Blog

Week 4 Update Build Season

How are we 2/3 through build season?! This week the programming team reviewed computer code, created a navigation subsystem and worked on robot commands for the competitions. The Electrical Team wire. The business team completed the Chairman’s Award, interviewed an alumni for the FedEx Challenge and started planning more open houses, team fundraisers, and ideas on how to reach out to other schools.

Week 3 Build Season

 

The end of this week marks 22 completed days of build season; that’s halfway! The Programming Team got their drive train working and continued to program the robot. Mechanical worked on the gear catcher, prototyped the intake, and worked on the drive train as well. Electrical Team put  connectors on all the motor controls and motors; the sub team also ordered parts. Business Team continued to work on applications for the Chairman’s Award and Entrepreneurship Award, as well as made invitations to our Sponsor and Parent Open Houses. Yay!!

CC Shambots Robotics Workshop Wish List

The CC Shambots have a fabulous new Robotics Workshop located right in Detroit Catholic Central High School. The workshop is 1600 square feet and accommodates the Vex robotics team two days a week and the FIRST robotics team four days a week. The room is being used six days a week for three hours each day. More than 50 students build robots in the workshop and also do things such as brainstorm robot design, wire electronics, program computers in one of two robot programming languages, create business plans, plan team events and outreach activities, give tours to alumni, work with adult mentors from the business community and learn about safe workshop procedures. The team is outfitting the workshop with tools, equipment and parts so that we can build efficiently. We have a wish list of equipment we are currently seeking which includes the following items. Other donations are graciously welcomed. Please contact us for our most current needs. Thank you!

DeWalt DCD791D2 20 Volt Lithium Brushless Cordless Drill (need 5 drills, this is our most important and urgent item)

DeWalt DCS331B Cordless Jig Saw (need 1, second most important)

DeWalt DCS391B Cordless Circular Saw (need 1, next most important item)

DeWalt DCA2203C Battery Adapter 20 Volt Max (need 1)

DeWalt DW715 Compound Miter Saw Variable Speed, to cut aluminum (need 1, brand not important)

Porter-Cable PCB660DP Type 2 8 amp 12-speed Floor Drill Press (need 1, brand not important)

FIRST Kickoff January 7, 2017

After a long wait, the 2017 FRC Game has finally been revealed! Students, parents, and mentors gathered at Novi High School and learned more about the game: Steamworks! Much to our delights, the game will not involve actual flying. Phew! For more information on the fun and challenging game that Team 5907 will work with, check out the link below!

After the kickoff, the Shambots went to Catholic Central to study the game in depth and start thinking about strategies.

CHECK OUT THE GAME HERE!! FRC 2017: Steamworks!

OCCRA Awards Banquet- November 30, 2016

Every year at the end of the OCCRA season OCCRA hosts a banquet to honor the robotics teams, members, and coaches as well as honoring exemplary members of said teams; in addition to this, coaches have a chance to win the “Hall of Fame Coach” award. Students can earn both an Honorable Mention and also the MVP award. This year’s OCCRA banquet had food served by Schoolcraft Collage’s culinary students with a wide array of food for all the hungry teams. This OCCRA banquet we had two honorable mentions being Jameson Borema and Andrew Ganss. We also had one MVP being Carl Urbanik.

County Championship, November 19,2016

Last weekend marked the last OCCRA tournament of the season, the County Championship. This tournament worked in a different way than others. Our team competed in 2 matches before an alliance selection. How does an alliance selection work? Teams pick their alliance partner that they wish to compete with for the rest of the tournament. If they are able to, teams pick an alliance that works effectively and corresponds to their needs. At the end of the day, the Shambots received the “Victorious Perseverance” for showing progress throughout the season. The judges commented that they noticed improvements during tournaments.

Tournament #4 November 10, 2016

The last tournament showed the Shambots’ best performance yet! Before heading off to Birmingham, Michigan, the team decided to change their strategy by entering the competition as a defense robot. By removing the arm they were able to prevent opposing teams from scoring and move around the playing field easier. They finished with a 2-2 record, the best one of the season thus far! Way to go Shambots!

Tournament #3 November 5, 2016

Our team traveled to tournament #3 of the OCCRA season at Rochester Adams High School on Saturday, November 5th. We competed against the other teams in the Diversity Challenges. Our first match was a boys and girls match with one female and one male driver, along with boys and girls in the pit crew, a sideline coach and a human player. The team used the time in the pit to make mechanical improvements to the robot and a successful point was scored during the match. After a welcome lunch of homemade macaroni and cheese, the adult match began. Mothers and fathers of OCCRA team members participated in all aspects of the adult match. They even scored points! The last match of the Diversity Tournament was the all-girls match. Gina, Lauren, Rachel, Grace, and Aniela (all students at St. Catherine of Siena and the only girls on the team) led the robot in the pit crew and driving team.

It was a success and very fun competition! Go CC Shambots!

Tournament #2 October 27, 2016

Last Thursday, the Shambots traveled to Waterford for the 2nd OCCRA tournament of the season. The schedule worked similarly to the previous tournament with 21 total matches, each team competing four times. Members of the team drove, scouted the other teams, queued, worked on the robot in the pit, updated social media pages and so much more! During the tournament, the programming malfunctioned but the team persevered and fixed it on the spot. The arm also did not work as planned, but now the Shambots will work to improve it and make it a more efficient robot arm to lift the balls. Finally, the intake did not work to its potential; however, a new design is being worked on, and the team plans on being more prepared than ever for the Diversity Tournament!