589!!!

Over the summer, my dad and I went to Big Bear for 4 days to ride our mountain bikes at Snow Summit. It was quite fun and our room we stayed in was litterally right across the parking lot from the park. If you are curious about what are bikes are, my dad's bike is a heavily upgraded Kona Process 153 and my bike is a slightly (I mean REALLY slightly) upgraded YT Capra AL Comp 1.

Since I haven't been updating on the regular, I have clumped everything from the first 2 weeks into one. So first off, all of the veterans broke off with Mr. Miller for a few days. During that time, he told us that instead of taking his shop course again, we just needed to make a safety video for the shop. So for the first week we brainstormed and storyboarded what we wanted to be in the video (the first photo below). During the second week we did most of the filming but we didn't get all of the shots we needed. Since we filmed on the orange carpet a lot, I had the idea to use the garage doors as a soft light reflector. Since the carpet is orange and the door is blue, the white balance equalized since blue and orange are opposite colors (the second photo below). on the 10th, Neato introduced the spaghetti wednesday challenge to us. Basically, the goal of the challenge is to make a bridge out of spaghetti that can hold the most amount of weight, have the least amount of mass, and span 2 feet or 24 inches. I was put in a group with rookies and this time around I decided to take a passive role in this challenge. Instead of being a high contributer to the group, I just guided them and kept them on a path as I watched. Also, on thursday, I was curious during lunch and I discovered that the 2016 JPL Invention challenge had been released. The challenge this year is to transport a cup of water with a fish in it to a receptical that is two meters away. The goal is to deposit the water in the shortest amount of time while spilling the least amount of water possible. The team with the fastest time wins. I will discuss more about the challenge in the next week. I will also link the rules below.

Today we finished filming and talked a little about the invention challenge. I'm not quite sure exactly what we did to the letter because I am writing this in the future, but I know that we finished filming. Now it is all up to Sam to finish editing the video and make the final cut. I know that this enty seems short, but my memory only goes back so far. Sorry, on the bright side, the Titanfall 2 pre-alpha tech test is really fun, the grappling hook and Ion's massive lazer are really satisfying, it just kind of sucks that it is only open on fridays, saturdays, and sundays.

Today the veteran group broke off from the main class to discuss the invention challenge. I printed out the rules so that I could highlight things as our conversation went on. Cole recored the whole thing for review and for his website. The first photo below is of the rules all layed out and highlighted after out discussion, the second photo is the white board with our ideas on it. We talked about the rules and weather or not certain things were legal or not. We also discussed ideas for how to complete the challenge. There was a car idea where a car would pick up the cup and drive it over to the receptical. There was and overhead track idea that would hoist the cup, move it over the receptical, and dump it. There was a slider idea, basically drawer-ception of extension. There was the "Kevin arm" which is basically a catapult that instead of throwing something forward, it would throw it downward into the receptical. There was a scissor lift idea that would just push the cup to the goal. Finally, we added another thing that could be installed on any device to make aiming easier, this was the "Phantom Funnel", a massive funnel that would sit over the receptical (but not touching it) to make it so that all we have to aim for is the giant funnel. I believe that that is all we talked about today, not much more.

Today we worked more on spaghetti bridges, not much to talk about here. My group was on task and they have a goal that they want to reach. I, again, took the passive view on this challenge just to see how my group would do without my help. By this time I had gotten the format of my website up but no content on it, it was just a blank form ready to be filled in with information. We didn't do much beyond that today, so this enty will be shorter than normal.

Today the veteran group broke off and we talked more about the invention challenge. Since Mr. Wilton will be coming on friday, we had to create a power point of our ideas and give a more indepth analisis of the rules. We talked a little more about our ideas and added a few in that were intentionally flawed to see if the class could catch the rule violations in them. Sam made the power point and Cole recommended that we all read the rules right then and there a few times over to understand them better. Sam still has some work to do on the video, but I am looking forward to how it will look all together. I am so glad that I do not have a sixth period because I can just sit in Dr. Neat's class and update my website or do my homework. Compared to last year, we are in a much better place in the invention challenge, we have ideas the people want to pursue and we have the rules locked down in our minds.

Today, the JPL group gave a more indepth explaination to this year's challenge. Mr. Wilton was here to observe and look at all of our ideas shown in the power point that Sam made. We showed the fish that I printed and we had the class ask questions about our ideas to see if they caught anything and if they had any input for us. Below is a photo of the fish that I had to getto-rig for it to print properly. I won't explain what happened but if you know 3D printing you can probably figure out what I did by looking at the photos.

Today we worked more on spaghetti bridges since the competition is on thursday. Again, I just let my other group members do the work, not because I am lazy and I don't want to do anything, I'm just a 4 year veteran of the class and I have seen every kind of bridge that can be thought of, the ones that work, and the ones that don't work. Just based on what the groups have built, the scores are going to be much higher than last year's by a lot. I don't know if that is because of the presence of so many veterans, but it probably is a contributing factor. So far my group is doing pretty well, they are on a path that looks pretty good right now, I just hope that that will carry over into thursday.

Today the veteran group broke off to go into the shop to work more on the invention challenge. We cleaned up our brain storm wall and Alvin rewrote all of our ideas and topics that we had been talking about cleanly on the board. We also set goals for ourselves and wrote them out on the board including what we want done by this friday and next friday. We didn't really set anything solid for this friday because we do not have school, but by next friday our goal is to have a calendar with some important dates on it and a general list of requirements for the device, not specified for a certain design. I think that we can do this by this time and have even more goal set out for the coming weeks. I highly doubt that we are going to meet again this week so we are going to have to do this work next week, which shouldn't be a problem.

Today we again worked on our bridges with our groups for the competition that is tomorrow. I don't think that I need to expain what happened again because I have explained it many times before. Therefore, today's entry is going to be rather short due to the lack of interesting things to talk about.

Today was the spaghetti bridge challenge that has been one month in the making. Strangely, Dr. Neat wasn't here today but Mr. Miller was, so the competition could still happen. The veterans were in charge of the various tasks that had to be completed for the day to run smoothly. I was the universal weigher, Cole was the water master, Mr. Miller was the Excel overseer, and Sam took pictures. I was actually suprized at how many groups' bridges actually held a large amount of weight. I don't know who won, but I know that it is a very close match between Maddy's group and Connor's group. The thing is that Connor's bridge was light and held a large amount of weight while Maddy's weighed more but also held more. So I would have to do the math to see who won, but its easier to just look at the results that I linked down below. It turns out that Connor did win, but not by much, Maddy scored 12.6 and Connor scored 13. Sam, Cole, Ryan, Tony, and I are all going to luch after school, so thats going to be fun. Look at the links below for my wednesday challenge form and the results that I linked to from Mr. Miller's website. Below is a photo of my group's bridge from yesterday, we didn't win, but we did come in 5th with a score of 9.42, which is really good given that last year only 5 groups actually held anything and the maximum score was 4.2, so this is definitely an improvement.

