News
February 28, 2010
The Daily Breeze highlights Team 207, view article >>
Update 3
By Noor Ulain - February 25, 2010
The build season has recently come to an end. All teams across the world are getting ready to compete in the F.I.R.S.T robotics competitions being held virtually all over the world. Team 207 is currently preparing to depart to Washington D.C. where we will first showcase our robot-- a robot like no other. We have truly, truly outdone ourselves this year. After competing in Washington D.C. , we will take part in the Los Angeles Regional . This year, we have not only focused to build a robot in almost 3 and ½ weeks, but also to learn how to become a better team. A team that is able to stick together until the end.
This year, the students have truly outdone themselves in all fields, not only the machining aspect of robotics but also in areas of documentation, animation and Inventor.
Check out our inventor package >>
Update 2
By Jason Takamoto - January 31, 2010
After the announcement of this year's game Breakaway, our first idea was to design our robot after an R/C car. However, we thought that manufacturing the suspension system would be a hectic design process, so we began to research other possible designs.
We ended up going through designs left and right but when we prototyped them, they ended up being thrown out. Most of the first week of build season was devoted to researching, designing and prototyping. This really didn't put us behind until we ended up throwing out the design and starting over again and ended up back at our original design...R/C car!
Overall this year will prove to be unique, since we are following an unusual design. We hope to build a robot nothing like any of the robots in the past at all!
Update 1
By Felicia Castillo - January 2, 2010
They found three of our computers near the railroad tracks, just outside our campus. Our entire room dismantled from panel to panel, wires ripped from the walls and our hopes ripped from grasp. It felt as though a fire had grazed through our school and left us with hardly anything to hold fast to. Our last update was one of victory. One of which we could be proud-- Team 207, Metal Crafters, first place at the Los Angeles Regional. A shame to say that our victory is too short followed by a robbery that will severely damage our chances at this year’s competition. With one week before the kickoff, our team struggles to organize itself, the odds against us, and without the proper tools and materials; we fear the worst.
Some of us are optimists, constant hopefuls that our reputation does not exceed us, that we are as good as we have proven ourselves to be; wanting to believe that we are not defined by the setting from which we come, by the circumstances of which we fall victim too. Others of us wonder, how it is we can ever expect to make better of ourselves, when there are more than enough forces acting against us, and the rain continues to pour relentlessly, harder with each step as we move forward.
We understand that everyone is waiting for us to fall back onto the sharp, desolate determinism that drives us, because our team understands that wanting more than what is expected is dangerous thinking. Mr. Pacheco –- our instructor -- tells us that he believes in us because he went to Hawthorne High School too, and someone once told him, that he would never amount to much but what we do have is a dedicated team, a team that is willing to fund raise, a team willing to try, and a team’s effort that will hopefully give us the strength to pull through this year’s competition.
Colorado Regional
By Cambria Reedich and Patricia Carranza - March 26th-28th, 2009
The Metalcrafters arrived at the University of Denver on Thursday March 26th, ready for the commencement of yet another great competition. Everyone was very pumped up and ready to begin practice. However, to our unwanted surprise just a couple of hours after entering the pits, every single person became speechless as the announcer informed us that the university would be closing early, at around 10:30 a.m., due to a prominent blizzard. That meant that all of the teams that showed up would not get the chance to practice and fix the kinks on their robots. Everyone was really disappointed, but there was nothing we could do about it. So we all decided to just put the finishing touches on our robot and head back to the hotel for some lunch.
On Friday things got started right away. Each team was able to have two practice rounds, which didn’t really give us a good view of what we were up against, but at least it was something. Once we finished our practice rounds we noticed that our robot wasn’t doing so well, because some of the programming was reversed. So one of our mentors, Mr. Takamoto, quickly tried to fix the problem and tested it out. Luckily it was not a serious issue and the robot started functioning properly soon.
Saturday came and we continued trying our best throughout every match. We played every qualifying match and remained undefeated until the last match. Team 399 was the only other undefeated team and since we lost the match against them they were placed first on the ranking boards and us in second.
Just before lunch, alliances were chosen and we were again fortunate enough to be able to pick an alliance. We teamed up with Teams 1158 and 2083. After lunch, all three teams met and began planning and strategizing. Our team was full of energy when it came down to the last matches. Our core team was able to advance through quarterfinals and then semifinals as well. We were all so nervous waiting for the judges’ final score after every match. Once it came up on the board our team started jumping up and down almost peeing in our pants from the excitement.
We had made it to the absolute final match, and it was against 399, 1332, and 2996. By this time almost all of our team members had lost their voices, but still carried on with their loud chanting “Me-tal-Craf-ters!” and “Team 2-0-7!”. We faced the opposing alliance for the first final match and lost by a few points... but the competition is best 2 out of 3. So we got to play them again! We were even more excited this time and were screaming louder than we had been all day. When we heard the buzzard the score displayed us in the lead but the final score was yet to be announced. We hoped we could face the alliance once more but the score turned out to be 70 to 58 with Teams 399, 1332, and 2996 in the lead.
Even though we did not walk away with the first place win our team was still ecstatic to have gotten as far as we did. After the finals everyone returned to their seats and waited for the awards ceremony. Our second regional of the year also had a great turn out since we received the GM Industrial Design Award, for the first time, and the Regional Finalist Award. After the awards ceremony concluded we took pictures, gave ourselves a round of applause, and went back to the hotel happy and exhausted.
View pictures >>
Los Angeles Regional
By Patricia Carranza - March 12th-14th, 2009
Team 207 walked into the Long Beach Arena, at the commencement of our ten year anniversary, eager to take part in yet another season of great FIRST excitement. As we set up our pit and uncrated our robot we did not expect to achieve everything we did.
Thursday, practice day, turned out to be quite difficult. Our new drive team had no experience controlling a robot and there were a couple of problems with the electronics. Fortunately the issues were quickly resolved thanks to the help of our mentors, Walt Disney Imagineers, and MorTorq Team 1515. Soon after, the drive team prepared themselves and began experiencing the first dose of intensive FRC competition.
On Friday, competition officially began and we all remained expectant and excited. The first few matches proved a bit difficult but soon enough Team 207 found themselves well on their way through competition. Once Saturday arrived, we continued doing well in most matches, losing only one match during Friday’s and Saturday’s qualification matches.
At the end of the qualification matches we ranked sixth place allowing us the opportunity to choose an alliance for the final rounds. We were fortunate to create an alliance with the two teams we initially wanted, Team 973 and Team 2659. As soon as our alliance was set we immediately began strategizing and planning for what was to come.
As we began the final matches, we all felt great nervousness and excitement as we slowly approached the majestic final match. We played in match one and slightly won the match 58 to 56 against Teams: 597, 1717, and 294. We continued on to the second match and found a bit of disappointment after losing the match 70 to 58. Now the tension grew even further as all six teams were forced into a tie-breaker match. We battled as strategically and swiftly as possible and after the match ended we nervously waited for the final score. After what felt like an eternity the score was projected on the screen and immediately everyone went crazy as we saw that we had won the match by a close margin of 68 to 64! There is only one final winner but we greatly respect every other team that competed and of course we greatly thank our alliance for working closely together and achieving the maximum at the end of the day.
During the awards ceremony the team sat together celebrating the wins of all of the other teams and of course eagerly awaiting our chance to walk down from the stands and receive our medals and trophies. At the culmination of the Los Angeles Regional we were completely enthusiastic for having participated in a historic competition for Team 207—becoming regional winners for the first time and walking away with a sixth Motorola Quality award.
View Pictures >>
Update Weeks 4 & 5
By Patricia Carranza and Emely Morales - February 11th, 2009
Manufacturing: The complete conveyor belt system is complete. It has been welded together and placed on the chassis. Now we are working on designing a hopper that will be placed on top of the conveyor belt system and will be able to hold moon rocks.
Animation: All models have been placed into the scene. We have begun rendering and animating the video. We have also figured out how to do biped.
Inventor: We have been working on different pieces of the conveyor belt, the upper structure of the robot, and the frame.
Electronics: We worked on placing all of the electronic parts on a wood prototypr of the control panel. After ensuring that everything worked properly a metal control panel was made and all of the electronic components were transferred and re-wired. The panel is now ready for testing on the robot.
Documentation: We have been working on adding some finishing touches to the website so that it can be ready for submission on February 12th. A rough draft of the Chairman's Award has been completed and is currently being revised.
  
