The AMAZING electrical team has been hard at work on variable speed controllers to help out the design team with their prototyping. They will be able to be used later for even more prototyping and motor testing. We also have fixed tote bot so that the programmers can use it as they get their code running and the practice bot electronics have been simplified for easier use. 

Lastly, we worked on a new OI system so that we can allow the driver and operator to switch positions. This year the field is set up in such a way where it would be effective to have the driver and operator systems on the OI able to move side to side to improve visibility. Please come visit us whenever you need a dose of antics.

Design team is working super hard on getting all the CAD designs done so that we can cut parts and start assembly. We are still working on some prototyping of the gear systems and then we will finalize the CAD models for those and get to cutting ASAP. All of our concepts are being designed in CAD so that once we decide on a system we can easily pick it and cut it to save time. 

We are working on the Chairman's video for this year. We have audio recorded and are hard at work on the shots and content. We are also working on a build season update video which we hope to release soon. Next we will work on the robot reveal video. We have already started picking things like the soundtrack for it so we are super excited to start filming that!

Programming is busy busy busy working on the vision tracking systems to track the boiler for a more accurate shot on the field. We are also working on logging things that happen on the robot so that if we run into a problem, we can track where that issue originated from and make fixing issues at competition a faster process. 

The code to drive the robot is functional and the robot can at least move as of right now. There's more code to come. We're also working on calculations for shooting into the goal that will be integral for the shooting code once the programmers receive the robot.

Scouting is excited to be bringing a scouting app back to the team. Last year we did not have one and so this year we are working to learn the software and create an awesome scouting app for competition. The app will log match data that is input by our scouts and will also be used for pit scouting so we can create graphs of that as well instead of having that be only on paper. For the app we are using HTML and CSS as well as learning JavaScript for the app. It is steampunk themed to match this years game and the theme of our 2017 skunk. 

We have moved from the main classroom to the programming room so that the we can get assistance from the programmers and mentors on programming our app. Now we are able to ask questions as needed and work with those who know how to program. 

Here in the realm of electrical not much has changed since kick-off. Design has resigned to their CAD jungle and the shop is rather quiet with the lack of prototyping noise. Speaking of prototypes, recently we have built something to help the design team so that those that are testing structures that require motors can get better results from their prototypes.

It's called the "Motor Tester" (YAAAY!) We are very creative at naming things. They can see how the system will act if the motors have less than twelve volts supplied to them. That took a long time. And the only other thing has been that we are on "taking balls out of the ceiling" duty.

Today, we are currently prototyping different parts of the robot to see what mechanisms will be most efficient. We have been working in teams of three to four people over the last two days designing different parts of the robot. We will finalize prototyping by the end of today and present to the team what we find on the effectiveness of what we build. Let's get designing!

On the business sub team, we are currently working on Chairman's Award submissions. Our sub team has chosen to split up to work on multiple requirements to turn in. The Chairman's video/script, essay and notebook is in the works but the process is going very smoothly. In the upcoming build season, we are continuing our BUSY-NESS efforts.

The marketing sub team has been having a social pre-season!

Outside of posting our whereabouts on social media, we worked on the Annual Spaghetti Dinner logos, posters, signs, and much more to begin with. After that, we moved onto creating these products for the SMELLY competition, which we also streamed on YouTube. The SMELLY competition is an event we host every year to invite First Lego League (FLL) students to compete with each other. This gives them experience when it comes to competing, gracious professionalism, and most importantly, having fun! Right now we're preparing for FIRST day, which is an event with the purpose of interacting with the legislature in Olympia. The marketing sub team, along with many other members of the Skunk Works team will show everybody how awesome the FIRST program is!

Programming has had layers of fun this pre-season! 

We have a new mentor, Mr. Pratt, who brings exotic snacks to every meeting from different countries for us to try. It has been very culturally educational thus far. The most interesting have been the chicken feet taro, Russian dog food, and green tea Oreo cakesters. 

Our pre-season project was to develop a program to run on Arduino kit bots that are very small and teach our programmers how to work. It has been a long process getting them to work but as of now most of them are functioning. 



Our new programmers have been learning very quickly and will be ready for build season!