Today we just did website stuff and filled out the wednesday challenge form for the spaghetti bridge challenge that was last thursday. Since there aren't enough laptops for everyone in the class to have one at once and the veterans didn't break off, us veterans had litterally nothing to do all day. Sam had to do work because he is technically not a veteran, but the rest of us just sat around and did nothing. Because of this, there is nothing more to report on today's events. As for last friday, I had a lot of fun with my dad at the Snow Summit Mountain Bike Park all day. We did 6 runs that day, runs meaning that we went up the chairlift and down a trail 6 times. We rode the newly opened Turtle Trail which was a whole lot of fun to speed down through all of the berms, which are banked turns. We rode that trail 4 times, the beginner trail Going Green once, and the intermediate trail Pirates once. The first time down Turtle was a little scary but really fun when I look back at it. It was scary because I didn't know what was next, but funny because of my reaction to that fear. There was this one point in the trail where there is about a 50 degree, 100 foot drop that comes up really suddenly right out of a steep berm. My dad was behind me and when I went over it the first time, all he saw was me just dip out of view with an awkward scream of terror. I didn't crash, which just makes the whole thing even funnier. On the way in was saw this really funny rock thing that someone made. It was basically a big rock that was there and wedged rocks in the cracks to make it look like a goofy monster, as shown in the photo below. My dad and I actually had to stop and turn around to take a photo of it. I've been typeing for a really long time now so I'm going to stop.

Today the veteran group spit off from the class to work on the invention challenge, making us excused from the challenge. We realized that, this being our first meeting in a while, we only had two days to reach our goals set for this friday when Mr. Wilton is coming. In the time we had we created a google calendar and shared it with everone so that we could all access it from anywhere whenever we want. We also formed the majority of a general list of requirements for our deivce and shared that in google drive aswell. I created a shared directory among the CAD computers so that any work we do we can put it in the network and have it be seen by anyone on a CAD computer. I actually piggy-backed off of the shared directory that Daniel made last year for FRC so that all robotics related files that were created on the CAD computers in 2016 are in one place. We are in a good place for Mr. Wilton's visit on friday, we are very close to finishing our set goals and I hope that tomorrow I can get some work done in CAD.

Today the veteran group split off to work on JPL after Mr. Miller told the class that HE is going to be grading our websites this weekend. He explained to us what he is looking for in our websites, what he is going to be grading, and how it will be weighed. After this the veteran group broke off. We divided into device groups based on what device we wanted to work on, I worked on the "Kevin Arm" obviously. If we actually go through with this idea and bring it to competition which I'm pretty sure is going to happen, the name has to change. Yes, it is my idea but everyone is going to be working on it, so I don't want it to sound like I'm taking all the credit. Anyways, I started work in Autodesk on the field and the receptical so that I will have a field to test my designs on while still in CAD. I almost finished consraining the reseptical so that it is in the right place on the field, but I didn't finish. Tomorrow Mr. Wilton it coming, and we are actually, and I'm suprised to say it, ahead of schedule, which is REALLY GOOD.

Today we presented to Mr. Wilton our progress in JPL. Since he didn't know that we only got 3 days out of 2 weeks to do actual work, he was not very pleased with our progress. All we did in the presentation was update the class on our more indepth ideas and showed some rough CAD drawings in sketch-up. I couldn't show my progress because I am designing in autodesk, but there wasn't much to show anyways. We discussed some stuff for the rest of the period with Mr. Wilton and with the class until time was up.

Today the JPL group broke off and we worked on our projects for the challenge that is on november 19th. Sam refined his CAD a bit while I made a made a blank field and put it in the network. This is so that everyone on the CAD computers can access a copy of the field whenever they want. Sam and I also made funnel ideas of our own. My funnel has not very steep walls but a frame that can be universal to any funnel shape. Sam's funnel has steeper sides that should still fit in the frame based on its dimentions. We needed someone to make our funnels and Alvin volunteered himself to build both of them and the receptical, by tomorrow. I have no idea if he will actually pull this off since I made my frame out of 2 by 4 blocks, as 2" by 4", but we will see tomorrow. Also, club expo started today and at the robotics table, we drove Winston around. We got the brilliant idea of putting the flag in Winston so that it would billow in the wind while we drove. The result was majestic.

Today the JPL group left the main class, as usual. To our suprise, Alvin actually managed to make both my frame and the receptical. He didn't make Sam's funnel, my actual funnel, or the cylinder for the receptical, but still, he made something. We found a piece of partical board in the shop that is big enough to house all of the parts for my funnel, so we drew out all of the lines before the class ended. We didn't have time to finish, but we are set up to cut it all out at a later date. I didn't say tomorrow because a bunch of us are going the the Glendale Tech Week event tomorrow at GCC. Progress my be halted for one day since Cole, Sam, and I are all going, but thats fine, we are going to get money for skateboards next semester.

Today I was not in class because of the Glendale Tech Week event at "GCC". GCC is in quotes because it didn't actually take place at Glendale Community College, It took place at the Alex Theater, which happened to be right next to the Glendale Career Center. So technically we were still at "GCC", but not the right GCC. As for the event, it was quite fun, we rode skateboards up and down the side walk for hours and promoted our cause. We actually got $100 from a lady that rode one of our boards... in heels. Thankfully, she didn't crash. Also, Brenden learned how to ride a board on my aircraft carrier. We also got some gift bags with some stuff in them, which was cool.

Today JPL went into the shop again, as always. It feels like I don't really need to say that anymore. Sam, Ian, and I cut out the pieces for my funnel and then Alvin and I taped them together with duct tape. It fits in my frame like a dream but the angle is not steep enough for the fish to slide down and the hole is not big enough for the fish to fit through in every angle. I knew this was going to happen, but thats why Sam exists with his steeper funnel. Thats about all we did today. I didn't take pictures of any of this because I'm stupid.

Today Mr. Wilton did not come but we did have a device-off in the quad. But you must be wondering, what device? Well thats the thing, there were no devices before lunch, and then at the end of lunch, there were 5 devices all held together with duct tape. It was not a very pretty sight but for the 30 minutes we had I think we did ok. At the beginning of the class we esch talked about our devices that we made in 30 minutes and how sad they were. We then went to the quad for a pre-pre-prechallenge just like the actually one at JPL. Everyone with a device went one after another with water and a fish, some did ok, but most did, lets say, "sub-par". Neato judged this like a wednesday challenge where the person with the most water and the fish won. No one got the fish in so nobody won, making us all winners. The first 3 photos are of the funnel and the reseptical, the 4th is of the vacuum design and Ian trying to be taller, the 5th is a table covered with the apex of engineering, and the final photo is of my device alone. The amount of getto that this thing is astonishes me, its a scrap piece of wood with a hole in it taped to another piece of scrap wood with a PVC thing all taped together with the ring being a role of duct tape.

