FRC Minibot 2011

Team 263, Sachem Robotics' Prototype and deployment


The new bot has two motors, the second is attached to the smaller wheel. Since it has a 2:1 gear ratio, the smaller wheel goes twice the speed.

The last trial runs were:

2.9 - 3.1 range

• There are no magnets other then the ones inside the motors :D
• There is ghetto wiring currently installed on the bot and there has not been any programming set on the controller yet.
• When the power is manually cut at the top of the pole, it slowly goes back down the pole.
• It is very picky of it's center of gravity. The bot will fall off the pole if a wheel is too far in.
• The wheels were shaved down to the shape of the pole, as well as adding grip to it.

Here is a video of early stages of deployment


Gallery:

Copyright 2011, Sachem Robotics

I wanted to do something unique for my CR48 application. So I wrote a letter

Here is what I came up with:

To whom it may concern,

On behalf of the recent events Google Inc....
Just Kidding. I can tell this company has a good sense of humor and that it is not necessary to write in such a formal way. I am writing this letter because I have taken much interest in the Google Notebook since day one and I would like to submit an application in more personal way. I'm writing this letter on a computer that has already restarted at random occurrences twice, and I have only just begun. Luckily for me, I am writing this using Google Docs.
By submitting this application, I would like to admit who I am. I am the blogger from the website jcoinster.blogspot.com. My website has gained over 10,000 views from my CR48 post, more then my new small-town site has ever seen. I even earned a whole 10 cents in adsense money and cannot wait until I cash those cents for a new gumball. Oh wait. Gumballs cost 5X that much. Anyway, I have followed the drama, all 200 pages on slickdeals, the Chrome facebook page, all 120 comments on my website, all the @cr48 tweets and to be honest, I have enjoyed myself for, it was as if I was watching a reality game show.

I have a few questions that I think you or your coworkers may be able to answer.
Why you did not send emails as a verification?
Why you kept a non first come first serve form basis?
Did you really accomplish much from sending these laptops with open arms?
How many of the 15,000 individuals that received them actually give you feedback?
How many were just sold on eBay to people who really would have shown dedication?
How many people who got the laptop used the basic form, giving little to no useful information?
How many people did you track online with intentions of banning or blacklisting if that even exists in your standards?

Hmm, this letter seems awfully similar to a certain post on a blog I once saw. Now that I have shoved a few questions down your throat, I would like to reveal my most important question: why don't I have one! As much as that question is absolutely true, my actual question is: how come most of the people who spent most of their time devoted toward getting one of these laptops, such as Addicted-Gamer, the one behind the tracker, have not gotten one?
The least I would like to get from this application is the fact of knowing you have posted this letter on your cork board, gotten a giggle out of reading it, or simply the thought of knowing that this was read.

Now that you have read this application, just imagine what my reaction would be if I open a CR48 and see a personalized letter right inside. Hey, people can dream right?
Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
[My real name here]

To continue following this post, please refer to this link:
http://jcoinster.blogspot.com/2010/12/track-to-see-if-you-will-recieve-cr-48.html

Ventotene, the island that brought the European Union together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT_nahgRrn0

This island, in the middle of the ocean in Italy, is the location of important world history.

Big Family, a rap group, dedicated a song to the fun times people spend on the island every summer, something I experienced.

This kid has way too many ipod pages

Yes, that's me. That's my iPod. Why there were 16 pages is beyond me

Da Wayne's Taco Bell Experience

Not the usual Tacobell drive through.

Who says New Yorkers are mean! Help Some Europeans Get Their Photos Back!

I can't imagine loosing my photos while I'm in a place for vacation.

Oh wait, I don't use film.... Regardless, spread the word!

Sprint Disses Those Annoying People at the Movies

The best is their imitation of High School Musical.

Google has a competitor: Tumblr

This competition however is only of tech humor though.

Here's why:
http://wellbebackshortly.com/all/ posts all of Tumblr's server down messages. These messages are now past 100 and more are coming at your expense. Sucks for all those people who live on tumblr, not me! Instead, I can just read all these messages knowing facebook would never do something as evil and funny at the same time






Some examples:
WikiLeaks was hosted here
We're a free service. Goddamn.
We're busy porting everything to WordPress
The hipsters decided it'd be ironic to leave and go back to Blogspot
We finally noticed we forgot the friggin' 'e'
Down is the new up

Who in their right mind would get this at Starbucks: The Trenta

If Starbucks wants to keep their Italian named items, they better work on getting Italian styled sizes. If you go to Italy, the largest coffee is no more then the size of a shot glass, if that!

Easiest way to root a Nook Color (Update: May 2011!)

Update! The Market now comes WITH your Nook! 

When I first got my hands on a Nook Color: BORING!
I don't understand why any company would spend a large sum of money for a tablet that they would limit it's functionality to only eBooks, suduko and the web.  To make it all better, they added a full accelerometer to it with no more function then to change orientation!

Meanwhile, some great people knew it could do more. They got an unlocked version of Android on the thing. Here's how to do it without any hassle:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=872490