As we head into the unknown for next season, the field for Crossover has arrived and robot designing is well underway. The whole team is excited for the scrimmage on the 13th of August, because we are hosting it! Using Francis Douglas Memorial College, New Plymouth as a venue, the excitement is building as we draw nearer to our match!
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Phew! The competition is all over - and we won an award! OMG! We have completed all our matches, and watched the finals for both VEX IQ and EDR. But - the exciting bit - we won an award! The one that we won (and received a trophy for) was the Energy Award - an a ward given to a team who showed enthusiasm and excitement with the judges or teammates before, during and after the match. We are going to put it up in the garage - our Nakibots Central. During the competition, we met tons of (really kind) people, gave away nearly half of our business cards, and played 10 teamwork matches and all of our programming and robot skills matches. We came 58th in the teamwork matches, 31st in programming skills and 71st in robot skills - beating over half of the VEX IQ Elementary teams. We hadn't seen daylight for most of the day during the competition - so when we walked out it seemed so bright. Now, we are just about to go to the after-party at an amusement park called 'Kentucky Kingdom' and see the fireworks display entitled 'Thunder over Louisville' afterwards - and after that it's a short sleep to our departure at stupid 'o clock (8:00AM or so), but it's worth it to see NZ again!
Next time I talk to you, I'll either be in Houston Airport (if there's Wi-Fi - 12 hour transit in the airport) or back in NZ. Today was a jam-packed day - 5 matches, all with just about 45 min between them - and a lot of stress! It started off at a early time - 8:30 AM and we were up and ready, at our pit. I found out where our next few teammates were, and discovered that our first 2 were Chinese and Korean, with not much English vocab. - a nightmare to strategize with! After that problem, our first game was drawing near, so we headed over to the venue with our first team - the Korean shooter-bot. The game went very successfully - a high score of 117 - and as we walked away from the match to meet the excited adults, Austin and me came up with a (not-so-) secret saying for the Nakibots team only - OMGWASA! It stands for Oh My God We Are So Awesome - and whenever we say it only Austin and me know what it means! Match 2 was also good, just after the Gyro Drama of Match 2.
Everything was fine as we tested our strategy on the practice fields organized neatly in the designated area. Our strategy was perfected, the robot was functioning and the physical structure was intact - until disaster struck. Just in the middle of a dump, an unknown problem occurred causing the robot to spin in circles continuously. he part that made it worse is the fact that the scoop was in the vertical position. Now, this might not seem too bad, but our robot, when the scoop is lifted, is VERY unstable - so this sudden spin caused it to overbalance, crashing over the fence and smashing the scoop on the goal while doing so, setting off a rubber band, ripping off more parts with its tension. Stress suddenly appeared to get it fixed I time for our match (2mins away) and solver the spinning error. Then, once we had fixed the physical damage, when we ran the program on the robot, it reported that the gyro firmware was out-of-date. This then sparked a connection in my mind - once a sensor requires an update it will not function until updated. Aaron hadn't got the firmware updater app yet, and we had no Wi-Fi to download it. So, Austin recalled a team he saw that had it, and he showed me the way as I followed after, carrying the robot and controller, along with the cable to connect the two. We found him just in time - 1min to go - and updated it. We thanked the team member who did it, and speeded off to our next match. So, that concludes the Gyro Drama of Match 2. Our other events went without any problem - apart from setting a new highscore in Match 2, raising it to 148 points. Yes! But, sadly, not all was completely uneventful. The Gyro Drama of Match 2 struck again, except this time the damage was a lot worse - and we were getting late to our match. The man who fixed us earlier gratefully obliged to fix us, but since we were running late, he said we would update at the field - and it worked. Later on, we went over to him and game him a business card with our emails on it, a Taranaki magazine and 2 Nakibots stickers, 1 of each colour. So, as you can see in the above post, today was a very chaotic day - full of stress and tension (in more than one way)! See you in the next post! NOTE: This happened earlier, but was only published today.