Today JPL went into the shop to do some work. We decided that a new funnel needed to be made, Sam's funnel, and Alvin went about doing that. They made it out of cardboard and covered the inside with packing tape to give it some sort of water resistance. This funnel is steep enough so that the fish will always slide down no matter what and the fish will always go through the hole at the bottom since it is too big for the fish to get stuck. Best of all, it fits in my frame perfectly. I started the bulk of the work on the CAD for the Kevin arm and got something done, but only the arm and the base plate. Kirk, Ian, and Michael messed with my old 30 minute design to get some data on it. I don't have a photo of my CAD because there is not much to it right now, but there should be later in the week. Another thing the Sam and I started today outside of the robotics class was trying to get the CNC up and running. The main reason for this is because Justin Park, a senior the graduated last year, asked us to see if we could CNC parts out of metal for his electric skateboard, the payment being a generous donation to the robotics team. So Sam proposed this idea to Dr. Neat and he allowed us to take it into the shop to see if we could get it running. What happened after 5th can only be explained in one way: you have never seen so much work done with absolutly not result in anything. We were struggling so hard and working at it for so long, but there was absolutely no progress at all. We installed a few programs, tryed to figure them out, and ended up with a single .nc file.

Along with the release of Destiny: Rise of Iron, an expansion that I have been very excited for, a representative from Skillify came and talked to us for the whole class period. She explained what it was and what it helped people do. It basically is a program that gives you internships and hands on experience at possible job paths. At the end of the period Sam and I went into the shop again to work with the CNC. Sam did some research and found a program that is supossed to work with the CNC. Its a website called easel and it apparently can work the machine. We went to the site, entered in the details of the CNC... and it did nothing. When we tryed to pair the machine to COM3 it would not find it, it just sat there with a loading symbol even though the machine was really in COM3. Thinking that it wasn't working, we decided to look for another program that worked. From this we found Grbl. Somehow this stupid thing was supossed to work wit the Ardino program and run the machine, but that didn't work. Sam tried over and over again following the exact directions that it told us to. In the end, we hated Grbl and a great saying came from it that I will not state here. While we were strugling here, easel was doing something in the backround. After a long time we looked back at easel and it had found the COM. Then the magic happened, we told it to move, and it moved. We actually had it do something without moving it with our hands! It sounds very unexciting, but for us it was glorious. We're hoping that on thursday we can have it cut something out since tomorrow we are going to FLL mentoring.

Today the JPLers went into the shop again to work on stuff. I continued work on my CAD and everyone else worked on their own respective thing. Keilah call Cole, Sam, and I to a meeting to dicuss designs. He had been talking with Jacob and they had been talking about droping a design, they were thinking of the vacuum. The problem came from Jacob's situation of not having enough experienced man power on his group. We talked and decided that no design needed to be droped but just a reorganization of experience. I haven't finished my CAD yet, but I'm pretty sure I can get it done by the end of thursday for Wilton on friday.

Today JPL again went into the shop to get some work done. I got some input from Cole on my CAD and made some modifications to fit his recommendation. I'm pretty sure that the CAD is done enough to show to Mr. Wilton for some input. Sam and Cole worked on Sam's idea and sort of got it working enough to show Mr. Wilton. For my design, I implemented Kirk's idea to have the limiter bar be adjustable, allowing us to modify the ending angle of the arm just in case we need to. Sam and I didn't work with the CNC today because we can't have it cut anything without a teacher. Tomorrow should go well, all I have to do is during lunch, export images of my CAD so that it can be shown to the class.

Today the JPL group presented their progress to the class and Mr. Wilton. I showed my arm and what it does so far, the photos are below. The first photo is of the whole design. The second photo shows how the arm is going to be locked in place and released. Its just a gate latch that hooks to a bar that is bolted to the arm itself, all we would do is attach a string to it and put it when ready. The next series of 6 photos is the motion that the arm goes through from release to impact. The final photo is of the adjuster bar and how that would work. The biggest thing that people brought up was the fact that it was made of metal. Metal is expensive and harder to work with compared to wood, so Dr. Neat would like me to make another CAD made of wood. After I presented, Mr. Wilton came up to me personally and gave me some advice. He recommended that I just make the arm and the funnel one object that sits in a big box. That would take out the trouble of the frame and the tricky welds. All we would need to do is make a big frame out of 2 by 4s, bolt and glue plywood to the sides, and then just drill a hole, stick an axle through it, toss the arm in it and the funnel, and let it rip. It would take out all of the problems of accuracy and make it much simpler. So next week I'm going to make that CAD and hopefully get some progress out of it.

As always, JPL went into the shop. Tasked with making a whole new CAD but this time in wood, I didn't know where to start. So I did what Mr. Wilton recommended I do, put the metal frame on the field with the funnel to see if the arm is too long. Mr. Witon was worried about this so I tested it and the arm was just the right length, as I knew it was. There should be a couple photos posted this comming friday of the arm working. After I made that work, I was at a loss for what to do, what I wanted the wooden frame to look like, everything. I got some input from Kirk, Cole, Sam, and a few others on what it should look like and I have an idea of what I want to do. Tomorrow I will make this model or as much as I can with the time that I have. Sorry this one is a bit short, but nothing really interesting happened.

Today JPL went to work on all of our projects for the class period. With a better understanding of how I want the device to look, I made some good progress in CAD. It's basically the metal one, but made out of wood with main bars that are long enough to connect to the base plate and hold the funnel in place. It makes more sense when you actually see the model, but you get the idea. Another thing that I am implementing into the design are 1/4 inch plywood walls that are glued and bolted to the sides of the frame. This increases strength and makes it so that there are no shifts in the position of the 2 by 4s at all. The model still has a little ways to go, but now that I know exactly what I want to do, it should go much faster

Today Dr. Neat introduced the quarter "final" wednesday challenge to the class. Like the spaghetti bridge challenge, this is a longer challenge that is not just one day. The goal is to make an arch bridge that spans the farthest length. The thing is that all the parts must be identical and not glued or fastened in place by anything but friction. Now you would say, "just lean two 2 by 4s together and call it a day" but no, the catch is that the score is directly proportional to the longest length of one of the identical pieces. So its span of the bridge divided by the longest dimention of the object, meaning that the longer the span and the smaller the dimention, the higher the score. This is why it takes more than just one day since there is a lot of planning required, planning that the JPL group doesn't need to do because we have been removed from the challenge entirely to work on JPL. A nice thing that gives us more time to work. One last thing, for all of you that think you can just copy designs from last year by looking at my website, think again. Starting with this challenge moving onward, for all long duration wednesday challenges my website will be diabled except for this year. Have fun actually doing the work.

Today JPL went into the shop again. I was able to finish the CAD by the end of the period to my liking. Since I don't have a 6th period, I was able to color and wrender out (that's not misspelled) all of the photos that I want to show to Mr. Wilton and the class tomorrow. There are a few things that I intentionally left out in order for it to catch Mr. Wilton's eye and for him to comment on. I wont show the pictures yet because I don't want to but I will say that I like this design much more than the metal one. The whole thing is made out of wood except for the main arm, that will stay the same as the metal one because it would be easier to weld a metal ring to a metal tube then somehow connecting a (insert material here) ring to a wooden arm that could enventually snap. I'll have a more detailed annalysis of the design tomorrow since that is when I am presenting it. Now this is completely off topic but for all of you out there that cared enough to read my whole website and remember the Momento Mori project, that project is pretty much dead. I finished the model but I haven't made it printable in the slightest, not to mention that I don't think that I have enough detication to actually finish it completely. So for all of you that remember that, it's dead.

