Spartronics Build Season: Week 3

Subteam Updates:

Finals are done with!

With this, the Mechanics subteam has gone back to work with gusto. While prototyping for the climber is still in progress, the design for the robot’s grabber is nearing completion and production has begun on some of its parts.

Pneumatic, pneumatics, pneumatics. That’s the word you’ll hear over and over again if you walk into our electronics subteam. After three years, we’re dusting off the cobwebs of this knowledge from GAEA (Grabber Actuated Elevator Automaton) and starting to learn again about this type of engineering.

Pneumatics is moving things using air pressure, and some of our mentors have been teaching us about this. We’ll use this in all of our systems this year, so it’s incredibly important.

In order for the robot to function, code and mechanics have to come together to form one cohesive whole. Programmings efforts this week have been directed towards making sure this happens. After communicating with the mechanics subteam, programming has been able to start making a list of what needs to be done with the robots code to make sure it functions as perfectly as possible. They’ve also continued the ongoing process of familiarizing new subteam members with programming the robot.

The marketing team has begun planning for the Open House. This event will be held at 5 PM, March 14th at BHS. Everyone is welcome.

Work on this year’s submission for the Chairman’s Award has begun. It is FRC’s most prestigious award and is community-outreach focused. Finally, the marketing subteam is working on a secret video project to be unveiled at a later date.

Drive Team:

The wait is over! Drive team has been selected!

The primary team consists of Coach Jon Coonan, Driver Will Hobbs, Mechanism Operator James Sovick, and Human Player Rose Bandrowski. Kenneth Wiersema is the drive team’s primary Technician. The Technician, a new role this year, functions as an on-site repairman for the robot. The backup drive team, whose members can be swapped into the primary one if it’s members are indisposed, consists of Coach Kenneth Wiersema, Drivers Lucas Nalley and Lucas Rininger, Mechanism Operators Chris Mentzer and Jack Chapman, Human Player Ronan Bennett and Technician Cruz Strom

Sponsor Spotlight: Westside Pizza

Since originally opening on the island in 2001, Westside Pizza has been a pillar of the community. Since Tom and Maureen Daniels have become owners they’ve supported local organizations including Bainbridge Little League, the Bainbridge Historical Society, BHS’s swim team, and Spartronics.

As one of our legacy sponsors, they’ve done a great deal to support the team over the years. Besides purely monetary contributions, they’ve helped feed us by providing significant discounts on their pizzas. The team, including students and mentors, have consumed some 6,000 slices of pizza since the team began! Stretched end to end that’s enough pizza to run from Safeco’s home plate to the center field wall 10 times!

This tradition of helping sate students appetites goes back to our very first Kickoff event where they graciously donated pizzas for our first dinner. Westside has also aided our past fundraising efforts by allowing us to stage a takeover of their restaurant last year.

Westside’s owners, Tom and Maureen, are huge Spartronics sponsors and we greatly appreciate them taking the time to attend our Open Houses and encouraging our students.

Thank You Westside Pizza!

This is Chris’s Story:

Below is one of the videos we’ve created this year to show how the donations from sponsors like Westside Pizza enrich student’s lives.