This morning, we woke up at a lovely time of 9:30. Once we asked the receptionist we headed out to a restaurant called 'Wild Eggs', and I had a big helping of pancakes, Since we needed to burn off the pancakes, we decided to go across an old railway bridge that had now been converted into a pedestrian and bike-only bridge. In doing so, we crossed the state border, and without knowing, visited the Indiana half of the bridge! By then we were really tired, so we had a rest in the hotel. After our rest, we visited a famous baseball museum called Louisville Slugger. They make baseball bats for some of the most famous players in the world! We saw some bats being made, and got to take a mini-bat home. We then decided, as a souvenir, to get a personalized bat. We chose the inscription 'Vex IQ World Championships 2016', 'Conor & Adam' and 'Nakibots'. We got one for me and Dad, and Aaron & Austin got their own bat and inscription. By then it was lunchtime, but none of us ate ANYTHING - Wild Eggs had filled us up! Then we had another rest, and relaxed. The evening came alive though - first baseball match! Another thing off our bucketlist! It was the Louisville Bats vs the Canberra Clippers. Bats won by 1 point (1-0 to Bats). At the match - nope, 'game' - I had a pink lemonade, a giant pretzel and a hot dog for dinner, with about 30min between them (did you really think I ate all that in one go!?). The match ended after 2:30 hours, and at 9:15 PM - but by the time we got home it was already 9:30 PM. LONG SLEEP ALERT!! { LIVE FEED OF COMPETITION >>CLICK HERE<< }
What a day. The VEX venue opened at 12:00 today, so we went in, completed inspections, tested, set up our team pit (booth where we keep our stuff - like a home base) and did one skills challenge match. First thing - inspections. It wasn't a quick deal, though. Man, that place is HUGE! I was amazed by how organized they managed to keep everything - it's a lot of space to use and monitor! We had to walk a long way to get to the VEX IQ section - it was at the other end of the building! We passed inspection (phew!) and set up our pit with the Taranaki and NZ flags, the VEX IQ Teamwork Challenge Winner banner and the giveaways, complete with the map of NZ on the desk with a big arrow pointing to New Plymouth. Within about half an hour, all the Nakibots stickers and Taranaki magnets were gone! We then did a few practice rounds, completed 1 skills challenge match (result: DISQALIFIED) and modifications to ensure it NEVER happens again. We then decided to leave, and have some dinner and rest - and that's you up to date. We've got an early start (7:30 AM), so I'll tell you about it in my next post. Bye! Note: Happened yesterday, but published today.
Okay. We are going 250 feet underground, 500 steps and 0.75 of a mile. OMG! Okay, rewind a bit. The tour started after a hearty breakfast of pancakes (again!) at 'Toast on Market'. Mmm! After gobbling it down, we visited the Mammoth Cave cave system inside a national park. The total cave length is over 400 miles, but we only explored 3/4 of a mile of the winding caves. They actually are still exploring the caves - no dead ends yet. Inside, we saw some amazing rock, stalactite and -mite formations, including a place called Frozen Niagara. It looked AMAZING, like a waterfall of stalactites. Wow! Lunch was skipped, like yesterday, and so we decided to explore an outdoor shopping mall. We visited lots of shops, including loads of famous brands. After the stores, it was dinnertime. We visited our Day 1 store - Mark's Feed Store. There we ate lots - so much that it didn't agree with me! Luckily, I didn't throw up (yet!), so I went to sleep still with a bit of a tummy ache. Zzz... [LIVE FEED OF COMPETITION AS IT GOES >>CLICK HERE<<] Today, we completed our first few official VEX IQ Worlds qualification and practice matches. First, I'll give you the stats:
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Top Score: 33 (#1) Number of Matches: 1/4 Top Score: 43 Number of Matches: 2/4 Top Score: 63 (#2) Number of Matches: 2/10 If you're not interested, just skip it. So - into the story. The day started at 8:00, and we arrived at the venue just after. Our first match wasn't an official one - just a practice, but scheduled. We were doing very well, until we got DISQALIFIED (dammit!) because we touched the goal as we fell over- but that was quickly fixed. Our first qualification match (the very first one of the competition, Q1) was at 11:31, but we had to be there 15min before. It was awesome - 52 points straight away! Yipee! The Parade of Nations/Opening Ceremony followed after at 1:30pm today, and I was in it! When New Zealand got called on for the Parade of Nations, we all walked onstage and showed off our true colours! The Parade of Nations is a celebration of all the countries