Today JPL showed their progress to the class and Mr. Wilton. I went first and explained the in's and out's of the my redesigned device. Most people that aren't veterens can't relate to this but when you finish presenting an idea to Mr. Wilton and the first words out of his mouth are "When do you start building?", is it the most rewarding feeling that you can get. He of course commented on what I left out, which was good and I got the answers I wanted. Now to explain the pictures. The first two are the fore mentioned arm test photos that I talked about a couple of days ago. The next two photos are of the new redesigned device, the first with the side pannels, the second without. The following two show how the funnel it not connected to the device, making it still universal and removable. The thing that I left out was a mounting system for the funnel that I had thought about but wanted Mr. Wilton's opinion first. It's just 4 blocks that have holes in them that, when the funnel it placed in its spot, have corresponding holes that line up and a pin can go through them. The five following photos are of the motion that the arm goes through while functioning. The bungie is tied to the holes in the 2 by 4s that stick inwards and loops around the arm. The little bar on the arm is an idea from Kirk that limits how far down the bungie slides on the arm, making the results more consistant. The second to last photo is for the arm stop bar that, unlike the metal one, is static in it's position. Since the funnel isn't going to move in the frame, there would be no reason for and adjustable stopper. The final photo shows the details of the arm more and how it is mounted. The arm is mounted on an axle that runs through two 2 by 4s and is secured in place by bushings. The arm is locked with the gate latch, like the metal one, and Cole recommended a secondary safety pin to make sure that the arm doesn't go off randomly and hit someone. Next week I plan on geting all of the drawings done and start fabrication of the device.

Today JPL went into the shop to get some work done. I managed to get all of the drawings done except printing them, but I do have a concern about something. This concern has to do with wood supply. I don't know if we have enough 2 by 4s in the shop to make our devices and I don't know if we have permission to take apart the field pieces from Winson's game. If we can use the parts from those pieces then we are in the clear, we are going to need to buy the large plywood sheets for the sides of the device, but we can work with what we have for now, hopefully. There is nothing much to report today other than that so I am going to end this here.

Today at the beginning of class Dr. Neat showed us the video of Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot doing some stuff. This is the smaller version of the Atlas robot that walks on two legs. Its really impresive to see how for technoledgy has come in the past years. After this, JPL went into the shop to do some work. I finalized the drawings and printed them all out. While I was doing that, we got the ok from Neato to take apart the Portcullis to slavage it for parts. We don't know if we can take apart the rest of the defenses since we have to ask Martos if that is ok, but we did get the long bars we needed from the Portcullis. I marked out the dimentions for the long bars and Michael and Erin cut them to length for me. Since it was a banking day today and we didn't have the whole period to work because of the video, we didn't get as much done as I had hoped. Tomorrow I hope to have more things cut and be able to take apart more defenses for parts.

Today we had the homecomming spirit assembly. Why this is important to us is because Lucas is in homecomming court. Why this matters is because Lucas is in it, we can get Winston in there too. And how will this be achieved migh you ask? Well only by making Winston deliver the flower the Lucas gives to the girl. Below is the rig that Sam came up with and I helped him build. It basically just takes advantage of Winston's angles to hold a flower, just look below. Kirk took a video of this during 2nd assemby which, according to Sam, was a let down compared to 1st assembly. I was in first assembly and, watching this video, the first time they did it was much more fluid and natural, Sam drove up and deployed the are without any corrections and Lucas calmly grabed the flower with one hand. As you can see by the video, that was not the case this time. Also, in first assembly there was a pretty loud sound of awe that rolled through the gym, but not second assembly, it was quiet. Strange, but at least the first time it happened ever it was amazing. On the front of JPL, we got the ok from Martos to take apart ALL of the defenses and the stands except for the rock wall and one stand. A good thing to hear after our hearing was blown out from the assembly. A note for all nonsenior veterans, when you go to the assembly, if you don't have ear plugs, just use your headphones and don't plug them in, they work great! Anyways, we got a bunch more stuff cut out and ready to go for tomorrow.

Today we got even more work done in JPL, a lot of stuff got cut out and we are making very good progress unparalleled to last year. Ian the Demo. Team is doing pretty good providing myself and the other groups with a steady stream of parts ready to be measured and cut. The first photo is of my work space and as you can see, I like to be organized. I keep all of my completed parts in front of me aswell as all of their CADs so that I can keep track of everything. Mr. Miller was complaining about disorganized wood and how, since wood was just lying around from the other groups, he had no idea whose they were and got angry with us. Its kind of strange though, I feel like when I am in my little work space I am a video game vender that doesn't move. I say this because I just stand there doing stuff and people walk up to me with cut parts and I give them more stuff to cut. It feels kind of cool though. The second photo is part of Sam's device, the part that actually picks up and moves the cup. He actually got a functioning prototype that demonstrates exactly what his device is going to do. It's actually really cool because it first lifts up the cup then moves it to the funnel where it tips the water out. Tomorrow Mr. Wilton is coming and, since it is a minimum day, we wont get any work done. I don't have much to show to Mr. Wilton other than a bunch of cut wood so I'll wait my turn to present instead of going first.

Today was a minimum day and Mr. Wilton was here to take a look at our progress. I didn't have much to say so I went last, only saything that we cut some stuff out. Sam ans Cole have made a lot of good progress but thats not for me to say. It was a short period so we just chilled. After school, a group of us went to Harvey Mudd to take a tour which was pretty fun. On a personal note, after seeing the place, I don't think that its the place for me. Isabel said what she needed to say and that was enough for me. So I have removed Harvey Mudd from my list of colleges. Beyond that, not much happened.

Today JPL went into the shop again. Since my group hasn't finished cutting out all of the wood for the device, we did that today. During 6th, I screwed the funnel mounts to the other long bar, which annoyed the super AP's of 6th period. Too bad for them I don't care, they're in a shop, what do they expect? Other than that, nothing noteworthy or mentionable happened. Sorry these have been so short, there just isn't enough stuff to write about.

Today JPL got some more work done in the shop. I had my group do the rest of the drilling and cutting for the device and I started screwing some more stuff together as shown below. I screwed the bungie ties to the vertical bars and then I attached the axle bump outs to the axle holders. If none of this makes sence to you, don't worry, those are just all of the names of the parts that I CADed and my peeps cut and drilled. I did all of the screwing during 6th and got some good progress done. There was a thing about the bungie ties that I did not mention. The bungie ties that are shown are not the original ones. The original ones didn't have the huge hole in them yet. To save time and to make Ian and Michael's lives easier, I just found two pieces of 2 by 4 that already had the holes in them and then had them cut it down to size. Those parts were actually from Winston's FRC field pieces that were never finished. I still need to figure out when and how I'm going to get the plywood for the sides, but that's not a problem right now.

Today the JPL group was exempt from the wednesday challenge again to get some work done in the shop. Since there wasn't much for my cutters and drillers to do, they just helped me assemble the parts some more. We screwed the two vertical bars that I had put the bungie ties onto yesterday to their coresponding horizontal connector with the help of a bar clamp and normal C-clamp. Since I didn't have time to work during 6th due to FLL mentoring, I didn't get as much work done as I had hoped. Thats all for tomorrow though.

