UPDATE: Our presentation has been posted here. Feel free to contact us if you have any more questions or need help.
As part of the C++ beta testing we have been doing over the past few months, we will be holding an open house to share our findings and experiences. There will also be a question and answer session on anything related to the beta testing of C++ and Windriver.
If you have any trouble installing or configuring the Windriver software, driver station, or utilities, we welcome those questions as well.
We will be holding our open house as a part of the December WRRF workshops at Santa Clara University.
You can find instructions on how to sign up to attend the workshops on our website here.
Our session is during slot A, from 1:00 – 2:30pm.
During slot B, (2:30-4:00pm), one of our mentors, Mr. Best, will be on a panel discussing what software is best for FRC and your team.
With the 2011-2012 season just starting, FIRST Team 604 has already been hard at work, competing at two different off-season competitions — the WRRF CalGames and the MadTown Throwdown – running workshops, and demonstrating our robot throughout the community.
Working with NASA and FIRST Team 846, we showed off our 2010 FRC robot OverKill and introduced kids to robotics by letting them drive VEX robots at the 2011 San Francisco Fleet Week. You can find pictures from that demo and a few more this year on our website here.
For our off-season competitions, we chose to redesign our entire arm and minibot deployment. At CalGames, after some hard fought matches, we were chosen to be on the 6th seed alliance by FIRST Teams 1351 from Mitty HS, and 751 from Woodside Priory HS. Unfortunately, after losing the first quarterfinal against FIRST Teams 1868, 1678, and 256, our robot had communication issues with the field and was unable to move the entire next match, ending our CalGames tournament run. However we got some good news later on in the day when we found out we won the Entrepreneurship Award, as well as the first runner-up for the AMD CAD Award.
At the MadTown Throwdown, we were selected to be on the 6th alliance after winning 4 matches and losing 2 in the qualification rounds, joining FIRST Teams 3512, 1323B, and 3859. Unfortunately we lost in quarterfinals to the 3rd alliance, consisting of FIRST Teams 2073, 971B, 3256, and 362. It was a great learning experience for the team, and we look forward to going back next year!
Two Saturdays ago we hosted our annual FLL tournament, the Quixilver Qualifier. There were 16 teams in attendance with some action-packed rounds. We tried out a new system this year, having playoffs done with four alliances of two teams each, to try and mix up FLL and FRC. Looking at the feedback, it seems that all of the participants loved it! Congratulations to the champions, Team 1202, VulnifiSquidz. Our team was later recognized with the Volunteer Award! A big thanks to Jim Mori for directing the tournament, all the volunteers, and FIRST Teams 2643 and 2135 for their help.
Entreprenuership & Runner-Up CAD Award!
Our eliminations alliance at the Madtown Throwdown
After a successful Sacramento Regional, FIRST Team 604 competed at our home regional, the Google Silicon Valley Regional. While initially faced with some electrical and pneumatic issues, Quixilver made the necessary modifications on our robot, and passed inspection early Friday morning.
Having considerably more experience, our drivers were able to consistently put up one to two logos per match as well as play strong defense. During alliance selections, we were invited to join the second seeded alliance, comprised of FIRST Team 1323, Madtown Robotics, and FIRST Team 1868, the Space Cookies. Our alliance was able to breeze through the quarterfinals and semifinals, before narrowly losing both finals matches to the tournament champions, FIRST Teams 254, 1538, and 751. The finals were so close, in fact, that the match could have gone either way up until the last second. Thank you 1323 and 1868 for being great alliance partners and becoming the 2011 Google Silicon Valley Regional Finalists.
We would also like to give a shout-out to one of the teams that we helped start, who were just rookies last year – FIRST Team 3256 the WarriorBorgs — for winning the Engineering Inspiration Award, as well as having one your members being recognized as a Dean’s List Award Finalist. You guys have come such a long way in a short time.
