Year One: 2017-2018 |
Welcome Robotics Fans!
We’re North Myrtle Beach High School’s Robotics Team!
Team 5130. The Undercogs!
We have gathered together a team of eager and enthusiastic students, who don’t necessarily know a whole lot about pneumatics and programming, ratchets and riveters, or drive trains and drill bits, but are ready to take it all on!
We can’t wait to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition this year, when students from all over the country - and even a few other countries altogether - will be flocking to our very own Myrtle Beach Convention Center for a day of intense robot rivalry - and revelry! We are going to have a great time at the competition and make tons of new friends, as we make our school proud. We are not looking to bring home the gold - this year - since it is only our third season, but we will definitely learn so much from this new experience and be a bit more prepared to clobber our competition next year!
Already we have learned so much about building and programming a robot, and especially about teamwork. We have grown infinitely as a team and as individuals. This team has been the best thing that could’ve happened to us because we now have a home away from home, and from that, we have become a family. We hope to inspire more peers to participate next year so our family may grow.
Follow us as we make our way along the challenging, but thrilling journey of robot creation!
We’re North Myrtle Beach High School’s Robotics Team!
Team 5130. The Undercogs!
We have gathered together a team of eager and enthusiastic students, who don’t necessarily know a whole lot about pneumatics and programming, ratchets and riveters, or drive trains and drill bits, but are ready to take it all on!
We can’t wait to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition this year, when students from all over the country - and even a few other countries altogether - will be flocking to our very own Myrtle Beach Convention Center for a day of intense robot rivalry - and revelry! We are going to have a great time at the competition and make tons of new friends, as we make our school proud. We are not looking to bring home the gold - this year - since it is only our third season, but we will definitely learn so much from this new experience and be a bit more prepared to clobber our competition next year!
Already we have learned so much about building and programming a robot, and especially about teamwork. We have grown infinitely as a team and as individuals. This team has been the best thing that could’ve happened to us because we now have a home away from home, and from that, we have become a family. We hope to inspire more peers to participate next year so our family may grow.
Follow us as we make our way along the challenging, but thrilling journey of robot creation!
Competition
Air Show
Build Season
See below for all the details and all the photos for this, our very first Build Season!
Week One: Jan 8th-12th
- Got to know each other and the interests and skills we’re each bringing to the table.
- Familiarized ourselves with motherboard components.
- Assessed what we have and what we needed.
Week Two: Jan 15th-19th
- Built the chassis. We loved this. Great way to dive in and get our hands dirty!
- Worked on the robot brain. Thank you Dr. Keiner, NMBH parent and pundit of programming!
- Drove our robot around. Man, it’s one fast robot! But at this point it’s lacking all its competition specific components, so it’s sure to slow down a bit when weighted down with crate grabbing arms and a mini elevator (to lift itself or just its arms up seven feet)!
Week Three: Jan 22nd-26th
- Realized no matter how many magnificent design ideas we have spinning around in our heads, we don’t yet have quite the skill set required for actualizing those designs - or even assessing whether they truly are magnificent. So we got some serious help - Mr. Nick Nedo, NMBH parent and engineer extraordinaire - and nailed down some dynamo designs.
- Set up little machine shop with all sorts of fun tools like a belt sander, chop saw, drill press, and band saw!
- Designed our crate grabbing arm contraption, did the measurements and math for it, and built a mock-up.
- Designed our team T-shirts and reached out to companies to produce them.
Week Four: Jan 29th-Feb 2nd
- As we had little to no idea what we were doing when we started, we had a difficult time figuring out what all raw materials we really needed until last Saturday - so we only just ordered on Monday the many, many, many bars of slotted extrusion aluminum. Hurry metal! Hurry!
- The frame for our lift is built!
Week Five: Feb 5th-9th
- Big lesson learned this week. Make sure you’re within the height allowance before building frame! Had to chop off a couple of feet and rework it a bit.
- Programmed the lift motor and two drive motors!
Week Six: Feb 12th-16th
- Worked on the lift itself and the crate grabbing arm contraption that needs to ride up and down the frame!
- Programmed the arm motors.