Today JPL went into the shop... again. At some point I'm just going to stop saything that and just hope that you know by now. Anyways, we got some more work done today. My crew helped me put together some more parts for our device. Since I don't have a 6th and I can work in the shop the whole time, I managed to screw together both sides of the device completely minus the plywood, something we still need to get. I was able to finish all of the screwing with the help of Sam fairly quickly. Because of this and how because I'm lame, I clamped the whole thing together so that we could get and idea of how it will look in the real world. I was happy to see that everything fit together exactly as it should and that the holes for the funnel lined up perfectly. Since I want to have the plywood screwed to the sides before we start screwing anything left to right together, there is kind of not much to do at the moment, which is a good thing because I don't want to do anything tomorrow in my suit.

Today Mr. Wilton came and we showed him our progress in JPL. First, Jacob and Hunter presented to prove that their idea would work, then everyone moved into the shop for Sam and Cole. They showed how their device is now fully functional (mostly) and how it can move the cup, water, and fish into the cup and dump it. So that was cool, then everyone shifted to look at me. Like a dumby, I didn't take ANY photos of my suit during the WHOLE DAY, so you would have had to be there to see it. I put the device onto the table so that it could be seen easier and then told the class what we had done. I told them how the sides are put together and that nothing in the middle is not actually connected. Then Mr. Wilton asked me if we made the CAD, and then without redos, cut and assembled everything and it all matched up correctly with perfect 90 degree angles. I said yes, and then he just started clapping. That was really cool, not only because Mr. Wilton was happy, but because I was all formal looking and I was at the center of it. Its really rewarding to be making so many people happy by just doing what you think is right and what you think is fun. Now that's an inspirational quote if I've ever seen one. I do need to make a plan for the plywood though, right now its just my dad and I go get it over the weekend, but thats not that solid.

Today JPL got some shop time to get some work done (I'm running out of ways to say that!). Since getting the plywood over the weekend didn't work, I'll have to think of something different, and fast. Luckily, something productive happened. Since the band saw wasn't working on thursday, we couldn't cut any metal out to be welded later. Today we were able to get the band saw working and got all of the metal parts cut out. The hole in the 1" by 1" by 1/8" wall aluminum tube that needed to be drilled was milled out by Michael so that I could make it fit the most-likely-steel-and-nickel axle, which was also cut out. Kirk filed open some holes a bit to make the axle fit better and then during 6th I made sure everything fit nicely and smoothly. I was able to find all 6 shaft collars that I would need for the axle and put them on as shown below.

Today: while(true);{ JPL == work in shop; } (coding joke, yes I've gone to that level). Something new happened today, Ian and Michael were able to weld the arm together. They welded the bungie limiter to the main bar and the end plate to the end of the arm that will have the ring welded to it later. I say later because we do not have the pipe yet. Now I'm no welder, I know that I can't do it and thats fine, I'll leave that to the FAB people. They welded, Alvin was not being the smartest person like he always is and tryed many times to walk past the welding area when they were about to start welding, an act that would have blinded him. Sometimes people just have to learn things the hard way. I couldn't really do much in 6th since there is only welding and we don't have the plywood yet. I have come up with a plan for getting it though. Since seniors don't have to be at school until 11:00 tomorrow because of the PSAT and Cole has a truck, I was thinking that we could just meet at the shop at 10:00, drive to the Do it Center, grab the plywood, and be back at the shop by 11:00 to unload it. Sounds good and it has to happen, or we will fall farther and farther behind schedule.

Today JPL got 26 solid mimutes of shop time to work, just one whole reverse minumum day period. The plywood plan worked, actually better then it should have. Since I had to walk to school today, I had to cross Pennsylvania heading towards CV. Some how, I don't know how, but Cole and I had perfect timing. As I was reaching the other side of the street, I hear a horn, turn my head and see Cole right there. He didn't even have to swerve to the side of the road it was that perfect. So we sped up to the Do it Center, got and payed for the plywood in under 7 minutes, and got to an awesome parking spot by the shop at 10:00, when we were originally suposed to meet. So we just sat and talked with Nick (Gingy) who walked over until a little before 11:00. We then unloaded the wood and went to class. It was funny because all of our classes were 26 minutes long with lunch being over 35 minutes long. So in the shop all we were able to to was mess around and I drew out some lines onto the plywood. I don't know for sure yet, but I think I can fit both sides onto one sheet of plywood. Now if we didn't buy 2 sheets, I would be panicing, but we did, so I have nothing to worry about. If it doesn't fit, then we get out the other sheet and use it.

Today JPL went into the shop to work after being cooked in the heat for an hour. It turns out that both sides fit onto the one sheet of plywood, so now we have and extra sheet that I'm pretty sure someone will use. Kirk and I were having the hardest time cutting out the sheets because we weren't using the taple saw, we weren't even using a jig saw. We were using the stupid circular skill saw. Using that thing in conjunction with the saw horses drove us almost to insanity. We weren't even able to cut out one full side in like a half and hour. So I just spent my 6th period sawing the rest of it by hand. It was a little annoying, but I've done it before, but that time it was in a 90 degree gym and we were cutting through multiple inches of aluminum with a hack saw (throwback to FRC 2016 Orange County Regional). The main reason why I wanted to get the sides cut out today was because I wanted a full 2 hours to properly glue and screw the plywood to the frame. I have a plan for how I am going to do that, but that takes a long time to write and my fingers are getting tired from typing for 2 hours and 45 minutes straight. Hopefully and mostlikely the whole device will be functional by friday or earlier. I'm really hyped for it, because if the device works exactly as it sould the very first time it is fired, my group will be the first in 6 years to do so. The last time this happened was in 2010 and they had a full CAD with a device that worked on the first go. The stakes are high and I'm ready to be well done (why do I do the things I do?).

Today JPL went into the shop to continue building our devices. During the day I had thought of a way to glue and screw the sides together properly. Basically, we layed down stuff on the ground so that the glue wouldn't get on the concrete and we layed down one plywood side. I then lined up the wooden frame with the ply wood and traced the corners so that I knew my boundarys. I spread out the glue and then placed the frame back on the plywood. Then I drilled the screws through the 2 by 4s into the plywood so that everything stayed in place. Then we lifted the thing up and unscrewed the screws and then screwed them back in their holes on the other side one by one. By the end, the plywood was screwed in place properly, but the screw tips were sticking out the 2 by 4 side because they were too long. So during 6th, I experimented with different ways to cut off the tips, eventually going with a hammer. I would hammer the tips back and forth until they gave way and broke at the bending point. Also during 6th I managed to add the very first part to the third dimension of the device, the back bar. You can see what I did below, but we have a lot left to go.

The shop did today JPL go, know not why I do the things that are done. In this one day, we managed to screw and glue the other side and I was able to assemble the rest of the wood frame during 6th. It turns out that there was a miscomunication between Kirk and I when I asked him to measure out the base plate because it was exactly 1 inch too short on the width. I managed to get it on the device, but I was less than pleased. I counted out my screws and discovered that I had exactly the right amount I would need to assemble the whole thing without having to buy any more, which was a good thing. The battery to the power drill was dying by the end of the day and I was getting really tired, but I got it done. Thats all I have to say for today, not much else happened. We have to weld the ring on tomorrow, but thats really it.