Another shout-out goes to one of our former members, James Best, for mentoring FIRST Team 3473, Team Sprocket, to a Regional Win at the Los Angeles Regional! See you in St. Louis!
This past weekend, FIRST Team 604 attended our first regional competition of the season. After three days of exciting and intense competition, we received several awards recognizing our hard work.
On Friday, our mentor Mrs. Best was awarded the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. She will go on to compete for the Woodie Flowers Award at the Championship Event against all previous Woodie Flowers Finalist Award winners, including another one of our mentors Mrs. Arrington who was a finalist last year as well. That same day, another of our mentors, Mrs. Zafiropoulos, was named the Bret Harte Teacher of the Year. Congratulations to our amazing mentors!
On Saturday, after ten qualifying matches, we were selected to be on the 7th seeded alliance, compromised of FIRST Team 3013, the Zombots from Vallejo High, and FIRST Team 114, Eagle Strike from Los Altos High. Unfortunately, we were knocked out in the quarterfinals by the eventual champions, FIRST Team 1678, the Citrus Circuits from Leonardo Da Vinci High, FIRST Team 1868, the Space Cookies from the Girl Scouts of America, and FIRST Team 766, M-A Bears from Menlo-Atherton High.
Later, four of our members were recognized for their invention of a secondary container for battery transportation, winning the Runner-Up Abbott Inventor Hall of Fame Award.
Finally, our team was awarded the Regional Chairman’s Award (RCA), the most prestigious award given at a Regional competition, for our outreach within the community and the nation — our fourth RCA in the last five years. This award qualifies our team for the Championship Event in St. Louis, which will be held mid-April.
Photos and videos from the competition will be on our website shortly.
The Sacramento Regional has certainly had many ups and downs. Starting the day with a semi-non functional robot, FIRST Team 604 worked its way back up the rankings, ending the day with only one loss in the last five matches. One of our mentor’s, Mrs. Best, was recognized for her efforts today with the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. She joins our teacher/advisor, Mrs. Arrington (Sacramento ’10), as our second distinguished mentor.
But the good news didn’t stop there. Today another of our mentors, Mrs. Zafiropoulos, was named the Bret Harte Middle School Teacher of the Year.
Congratulations to both of our mentors for their achievements!
Starting tomorrow, FIRST Team 604 will be competing in our first regional for the 2011 season, the Sacramento Regional held at UC Davis. We will be posting updates on our Facebook and Twitter pages: facebook.com/frc604 and twitter.com/frc604
FIRST Team 604 finished the first segment of our build season today. With a deadline to meet, we rushed to finish our 2011 robot. When we were putting on the finishing touches, the local camera crew from NBC 11 arrived. We aired on the 6 o’clock news, and the footage can be viewed here. Leland Robotics would like to thank all of the parents, sponsors, teachers, mentors, and the community which made our build season and robot possible. Pictures from this season can be found on our website here. You can see us at the Sacramento Regional at UC Davis (Mar. 17-19) and the Silicon Valley Regional at San Jose State (Mar. 31-Apr. 2). Our goal is to qualify for the FIRST Championship in St. Louis (Apr. 27-30).
Hope to see you at competition!
Technical Specifications:
Custom 2 speed transmissions – 8fps and 13fps
Arm allows scoring from both sides
Telescoping arm reaches all levels of pegs
Spring loaded minibot deployment in less than 1 second
FIRST Team 604's 2011 Robot!
FIRST Team 604 with the Scott Budman and the NBC 11 crew
The time has finally come. Week 6 has arrived. Our chassis has been completed and operational. The arm is currently in it’s final fabrication stage and will hopefully be completed before robot lock-up. With programmers fiercely working on the robot, FIRST Team 604 is gearing up for the final push.
FIRST Team 604 will be holding a scrimmage at Leland HS for any team who would like to practice on a field with other teams. The official invitation (copied below) can be found here!
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FIRST Team 604 would like to invite you to our pre-ship/lockup scrimmage:
