Author: David Brinza

Team 980 linked up with Boy Scout Troop 351 for the 2014 Scout Expo, held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Sat May 31. We created a very popular exhibit: “You can be an Engineer!” for earning the Webelos Engineer Activity Badge.

 

Thousands of scouts saw our exhibit and learned about what engineers do: create the future! Webelos interviewed engineering mentors from Team 980, experienced “hands-on” exhibits for electrical circuits and generators, block and tackle pulleys, and took home a miniature catapult they constructed from tongue depressors, rubber bands and a plastic spoon.

Team 980 demonstrated our 2014 robot, which attracted a lot of attention when we catapulted the ball. Our sister robotics team, Team 2404, brought a T-shirt cannon, which was also a big hit!

We had a great time with Troop 351 and look forward to doing this again!

Team 980 made a good showing at Burbank on Parade on April 26.

We not only promoted our team through the parade, we also won an award in the Novelty/Civic Organization category!

We followed the parade down Olive and distributed brochures. We also drove the 2014 robot and shot the catapult several times, receiving great reactions from the crowd. After the parade, we had a tent set up in a nearby park, and talked to several potential members.

This was a great event for the team and a good step towards recruiting new members.

What an incredibly exciting finish to our season! Team 980 was just one win away from qualifying for the FIRST World Championship!

Team 980 struggled with a few technical problems and challenging alliance pairings in the qualification matches but managed to finish with a 5 – 5 record. We played well with strong alliance partners and scored consistently in autonomous mode. Our driving and defense was also crisp. Those factors, along with a history of being a dependable partner, resulted in Team 980 being selected by #1 alliance: Team 330 BeachBots and Team 973 Greybots.

Our alliance breezed through the quarterfinals and semifinals without a loss. We lost the first finals match in a very close game 157-165. We came back strong to win the second match, 181-126, but fell short in the final match of the day 146-236. Still, we end our official season on a very high note and should be proud of our accomplishments.

Team 980 made a good showing at the Inland Empire Regional on March 1 – 2. We finished #17 out of 40 teams, were selected for eliminations, where we played with the #5 alliance in quarterfinals!

Our ball pick-up was very effective and the drive system worked well with higher speed gearing installed at the event. We competed in 15 matches this weekend! We completed assembly of the catapult and executed test firings on the practice field. We need to make some adjustments to launch balls accurately and reliably, so we removed the assembly from the robot to finish it in the next two weeks. We worked hard and accomplished a lot at our first event this season!

Team 980 wrapped up (literally!) our build season last night, putting our 2014 robot in the bag:

Before sealing the bag, we ran some tests with the robot and did a “fit-check” of our catapult mechanism on the competition robot. Here’s a photo of the robot before removing the catapult hardware:

We will continue to work on the catapult and deliver it to competition as part of our withholding allowance. The catapult is designed to attach to the robot very easily, so we should be competition-ready on inspection day for the Inland Empire Regional (Feb 28 – Mar 2)

Go Team 980!!