that attend the VEX Worlds - 31 in total, including Syria, Egypt, Spain, Canada, Ireland, Finland and many more! The schedule is pretty full - the new game unveiling ceremony is at 5:00 tomorrow, matches all through the day (10:34, 1:05, 1:56, 3:21, 4:00 if you really want to know), so it's pretty hectic. WE are getting an early night, and we need to be bright and fresh tomorrow. Although, before I go, one thing we got checked off the bucketlist in Kentucky - eat some fried chicken in Kentucky that isn't KFC! Man, it was good! Anyways, talk to you in my next post! After a 3-hour flight from Houston to Louisville, we arrived in our hotel. We had rented a car and unpacked. We are staying here for a week, and the competition starts on Thursday (American time). Once we got to our room, we reassembled the robot - not too much damage. Phew! The first robot test will be on Wednesday, when we check it in for inspection. After settling in, we headed into the town to see the attractions. We came across the Science Museum, a museum designed to be nearly 100% interactive. There we saw loads of exhibits and activity stations, including building a bridge and testing it for strength, designing a bike and exploring our earth's potential. We stayed until closing time (oops!) and got kicked out. We then explored town, looking for a restaurant to have dinner at, and after asking the reception operator at the hotel, headed out a BBQ place called Mark's Feed Store. Man, they really know their stuff! It was DELICIOUS! After being defeated by an excellent dinner, we headed home and had a nice long sleep.
[NOTE: This happened earlier, but was only uploaded now.]
Today, we visited the Museum of Natural Science. It had exhibits on American history, chemistry, a planetarium (8k - more on that later) and a hall on all kinds of energy. First we saw a grasshopper clock - a clock with no hands and powered by a pendulum. It showed the time by lighting up blue LEDs, indicating the seconds, hours and minutes, in that order from the outer ring to the inside. We then saw a film called Dark Universe narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, all about dark matter and energy, which makes up over 50% of our universe (it's true!). The theatre wasn't like a cinema - it had a big dome as a ceiling. There were lots of projectors showing images onto the dome, creating a 3d-like experience without the fancy glasses. The theatre system (officially called 8k) was truly AMAZING! The energy hall had lots of interactive things to do, like riding a 'Geovator', a 'capsule' in which you apparently 'descend into a oil shaft'. Then, on the very bottom floor, there was a chemistry hall full of experiments to do and learn about, including a light-up display of the Periodic Table of the Elements. By the time we left, it was time for lunch. We spotted a Japanese fair & market just over the street, so we decided to explore it for food options. Eventually, after exploring all the options, me and Daddy settled on a strawberry and banana smoothie. Yum! Then we headed back to the hotel for a well-earned rest. Wow! Today was AMAZING! We visited Johnson Space Center a few hours ago and it was AWESOME - there was so much to do and see! There were interactive things to do - including a hoverchair, train controller game, tours and much more! We went on the tours and the flight simulator - the highlights of the visit. In the tour, they took us to the Astronaut Training Facility and the Mission Control room where Apollo 13 was controlled from all the way back in 1970! Afterwards, we went in a flight simulator which tipped up and down and also rotated 360 degrees - and what it did was based on what you did in the flight simulator on the screen. Daddy did a few barrel rolls on the game - and so did we! It was heaven for me. Later on, after we had left, we discovered we had spent 6 hours (the length of an average school day) inside that one building!
A few hours later, we decided to explore the places we didn't know about - the first one of two being the Kemah boardwalk. There we saw a rollercoaster made of wood - no sir - and lots of other rides you'd normally find only in an amusement park. We also had an icecream there - chocolate soft-serve. YUM! Then, on the drive back to the hotel (Courtyard Marriot), we spotted a sign that drew all of us away from the hotel - Battleship Texas. When we pulled in to the parking lot, access to the ship just closed, so we just read the signs and brochures instead. Turns out, this ship that was in front of us had been the only ship in the WORLD to survive BOTH World War 1 and 2! Then, once we had had our fill of commenting on the 12-inch thick torpedo protection, we headed back to our hotel and had a well-deserved rest. |
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