Today was intereseting to say the least. Kirk and I found a Poole noodle and taped in to the limiter bar with very fitting reflective caution tape. Michael welded the ring on and I assembled the whole thing. I tried a dry fire, just to see what kind of power this thing had, so I just held it down and then let go with my hands. According to Ian, from the time it took him to blink, the arm had already hit the pool noodle and was bounding back a little before resting on the limiter. So it was way too fast, it actually put a hole in the pool noodle where it hit. So, in the interest of seeing it again, we dry fired it again, but this time it went a little differently. Instead of just hitting the limiter and then stopping, it hit the limiter, breaking off the ring due to the immense force, and swinging back to hit me in the thumb. The bungie wasn't wraped around the arm, so it some how got from behind the arm to in front of the arm, allowing it to hit my finger. So thats a problem, we were going to test the arm with water, but now we have to weld it on again and wait another day. Now I'm just scared of this thing, at its current speed, if someone's head was in front of the arm, they would have been killed of severely hurt. We need more caution tape.

Today was intereseting aswell. Basically, what happened was VERY unexpected. We added the last of the cation tape to the pool noodle as well as a base layer of duct tape to reenforce it. I had Cole and Sam weld the ring back on properly so that it wouldn't break off again, and then I put the whole thing back together again. Based on the strength of the bungie, I didn't want to do the water test until I mounted the gate latch that I bought yesterday to hold the thing in place. It felt too strong for me to hold in place with my hand comfortably because of yesterday, so I added the latch. So now onto the good part, we didn't do a dry fire today, we just went straight in with water to avoid unnecessary damage to the arm. I highly suggest that you watch the video below first before continuing. So now that you have watched that and have fully WTFed to yourself, you can join the club! That water spray you saw didn't just go a little above the funnel, it created a rooster tail that went about 10 feet in the air, covering everything behind it in water. This included the lighthouse, whose door was open at the time. Basically, none of us knew that that was going to happen so it took all of us by surprise espesially me. I really needed a solution to the problem, so dueing 6th I thought of a few things. First off, I took off the arm and tested it manually in the parking lot to get some hard data. What I found out was that if we go too fast, the water will spray out the top of the cup because of physics. If we go too slow, the water will all pour out of the cup before it event gets to the funnel. What I did find was that there is a golden speed for the arm where no water will come out until the cup stops at the funnel. The problem is that achieveing that speed on the bungies is going to be difficult, if not impossible. So I replaced the two bungies for one big bungie that we can adjust by changing the amount of times we loop it around the arm. There is a lid design that I have begun to think about, but I will have to do it at home because I have no way of 3D printing it at the shop.

Today we presented to Mr. Wilton again. This time around, I showed him a bit of what the solution (the lid) is because I only had a few of the parts with me since my printer had some problems, making it not function. I then showed him the device in the action with a getto splash guard in place, keeping everything behind it relatively dry. He said that we were very clos an that all we have to do is mess with the funnel so that it will catch the water better. This weekend I'm going to take the arm home so that I can work on the solution and get it installed for next week.

Today was Halloween so I was wearing my warlock costume from Destiny. This year, I actually installed some LEDs onto my mountain biking pads so that they could double as nothing manacles. I think they looked cool, but thats not important right now. So I finished the solution over the weekend but I didn't mount it, so thats what we did today. I screwed up one of the holes in the metal, so only three screws will be holding on the part, but that should work. I lowered the strength of the bungie and tested the lid, which worked exactly as I had planned, but the seal isn't very good, so that will have to be adjusted. All I'm happy about is that it lowered the amount of spilled water by a lot and it isn't touching the cup before the device is activated, like the rules said. Thats about all we did today, nothing much else to discuss, I just like the adjustable bungie strength.

Today we got some more work done which is always good. Since we are 589 and we are nothing but getto, I had to make my professional looking solution getto, but functional. To solve the problem of the splashing water, we simply make packing tape into side walls. This not only worked, it made the device look more 589, which is always good. With the problem of the cup holder gone, we now had to think of a way to shroud the funnel. We need a new funnel anyways because the cardboard one is just so bad. So what I'm thinking is just make the new funnel out of some material and make a shroud thats like a big triangle over the funnel. I don't know if this is going to work, but its going to have to work.

Today we tested the cup holder more and during our tests, the part that held the key plate in place so that it can slide up and down broke off. This kind of sucks, we can't test without it, but I can at least work on the CAD for the shrouded funnel. I went with the triangle shape idea, giving the arm an 18 inch vertical box to hit instead of hoping to hit the funnel without sides. I also realized that the extra plywood that we bought could be used for this exact thing, its just that wood is not very hydrophobic. To solve this problem, I looked online and found this stuff called Waterbeader, a spry can that has the marterial in it. You can apparently just spray it on a surface and it will dry into a super hydrophobic surface that repels all water and liquid. I don't know if this stuff is going to work, but I'll see if I can order it today and get it to the shop soon. I didn't finish the CAD, but I hope to do that by the end of the week.

Last night I printed a couple of replacement parts for the part that broke off yesterday and today I glued one of them on. I let it dry for a while, and then I tried it out on a test fire of the device. I got one good test in, but on the next one, that same part snaped off. Realizing that it would be pointless to just keep regluing the part over and over again, I decided that when I got home I would redesign the part and make it more robust. For the time being, I justed worked on the funnel. I got most of the drawings done, but I wasn't able to finish all of them and print them before I had to go, So I'll hopefully do that tomorrow, during lunch before we present to Wilton. Right now, I don't really like where we are, buit with time and a lot of effort, we'll get there. Also, I was unable to order the Waterbeader stuff because its really expensive and it would have gotten to my house on the 15th or the 18th, only a few days before competition. So my dad order some other stuff that should get to my house over the weekend.

Today we presented to Mr. Wilton and we showed him the device working better with the solution. During lunch I was able to glue on the new part that is a much more robust version of the part that was previously there. it worked for multiple tests and when we showed it to Mr. Wilton, so I hope it stays and doesn't break off like the rest of them did. As you can see by the first photo below, that is how we are going to make the funnel shrouded. I think that we're just going to have to attach the shroud on with some custom made angle brackets like Alvin did for the cardboard funnel, but were not sure yet. I think I want to glue the plywood together first, then install the brackets and then caulk it, but I'm not sure yet. As you can see by the three following photos after the funnel, that is the device and the solution. How the solution works it that when it is on the ground, the slider plate and the plate that is attached to the bottom of the main mast are compressed together, pulling on a fishing line that is connected to the lid and slider plate, keeping it open. Then when the device is activated and the arm lifts up, the force of gravity slams the lid closed and slides the main mast down, surrounding the top of the cup. When the arm reaches the limiter bar, momentum slides the main mast out again, slaming the slider plate and bottom plate together again, flinging open the lid. Its kind of complicated, but very simple, relying on a constant of nature and only one action to make it work. If you can see on the slider plate the large black brick at the back of it, that is the reenforced part that kept breaking off, it never used to look like that. I'm really happy that this thing works, I just hope that it keeps working as the days go on. Thats all for today, I'm not planning on taking anything home over the weekend to work on it.