Week Seven: Feb 19th-22nd
- Who knew building a robot was going to be this big a challenge? With every hurdle leapt, came two more we never saw coming. But we persevered my friends. This was supposed to be the week we were just going to do final tweaks on our robot. As it turned out, however, that was not the case. We were working right up until 11:47 Tuesday night - just 12 minutes shy of the deadline. And we’re STILL not done. We have heard, however, that that’s not entirely uncommon, especially for newbie teams!
We do have all the big stuff figured out - we hope! And we have our list of the last minute fixes and adjustments we’ll need to make next Thursday, when we will have all day at the competition to work out all the kinks - surrounded by enthusiasts and experts we’ve been told are eager to help those of us fledgling robot builders.
Now that all robot construction has been tabled until competition next week, we are focusing all our attention on those things that heretofore we had zero time for - like planning our booth/pit, tie-dying our T-shirts, adding other touches, like a sign for our robot and racing numbers for its bumpers, finding a trailer, figuring out all the tools and hardware we’ll need to bring next week, and all the other many, many details that need tending.
Week Eight: Feb 25th - March 3rd
- Let the games begin!
Week One: Jan 8th-12th
- Got to know each other and the interests and skills we’re each bringing to the table.
- Familiarized ourselves with motherboard components.
- Assessed what we have and what we needed.
Week Two: Jan 15th-19th
- Built the chassis. We loved this. Great way to dive in and get our hands dirty!
- Worked on the robot brain. Thank you Dr. Keiner, NMBH parent and pundit of programming!
- Drove our robot around. Man, it’s one fast robot! But at this point it’s lacking all its competition specific components, so it’s sure to slow down a bit when weighted down with crate grabbing arms and a mini elevator (to lift itself or just its arms up seven feet)!
Week Three: Jan 22nd-26th
- Realized no matter how many magnificent design ideas we have spinning around in our heads, we don’t yet have quite the skill set required for actualizing those designs - or even assessing whether they truly are magnificent. So we got some serious help - Mr. Nick Nedo, NMBH parent and engineer extraordinaire - and nailed down some dynamo designs.
- Set up little machine shop with all sorts of fun tools like a belt sander, chop saw, drill press, and band saw!
- Designed our crate grabbing arm contraption, did the measurements and math for it, and built a mock-up.
- Designed our team T-shirts and reached out to companies to produce them.
Week Four: Jan 29th-Feb 2nd
- As we had little to no idea what we were doing when we started, we had a difficult time figuring out what all raw materials we really needed until last Saturday - so we only just ordered on Monday the many, many, many bars of slotted extrusion aluminum. Hurry metal! Hurry!
- The frame for our lift is built!
Week Five: Feb 5th-9th
- Big lesson learned this week. Make sure you’re within the height allowance before building frame! Had to chop off a couple of feet and rework it a bit.
- Programmed the lift motor and two drive motors!
Week Six: Feb 12th-16th
- Worked on the lift itself and the crate grabbing arm contraption that needs to ride up and down the frame!
- Programmed the arm motors.
Week Seven: Feb 19th-22nd
- Who knew building a robot was going to be this big a challenge? With every hurdle leapt, came two more we never saw coming. But we persevered my friends. This was supposed to be the week we were just going to do final tweaks on our robot. As it turned out, however, that was not the case. We were working right up until 11:47 Tuesday night - just 12 minutes shy of the deadline. And we’re STILL not done. We have heard, however, that that’s not entirely uncommon, especially for newbie teams!
We do have all the big stuff figured out - we hope! And we have our list of the last minute fixes and adjustments we’ll need to make next Thursday, when we will have all day at the competition to work out all the kinks - surrounded by enthusiasts and experts we’ve been told are eager to help those of us fledgling robot builders.
Now that all robot construction has been tabled until competition next week, we are focusing all our attention on those things that heretofore we had zero time for - like planning our booth/pit, tie-dying our T-shirts, adding other touches, like a sign for our robot and racing numbers for its bumpers, finding a trailer, figuring out all the tools and hardware we’ll need to bring next week, and all the other many, many details that need tending.
Week Eight: Feb 25th - March 3rd
- Let the games begin!