Kill-O-Bites #3088

Late Update!

2010-02-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!
We've been so busy working on our robot that we've beraly had time to update the lovely blog!
Anyways, our robot is growing and evolving slowly as the competition gets closer and closer (half of the time is already gone!).
We'll be posting interesting pics and vids here soon so you can enjoy our progress as well!
Keep checking our twitter and facebook profiles for further updates, and keep checking the blog for cool stuff (we promise to update more often from now on...).

Have a great week while we keep working on our robot!
The Kill-O-Bites #3088

Get ready, Set, Breakaway!

2010-01-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

Wooho! The international Kick-Off transmitted via web/satelite from New Hampshire, USA, has ended about an hour ago, and we're psyched about the new challenge!
It's called Breakaway, and it's pretty complicated to explain about in one blog post, so, we got you an amazing link to the explanatory video on YouTube (our own recorded video will be posted soon), so, enjoy:

So... The kick-off is mean we have a mere 6 week from today to think of, design, build, porgram and test a fully-functional (and adoreably loveable) robot which will be able to play Breakaway, and win bigtime!

Wish us luck on our journey this year.
Of course we will be updating this blog (+our twitter & facebook) every little while so you can enjoy our progress.

Have a good week,
The Kill-O-Bites #3088
:]

P.S. - Photos from the Israeli Kick-Off will be available on our gallery tomorrow! :D

it's hint #1!

2009-12-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

First of all- we would like to wish you a merry christmas, quanza, hannukka, or any other winter holiday you celebrate, and just generally a great holiday season, and a happy new year! Hopefully the new year and the new decade will be as good as the last, and even better!

Apart from that, we're so excited to announce that the 2010 challenge hint has come out this week! (yay! :D)
So... everyone is trying to find out what on earth it might mean, including us.

If you have any idea what this might be, or what it hint towards, you are more than welcome to comment (let your imagination go wild)!
Except for that, we're still wating for the kick-off. Hopefully we'll be avle to figure out something about the challenge with this vague clue before then...

Untill then, tune in for some more inside info.
Have a great week, and happy holidays!
The Kill-O-Bites #3088
:]

Tick Tock Goes the Clock

2009-12-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Now that our lovely Hannukah vacation is over (sadly), it's go time and we're ready to get cracking!
If you pay enough attention, you might have seen the new count-back gadget which shows how much time we've got left untill the announcement of the 2010 FRC challange, a.k.a The Kick-Off! *yay*
We can't wait to know what the new challange is, but we don't want to make speculations just yet (even though there are many of them running around the web...)

So, we'll keep you posted.
Have a nice week!
Peace out-
The Kill-O-Bites #3088

Emek-Heffer Off-Season Regional 2009

2009-12-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

On Friday, 9 members of our group and our lovely mentor, set out towards Emek-Heffer to participate in a friendly off-season regional Lunacy tournament (for more info. about Lunacy: wikipedia and a video).
The morning started nicely at 6 o'clock, and with the help of our school's technological administrator Israel, we got ourselves and our robot George on the van and hit the road.
The first thing which the driver asked us to do was to buckle our seat-belts, and according to the FIRST spirit (safety first!), we all buckled up, no questions asked! ;)

At 7:45am all of our equipment was set up and prepared to work in the pit (work area) that we were given to us at corner of the gym in which the Lunacy arena was set up.
Our team captain Michael went over everyone's roles with us. Then, the robot was operated, and it worked nicely (in the first try), and now we only had to wait for the team which were late.

The actual tournament was full of adrenaline. The "alliances" competed and showcased different strategies and impressive performances.
Our team won 3 out of 4 matches, and achieved the honorable 5th place (there was a 2 point difference between us and the team in 4th place). During the entire tournament our team has received no penalties (which is great, given the fact that most teams lost many points because of penalties).
Because we were in 5th place, we did not get to the semi-final stage.
The top 4 teams continues to the semi-finals. Now, they had to choose 2 more teams each in order to form alliances. Sadly, no team seemed to take into consideration the fact that we got to 5th place (which is ready behind the "worst of the best") and we weren't picked for any alliance in the semi-finals.
Our last opportunity to get into the semi-finals was if a robot of any participating teams fails to operate, because in this situation the team in the 5th place automatically replaces them, but because no robot failed we did not participate in the semi-finals after all.

The 1st place prize figurine was "burrowed" for photographic purposes and then returned to the judges' table without anyone noticing.
Our of dozens of balls that were part of the tournament, we found one that had "3088" written on it- a moment of nostalgia about last year's competition...
Our car came back to pick us up right on time, and we hit the road again.
There was no champagne, so our 5th place was celebrated with cookies and other snacks.
Before going to Emek-Heffer, we worked hard to improve the robot's mechanic system, electric system and software.
During the tournament the robot worked at 90% of its capability. Almost everything functioned well (except for a malfunctioning gear\motor and harmed hook system that literally ripped the basked out of place) and the robot fought bravely.
In terms of organization, other teams came to us asking for screws, batteries and other parts, while we had everything that we needed.
The cannon's pneumatic system was quite a source of interest.
Actually, no robot worked flawlessly, even robots of teams with amazing reputations.
Even though we had problems, we were "this" close (2 points) to getting to the semi-finals, so it's all good and we're happy :)

Now it's time to continue preparing for the 2010 FRC challenge!

"George" #3088 \ FRC 2009

Have a nice week, and a happy Hannukah,
The Kill-O-Bites #3088