Today I printed out all of the drawings for the new funnel and layed out the plywood so that I could draw everything out on it. I compensated for the width of the table saw blade (1/8"), but the angles maybe a little difficult for Michael and Ian to cut. When I finished drawing it all out, I had Michael and Ian get set up so that they could cut it. Saddly, we ran out of time and were only able to get one thing cut out, if that. Tomorrow we should be able to cut the rest out and hopefully start assembly. Also, there was a concern that I had about the water and it not getting fully into the receptical because of its velocity when it flows off the edge of the funnel. to fit this, I just made an insert that had tapered edges that conformed to the sides of the funnel, making it a smooth transition where no water could pile up and get stuck. A photo of it is below. I'm not going to glue it in place because the way I designed it, it actually dips inside of the receptical by about 1/8 of an inch, and since we would get diqualified if our device touches the receptical at any time, that is going to be the last thing I put in when we set up at the high school and possibly JPL. Hopefully this will solve the problem when the woodne funnel gets constructed.

Today we were able to cut out the rest of the parts for the funnel. It was too awkward to cut the parts using the table saw, so Michael, and Ian cut it out with the jig saw instead. By the time class was over they had cut out the rest of the pieces, but due to time we couldn't build any of it. Also, the super hydorphobic material go to my house on sunday and that stuff is weird. It barely smells like anything, just a hint of bree cheese, and it has the consistancy of water aswell as looking like water. I put it on a test piece of wood at my house and it felt like I was just spraying water onto a piece of wood because it came in a squirt bottle, the type you would see windex in. When it dried, the wood didn't hold any water, the water just slid right off, leaving only a few drops on it. Its weird stuff.

Today we assembled the funnel in a more logical way than I had originally intended. What we did is we took the brackets off of the cardboard funnel and used those to assemble the new funnel. We just lined up two of the parts with a bracket, moved one, and then drilled a hole through the wood where the hole in the bracket was. It was simple really and we assembled the whole funnel with relative ease. I had to duct tape it in a certain place because it wasn't holding, but it worked pretty well. I didn't caulk the funnel because I had to go to FLL with Sam, but I plan on doing that tomorrow. We don't have school on friday, so we're going to have to do some extra work tomorrow.

Today we presented to Mr. Wilton because he came today and we showed him the new funnel and the insert. We didn't demonstrate the device because nothing new happened, but that doesn't really matter. I stayed during 6th and caulked the funnel, inside and out, so that there would be no watter leakage from it at all. I don't think I'm going to take off the duct tape because its doing its job and removing it would only make it weaker, so I caulked around it. Not much else happened, I think that I'm going to paint the funnel first so that it has an even layer, and then spray the material on it. Also, I made all of the angled brackets that we would need for the shroud and mounting it, only saving us time on monday. They look pretty good, but whats important is that they work.

Today I did a lot of work outside of class, before and after. During snack, I spray painted the funnel white so that by lunch I could spray the hydrophobic material on it. During lunch, I did just that, again feeling weird as it felt like it was doing nothing. During 5th we assmebled the shroud, which was just as easy as the funnel, and during 6th I caulked it. There's not much more to say on it, just that the piece of board that is off color on the second photo is not supposed to be there, its just holding the should open while the caulk dries. For some reason, the caulk dries in about a day, but the bottle said to let it dry for 7 to 14 WEEKS. Thats WAY too long and really unreasonable. So tomorrow I hope we can assemble the whole thing, we probably can though.

Today during lunch I sprayed the shroud with the material on just the plain wood. I did this because I did some testing and I'm pretty sure that the paint only worsened the problem instead of fixing it. I tested with bare wood and painted wood, and water ran off the bare wood far better than the painted wood. After I sprayed the shroud, I waited for it to dry and then I bolted it to the main funnel and caulked it. While the rest of the day was buring on, I made myself usefull and found some bolts and nuts to hold the funnel in place in the device. I found these bolts and thats it, I couldn't do much else because the caulk was drying. I had to duct tape the end of the funnel because there was a gap that had to be filled with caulk. The gap was too big on its own, so I had to use duct tape to tension it down a bit. As you can see in the photos, the lid is not there, that is because I'm taking in home today so that I can spray the hydrophobic material on it tonight aswell as the insert.

Today the funnel was fully dry so we tested the arm after reattaching the lid system. Like I had imagined, the water stayed on the painted funnel a lot and none stayed on the wooden part. So all that means is that the paint was a mistake and not I have to sand all of it off just so that it works enough. We did some more testing today because there was no point to sand the funnel now before I was commited. The most annoything part was that during testing, the part that kept breaking off broke worse this time. As you can see by the photo below, the part kept breaking in a more accesable location, but this time, it broke in and inopperable position. So I realized that it cannot be fixed, but that didn't matter because it worked with out the part anyways. Yes it would hang down, but it worked. another thing that just had to happen was that the cup flies out and sometimes retains water and the fish. So Kirk and I tried to figure out a way to use zip ties to hold the cup in, but with no success. I had to leave early because of FLL, but Kirk said that he would work on it after school. I just hope what ever he does works.

Today I PLANED on just sanding the funnel and being done with it, but no. Yesterday, the fishing line was at the perfect length for the lid to function. But Kirk replaced the fishing line for another line that was way to short, making the lid not function properly. Also, the zip ties that Kirk added work right and held the lid closed, so basically, I had a lot of extra work to do that I didn't want to do in the first place. After replacing the fishing line and cutting off Kirk's zip ties, I was back as square one. During school I thought of a way so that the zip ties were out of the way, but the funnel bent them into position, allowing the cup to get caught and stay in place. I took out the funnel and Michael helped me sand the the most open face of the funnel, but it didn't do much and we didn't have the power sander to do most of the work for us. We sprayed what was exposed wood and low and behold, the wood had the water flow off easier than the paint. I stayed after school for a while because Mr. Miller stayed a while and helped Sam with some stuff. The day before, I went to the hardware store looking for reflective caution tape, but no obe had any, so I got metal 589 placks instead. I stuck those on today and it is very cool and modest looking. After Miller left to go celebrate Cole's birthday, I went home to sand the hell out of the funnel. In 2 and a half hours I sanded as much paint off as I could with 80 grit and then sanded it with 220 grit to make it smoother. I then sprayed it with hydrophobic, ate dinner, then went to bed. I really hope it works and that all of my work wasn't for nothing.

