It's been a while since I last posted...
Well anyways, Team 3008 has just returned safely from an exciting trip to Sacramento! We've been hard at work- competing from Thursday all the way until Saturday at the FRC 2013 Ultimate Ascent Sacramento Regional at the ARC Center at UC Davis.
Thursday was the busiest. Especially for the electrical team. Since we didn't finish during the build season, we had to completely wire up the entire electrical and pneumatic system for the bot- all in one day. And we did it! And it was really nice! And it worked! Great job, Kevin and Darius! However, we still did had some issues. The compressor wouldn't turn on at first, and when we finally got it to turn on, we discovered a bunch of air leaks in the pneumatic system. The shooter articulator would go up and down unexpectedly. We had to be really careful where we put our heads.
As for the competition itself, our team ended up ranked 19 out of fifty-something. Which is pretty good considering all the problems we had, and the fact that the entire bot was wired up in just one day. Thanks to the wonderful drive team, we were able to play defense really well even though our shooter didn't work. We were able to block a high-scoring opposing robot from getting to its shooting area for an entire match. Talk about superb driving skills!
Oh, and I forgot to add that we were ranked #1 or pit safety. Thanks to our safety captain and our awesome-looking pit area!
Our team represented Hawaii really well. We had a lot of fun meeting all the cool people from other teams and making lots of friends. We even got plenty of helpful advice for our Chairman's booklet from Team 1868- the Space Cookies- who had won the Chairman's Award for three years in a row!
Although we worked and competed really hard, we did spare some time for fun. All of Monday was used for team building. We explored the UC Davis campus, shopped for souvenirs, went bowling and played pool! It was a lot of fun and we got to know each other better.
We also did a lot of sightseeing around the UC Davis campus. The campus was really nice, with cozy-looking houses and warm friendly restaurants and shops. We saw squirrels once in a while, and even a few crows. Not something you see every day in Hawaii! We enjoyed the experience.
The boys had fun at the playground.
At the end of the trip, we were all nice and tired. Although it was fun, we're so glad to be back in Hawaii with the nice weather, the awesome food... you name it. We can finally take a break and rest- for now. The Hawaii Regional is coming around fast! Team 3008 will be competing once again at the Stan Sheriff center on April 4-6. Please come support us if you can! We will keep you posted.