Update Week 3
By Patricia Carranza - January 30th, 2009
Manufacturing: The chassis is now complete. The conveyor belt is being welded together. Right now we are mostly working on making small attachments, such as axles and L-shaped mounts.
Animation: We have finalized most of the models and have started to put scenes together. Now we are beginning character modeling.
Inventor: We are working mostly on modeling and assembling the robot's frame.
Documentation: We have begun constructing updated brochures of our team. We have also, kept documenting the progress of the team's build season and formulating documents for competition such as scouting sheets and student name tags.
  
Update Week 2
By Patricia Carranza - January 18th, 2009
Manufacturing: We have finalized our robot design, and have almost completed the chassis. Also, we have built a prototype of the conveyor belt mechanism for the robot and it has proven successful.
Animation: Our story board is complete and the new students are becoming more familiar with the program. We have begun modeling objects such as buildings, spiders, etc.
Documentation: We have continued work on the Chairman's Award and the web site. We have also been keeping track of everyone's time cards and have calculated the amount of time contributed to the team.
  
2009 Build Season Has Begun!
By Vaniah Hemenway and Patricia Carranza - January 9, 2009
January 3rd, 2009 was the kick-off date for FIRST's 2009 game, Lunacy. The robotics team immediately began work, and initiated the annual robot building process. The following is the first of six weekly reports from each of our departments.
Manufacturing: We were behind a bit because of lack of interest in machining, but when people started to show interest progress began. The use of a new machine is greatly improving our progress due to its speed when performing tasks.
Animation: We're going at a decent pace as to creating our commercial. We have begun to model the characters and the setting of our clip. At the moment that is about it.
Inventor: Our progress in Inventor is coming along fine. At the moment there are a few people gaining familiarity with the program. We have also been interacting with the manufacturing team in order to begin modeling parts.
Documentation: As always we have kept up with taking pictures of the team's progress and have updated the web site by adding new information and features. We have also begun brainstorming for the Chairman's award.
   
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