Today I installed the funnel and tested it to make sure that it worked. I had Sam pick me up this morning because I didn't have a way of bringing the funnel to school with out him. So I put the funnel in and it worked better than it did with the paint. While Kirk and I were testing, one of our tests was more interesting than the others. Yesterday I had tip tied the bungie in place because it was bothering me, which turned out to be a great decision. Remember that golden speed I had mentioned a while ago, well, through some twist of fate, where I zip tied the bungie was at the golden speed. We know this because on one of the tests, the lid failed to close, but the water all stayed in. It was really cool, but I'm still going to use the lid because I don't want to take any chances. For the rest of the day, I just hung out in the shop to help Sam out and take care of all the 'slowms' that he needed. Jacob was also there and I gave him one of the extra unbroken pieces of my lid system to use as his switch. I also made the duct tape on the back of my funnel look a little better by making it look like a castle with little flags, shown below. Also, something I forgot to mention, Dr. Neat held the Mini JPL Challenge where we eliminated the device that was not going to competition, which was Alvin's. In the competition, Sam's device got something like 12 seconds and my device got something like 19 seconds. Not bad, but not good, for me at least. After school, Sam and I packed up so that we could be ready to leave tomorrow. Sam and I gave Ryan a ride home, but we didn't go home, he hung out at Ryan's, played ping pong, went to dinner with some funny stories coming from it, and then drove around and back to Ryan's house. It was a fun night of forgetting our troubles and relaxing for the challenge tomorrow.

Today was the 19th (I think) annual JPL Invention Challenge LA Regional. First off I'll state that this one was much better opperated than last year's by a mile. Packing up to head out wasn't that bad, we just packed everything up and left. Cole put his device in his truck along with Jacob's, and Michael's dad took my device in his truck with the tote of stuff. When we got there, I was deemed device 50, Jacob's was device 49, and Sam's was device 51. To all of our suprise, including Mr. Wilton who came along, most of the devices were not of mine like we had originally thought, but they were a mix of Sam's idea and Keilah's original idea. They were like Sam's idea because they were and overhead track powered by a motor. They were exactly like Keilah's original idea because they lifted up the cup to the top of a slide, dumped the water that then drained into the receptical. There were a few outliers, but most had Keilah's origional form. The recepticals were to the correct measurements and the spacing was right between the cup and the receptical. We waited for a while and the best time before we went was about 3.5 seconds with no penalties scored. This made us pretty nervous, but we still had faith. When we went, we went all at the same time. Jacob went first while we were setting up, then I went while Sam was setting up, then Sam went. We knew that Jacob's wouldn't work, but since it infinitely loops, they let it run for about two times before they called it. The cool thing was that they let us introduce ourselves and talk about our device after it was set up, so I talked and it was fun. My actual run was documented by Michael in the stands, shown below. Its was pretty fast and we got a time of 3.38 seconds, but because we spilled some water and only got 190 grams, we got a 15 second penalty, giving us a time of 18.38 seconds. What I will say is that my device looked the most intentional, if that makes sence. It looked like it was built exactly for the one purpose, while the rest looked like they could be used for other things. Saddly, Sam's device DQed because his tipping string got caught on a prong like it did yesterday in the shop a few times, which sucks. The final scores are shown below, the fastest time was actually 2.25 seconds, which is rediculous given that in mine it was 3.38 seconds. In the end, none of us made it to finals, which I guess is ok because now we don't have to stress at all. We also had fun with a steel frame that was on the feild, we were flinging Jacob with it, which was fun. We originally thought that they messed up with our score and Kirk was getting pretty triggered about it. But we did a test and discovered that they were right. The cool thing was that Jacob won the most innovative award for his vacuum and my group won a shirt for each of us, Kirk, Alvin, and me. The food was good and we didn't have to wait 45 minutes for it. It was an all around good day. What I'm most hyped about it what we can shoot with my arm now that it is all over, but thats for later. This was a good JPL Invention Challenge, and I'm sad that it is my last.

Today JPL went into the shop NOT to get work done, but to work on a power point presentation about JPL on saturday among other things. We goofed off most of the time, so the real work started after 5th when it was just Sam and I. It was interesting to see the things that occured during our "progress" today. Not much else happened, so this is a short entry.

Today we presented our powerpoint along with other videos and photos. We just described everything that I talked about on my saturday entry and showed the videos that are above as well. Due to my indepth desciption above, I'm not going to say it over again here. Below is a photo of the Kevin arm sitting in the shop in its final state. Thats it, bye now.

Today The class did a wednesday challenge where the goal was to design and build a tower as tall as possible made only out of marshmallows, graham crackers, and pretzels. One group would design the tower and another group would build the tower. I was a judge along with Sam and Alvin, and today we gave each group one of each item so that they could CAD appropriatly. At the end of the period we got all of the CADs from all of the groups, along with a word document from each of them explaining how to build it. Tomorrow, we are going to distribute the designs to the groups so that they can build them. The JPL crowd that didn't finish their websites worked on their websites for the class period. Thats about it, the real judging starts tomorrow.

Today we distributed the designs for the wednesday challenge so that they could build them. We also got them their building materials, which is where things got a bit hecktic and stressful. We managed to get all of the designs and the heights measures so that we could accurately score them during 6th. Sam and I ended up DQing 4 teams for having either an unbuildable design or for their tower falling over. So in the end, Lucas's group won with a build height of 6.5 inches and a CAD height of 6 inches. The results are linked above.

Today the JPL crew went into the shop with Mr. Miller, Mr. Wilton, and Dr. Neat to talk about the JPL season. I was the writer for the excel sheet where I wrote down what each person thought they did good, what they would change, and how many hours they put in over the entire time. I thought that my team and how we delegated jobs was good, along with how we progressed through the season. What I thought we could redo was testing. We didn't do much testing before the device was built, which was a problem when it came to the hydrophobic material, and just testing in general. We were also told something that I will not repeat here, since you shouldn't know yet, but you will soon.

Today Neato explained the final to the class. This is what he told us on friday and it is the JPL inventiion challenge. Each group has to design and build a device that can opperate in the JPL invention challenge with all of the rules in place, except the distance that the cup must be transported, that distance is halved from 2 meters to 1 meter. The thing is that its not the team that does it in the fastest time wins, there is a set time to beat. That time is my time of 18.38 seconds. If the groups can match or beat my time, then they get an A, and that applies to all teams. That means that if all of the groups get a time faster than mine, all of the groups get an A. The JPL group is not excluded from this though. The teams that didnt score have the chance to refine their devices and make them work for the final. They all have the origional 2 meter distance and the match of beat my time is in play for them aswell. As for Ian, Michael, Kirk, and I, we are the judges, and we automatically have A's for the semester. This doesn't mean that we get to sit around for two weeks, we have to clean the shop in a noticable way, the field being a great example. Sam was rather excited because he gets to work on his device again, and my group and I are happy because we get A's. This is going to be an intereseting final, I'm certain of that.

Basically, I didn't update my website for the rest of the first semester. To sum up what happened, Kirk, Ian, Michael, and I did a bunch of cleaning around the shop. Sam did a little tweaking to his device and then joined Cole in making the new tables for the CAD cave. They got most of the tables done, they just have to come in during the break to finish them. On the day of the final, all of the groups that had a completed device by the cut of time which i believe was 10:30, got to participate. All the groups that didn't failed to compete. Sam and Cole went with their device but it failed, again, saddly. I wanted to give them a second chance because they did it in a different spot from everyone else, but Neato didn't allow it, which sucked. It also kind of sucked to see some of the groups' devices fail and I had to be ok with it. I won't lie, it was hard to do, but in the end I got by. I don't remember who won because I am updating this in the future, the sad future of 2017 where Turmp is president and he is actually going to bulid the wall. But that doesn't matter right now, this is just to update you on what happened in the weeks where I didn't write anything.