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FIRST Robotics Competition Team 238
Bits and Bytes Newsletter
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October, November, and December were busy months for Team 238. From competing in three offseason events to a demo and training new members, we have had our fair share of craziness for the past three months. We also have been co-hosting RiverRage and helping out the school's Booster Club. Team 238 has been very busy preparing for the upcoming season by making sure that we have everything that we need for the kickoff of the 2020 game, INFINITE RECHARGE.
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Sunrise Labs Demo/Presentation
In October we presented and demonstrated to one of our crown sponsors, Sunrise Labs. We keep them informed about the team so that they know their financial support is being put to good use. The demo itself went excellently, we were prepared and had no major technical issues. The employees were all interested in our robot and the team as a whole. One of the employees was already involved with FIRST as a mentor for another team. They had a multitude of questions after the end of the main presentation, showing that they had genuine interest in our bot and team. One of the Sunrise Labs engineers also gave us a tour of their facility so we were able to see the interesting work they do. Doing these demos helps ensure that they will continue to support us in the future and show our appreciation of their generosity. Thank you Sunrise Labs!
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RiverRage
RiverRage is an FRC offseason event co-hosted by Memorial High School, West/Goffstown High School and Central High School teams. RiverRage is the oldest offseason competition for FRC, having completed its 23rd year. In addition to running the event, 238's alliance managed to make it to the finals; even though we lost 2-0, we put up a fight and it was a good set of matches. Our alliance’s strategy had us playing defense. One of our plays was to block the other team’s robots by going in between the robot and the rocket ship where they needed to go thus making it so they couldn’t reach to score. It was a great day. Thank you to all the teams and volunteers who attended and helped make it a success.
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Software Projects
The software team's current projects involve an ongoing foray into vision tracking using the Limelight camera, as well as a technical challenge (controlling LEDs in various configurations) for general software training. New software members are either working on this or have recently completed online Java training.
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Those who are finished training are working alongside more senior members to complete the technical challenge. Overall, we’re familiarizing ourselves with vision tracking, as well as getting all our members up to speed. An in-depth look into various approaches to PID control for autonomous modes is also in our near future.
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CAD Projects
The CAD team finalized the plans for our school’s Craft Fair layout as we help the Booster Club to set up the space for the booths for the event. We have now designed the layout for the entire event. Also, we are training new students on how to use CAD. New students are being taught on how to use OnShape; currently all of the new students are working on either making parts by measuring them or creating objects from scratch. We are preparing for the upcoming season by importing parts that we are projecting to use for the new robot.
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Craft Fair Setup
CAD was left in charge of designing the floor plan based off of a rough outline given to us by the Booster Club. We laid out the different booths, made a drawing, and printed it out. In addition to providing a floor plan, we also laid out the tape for the individual booths, and put out the mats in the gym and mini gym. As the Booster Club is a big supporter of our team, volunteering to help set-up the Craft Fair is our way to give back. The team wanted to show our gratitude for the previous donations that the Booster Club has given. We hope to continually be supported and support them down the road.
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Battle of the Bay
The Battle of the Bay is an offseason competition where teams from all over New England come and compete. The event is held in Alton, NH and is hosted by team 319. Overall, we did well as a team, after diagnosing a failed compressor to restore full functionality to the robot. The drive team did an excellent job at controlling and playing with a defensive robot. We were finalists with wonderful team spirit and great team participation. Thank you to FRC 319 for a great event!
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Setting Team Goals
This December, we dedicated one team meeting to setting our goals for this upcoming competition season. We started with watching this video on the IDEO shopping cart design process which we used to showcase the design process. From there the goal setting began! We discussed what we would like to achieve this season in robot, competition and team activities. We will use these goals to motivate us and further exhibit team values in a gracious manner.
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INFINITE RECHARGE Teaser
The 2020 FIRST RISE season is powered by Star Wars Force for Change and the new FIRST Robotics Competition game is INFINITE RECHARGE. This fall FIRST released a teaser video where we looked for clues to the new game which will be released on January 4, 2020. In the video there was a big emphasis on the loss of power, obviously this is related to the name INFINITE RECHARGE. There were also multiple tubes with rings of light around them likely to do with the amount of power in them. Not much is revealed but it is our guess that the game will be linked with gaining power and lighting up as many rings as possible. We are looking forward to kickoff!
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INFINITE RECHARGE Teaser
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FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff
The kickoff for this season and our new game INFINITE RECHARGE is on Saturday, January 4th. The team will be attending the kickoff event at Southern New Hampshire University and we can’t wait to see our new challenge and the playing field.
Follow along at https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/game-and-season or https://info.firstinspires.org/frc-season-kickoff
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January 4th
Kickoff
January 22nd
Friendly Toast Fundraiser
Bedford, NH 4-9pm
February 15th
Week 0 Pre-Season Event
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March 14th-15th
North Shore District Event
March 28th-29th
Southern NH District Event
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