and solve the problem of shooting the ringed-shaped notes. By the time the sun was set, Talon members already had a frame of their prototypes done. Some members were even able to get a few test shots in before the evening decided to call it quits.
1/8 Prototyping Madness
Just like an active battlefield, our open room started the second the school bell rang and classes ended for the day. Fortunately, a majority of team members were present, so no time was wasted constructing various mechanisms for our prototyping. Monday was a simple day. We had snacks to keep us going, and all hands were on deck. The best highlight from Monday easily has to come from the snowman army that some members made towards the end of the evening.
Besides a frosty evening, our Marketing Subteam met back up for the first time in the year. They mainly worked on researching new companies to contact, but they also emailed old faces from the previous season. Their hard work cannot go unappreciated as they have already got the team new sponsors for the season, feel free to check out our Sponsors Page, to see our modern sponsors.
1/9 Tuesday Tricks & A Buzzing New Feature.
Taking inspiration from RI3D Videos, new and old members have been excited to see what others have come up with as solutions to our many challenges. Tuesday was yet another long day full of prototyping, yet even more, members were able to take their attempts on the riddle that is Crescendo.
Toward the end of the evening, it was time for the team’s favorite weekly tradition: Team Meetings. While it was a quick one, Everyone got to get a quick look into upcoming build events that are happening in the coming weeks. Besides our awesome sauce box, the best news of the night came at the end of the meeting. Captains Paul and Dylan both promised to get a buzz cut if the team progresses to worlds. Only time will tell if their promise will become a reality.
Finally, the end of the night saw the success of one shooting prototype that was partially assembled in the prior day. The video below demonstrates the prototype’s beauty in action.
1/10 Wed-NES-DAY.
Today we broke into groups to continue making our prototypes. Gabe B., Calvin B., and Anish P were continuing to work on their Under The Bumper intake prototype, While asked about their intake they all collectively thought that “It sucks”, but the whole team wishes it gets better for them.
Meanwhile, we continued testing one of our shooter prototypes and working on progressing different designs. After multiple adjustments and trying to get it to shoot as far as possible, the prototype keeps getting better. Another intake group continued work on their prototype. And after four open rooms and using more zip ties and duct tape than screws, they finally finished their Over The Bumper intake prototype. After testing, it worked, and there was a short moment of celebration. Here is a word from some of the builders-
“The intake is intaking” – Audrey T.
“Our intake is better than [Gabe B., Calvin B., and Anish P.] their intake BECAUSE IT’S DONE.” – Ally L.
Halfway into the open room, we had an awards meeting where we started efforts on our entry for the Woodie Flowers Award, as well as our Impact Presentation. At the end of the day, we got a lot of work done on our robot and various other projects and everyone had a great open room!
1/11 Thursday Prototyping Showoff & Voting
Finally, after a couple of days of our team members working hard on making prototypes. It’s time to present! We had 8 different prototypes shared throughout the night.Our team’s prototypes included solutions for intakeing, shooting, dual wheel shooting, climbing, and finally trap scoring. Great job to all of the groups who presented their prototypes! After a pros and cons list, and a bunch of discussion, it’s time to vote! The results came in, (thanks for counting, Nolan) our team decided to go with an over-the-bumper intake paired with a horizontal roller shooter. Now comes the hard part, building and CADing our robot to completion.
2/11 CADing Extravaganza
Today may not have been the largest of a building day, but the team was still super busy. Yesterday, we decided on the overall shape and design of our robot. Today, however, we started the process of designing it. As Riley, one of our build captains tells us, “We were working on CADing our rollers for the Intake”, which is an important step in the early stages and the overall building of our robot.
At the same time, a few members were working on creating new, exciting projects for the Talon Girls Initiative, an initiative to take action and get more girls exposed and interested in STEM fields. It was a very productive brainstorming session and allowed us to think of many new exciting projects to expose girls to the world of robotics.
Overall, though today’s open room was a little less hectic than most, it allowed us to relax while getting a lot of important work done for the season, and we were able to bounce around ideas. With a stable start, we head into the season.
2/12 FRI-Yay
Friday’s occurrence of the room was quite simple. With our team’s robot strategy in place, everyone was finally able to start CADing the robot in peace. With music going, OnShape was open and everyone had their parts to work on. While pretty basic, Openroom had a lot of socializing and fun. The Design team was super productive and the team was one step closer to finishing the CAD of the robot.
2/13 SATUR(CAD)AY
Just like Friday…. CAD occurred. Nothing else. Like for real… only CAD. But hey, they finished. I don’t know how that’s humanly possible. But our robot is all kitted out. Yeah, that’s it! CAD
CAD
2/14 SONday
When messaging other team members about what happened that day, it seemed like it was a fever dream. The robot was fully completed in CAD, yet some members were still making revisions to the assembly. The majority of the day was the CNC running on repeat. Nothing else really happened on Sunday, yet the team was productive.
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