On January 6th, we began a new season in the robotics workshop. With a new theme based on old video game styles, we imminently began studying the new game and designing our newest robot. Now a week in, we've dissembled last year's robot and roughly created an idea for the structure and strategy of our newest robot. With a handful of new members, such as the pictured Brennen above, new ideas and strategies are being brought to the table. This week we've worked on the design of our robot, worked to solve more detailed problems, and begun tearing apart the old robot from last year's game. While also working directly in the workshop, we've been working to find new sponsors and grants to raise money for our new robot. Under the support tab, you can find all of our finances laid out, and ways to help out. Interested in this year's competition? You can find FIRST's video here. https://youtu.be/HZbdwYiCY74
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FIRST has released the 2018 season teaser their calling "FIRST Power UP." This is probably the most cryptic teaser video we've seen yet, there is a lot to take away from it. Right now, we're doing everything we can to raise money for the season and bring in new members to we can be a part of this exciting season!
MegaHurtz 2017 Season HD from Phillip Place on Vimeo.
We would like to say Thank You to all our supporters. To our Fans, our Families and our Sponsors: We could not have done it without you. Here's to a great season done as we look forward to 2018!
Video from Plow Day 2017 as filmed from our drone at the Buchanan School Farm. April 22, 2017 Our team was invited to attend Buchanan's Plow Day 2017 held at the Buchanan School Farm. Multiple area farmers brought their antique tractors and horse drawn plows to the event. The robotics team had our 2016 and 2017 robots on display along with an interactive demonstration where students could drive our robot and shoot a ball.
For Immediate Release: MegaHurtz Competes in Kentwood District FRC Event - Returns with Judges Award The Kentwood District event was held March 30 - April 1, 2017 at East Kentwood High School. During the course of the competition, the judging panel encounters teams whose unique efforts, performance, or dynamics merit recognition yet do not fit into any of the existing award categories. The judges have defined the following special award as a STEM Punk Award for one such deserving team: [As announced at the event] This team carried the Steam Punk theme to the design of their robot, just as they have carried the values of FIRST to their community through outreach programs and STEM focus. Operating at a different Frequency than other teams will help them reach their Mega potential. Congratulations to Team 5056 MegaHurtz This week with the help of our two building mentors, we have built the chassis for this years game. This lead to whomever wants to drive the robot to have a chance to practice on carpet. We set up a course with cones for the robot to weave in or out of.
Also, this week the programming mentor was busy teaching three-four of the students how to program the robot. They have started on working on the code for this years robot. The design team has been very busy this week, they have been working on spray painting our robot cart to match this year theme of steampunk. They have painted the cart brown with accent gold pieces and they plan on painting gears on the sides. They also made gears out of cardboard and painted them gold with a little bit of brown to make them look steampunk. Robotics season has officially started! This is our fourth year as a first robotics team and every year we learn more and more. So far, we have built the gear mechanism and our shooter mechanism. At first, we were thinking about three separate devices to do the same thing, as we started to think, we decided that we can combine those same three ideas and it would be more productive and we would have one moving part instead of three moving parts. Below is our week one shooter mechanism It is almost Thanksgiving and we are hard at work trying to raise the funds to compete in the 2017 season. Through the generosity of several donors including the Buchanan Scarecrow Charities, Bosch Rexroth and TransCanada we were able to make the $5000 payment to FIRST before the November 22nd deadline. Just has we watched a huge amount of money leave our account, we received incredible news! The Michigan Gateway Community Foundation Youth Advisory Council awarded us a $4000 grant to purchase parts and materials for our robot! I don't how we could ever thank them enough.
The best part of being a group of geeky people is all the cool toys!
It's not very often that there is something going on downtown worth getting the drone out but today was an exception. Several hundred feet of Front St. was converted to a giant water slide complete with beach volleyball court and sand play area. From the line waiting to slide down, it has been a very popular attraction and a huge success for Buchanan!
It's an end to a great season - MegaHurtz Makes it to the Playoffs, Again!Our robotics team competed in two District Events this season. Our first competition was at Kettering University in Flint Michigan where we completed qualifications ranked #24 out of 40 teams. We accepted an invitation to join the #2 alliance and made it to the playoffs. Unfortunately our alliance was knocked out in the quarter finals.
Our second competition was at St. Joseph High School where we completed qualifications ranked #14 out of 41 teams. Doing much better at this event, we were the first round selection of the #8 alliance moving into the playoffs. The most exciting moment for our team at the St. Joe event was when our #8 alliance smashed the #1 alliance and set a new high score of 159 to 128. Sadly, technical issues caused us to lose the next two matches and effectively knocked us out of the quarter finals. Here's what happened: During the third and deciding match between our alliance (RoboRangers #4325, MegaHurtz #5056 and RoboSharks #4956) and the #1 seeded alliance (Stryke Force #2767, Average Joes #3620 and The Iron Giants #5069) one of the opposing robots slammed into the driver's station wall causing our control system to disconnect from the field. It took about 40 seconds to determine the problem and correct it. In a match that runs only two minutes and 15 seconds, that was enough to kill any chances of recovering. It's important to note that the other team did nothing wrong here. This game is rough and the cable simply popped out. During that match the RoboRangers also broke a drive belt so there was a time when only one robot was working for our side. Knowing how the first and last match played out, it was clear we were the better scoring alliance. If we had not broke down, there is no doubt in my mind we would have won and moved on. All the teams played well and we really enjoyed working with our alliance members. This was our last event for the 2016 season so we wish the best of luck to our alliance members and the rest of the FRC community as they head to their second events. Now we set our sites to promoting our program and raising the $16,000 we need to do this again next season. |
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MegaHurtz Robotics | FIRST Team 5056
Buchanan High School, Buchanan Michigan |
Our financial partner is Lake Michigan STEAMWORKS
More information can be found at www.lakemichigansteamworks.org |