Day 3 and 4!

Sorry guys, forgot to post for day 3, but there was a good reason. More on that in a minute.

On day 3 we ran all our official runs. Our scores were 195, 95 and 175. So not our best runs, but we were happy with what happened. We got a semi-call back for programming, but they came to our booth :-P.  Calvin and Josh ran the first two runs, and Tim and I ran the last one. We also got interviewed by a Representative of LEGO Education about our robot. Then that night we went to a special VIP concert with . . . . . . . . .Will I Am and the Black Eyed Peas! They rocked out the stadium, leaving us singing "Tonight's gunna be a good night" all the way home.

Day 4. The big day! We woke up and left for the convention center. We had a tour of the FTC and FRC pits, and watched some matches. Everyone who will be close to aging out are wanting to go into one or the other next year. Half of us went to see the St. Louis Arch, and the other half just hung out. (They are going to see it tomorrow) The half that went to to the Arch had an awesome lunch. We then went to the closing ceremony aaaaaaaaannnnnnnd . . . . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You still reading this?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Should we tell you yet?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The judges "Where in paradise with our presentation"
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Don't worry, YOUR TEAM GOT AN AWARD!"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2ND PLACE OVERALL PRESENTATION AWARD!
According to the judges, our music radio skit was the second best presentation in the whole world!!!

Thanks everyone who have been following our blog. We will try to get some pictures up on here, or on our facebook page. This was an awesome year for LEGO In Paradise, and was an awesome way to go out with a bang! This is not the end of our robotics life, a few of our team members are looking into Code Red Robotics, a FRC team based near us.
I (Jarren) am done with FLL, but I hope to support these guys with everything they do, and hope to get into some type of Robotics team.

-Jarren, and entire LIP Team.

PS. We would like to give a shout out to Team Genius - Girls Exploring New Ideas Using Science. We met them out of complete coincidence, and became good friends.

Grandville Tourney Results!

Even though we had a couple 400 practice runs a few nights ago, since there are no lighting rules, our highest robot run was the 1st one, with the score of 280! Our 2nd and 3rd runs were even worse after calibrating Light Sensors, changing values, making Light Sensor light-blocking cages, etc. 280 Points is an OK score, but all of our runs were in the morning when the sun was shining right on the tables, and all of the people in the afternoon did better because the sun moved to the other side of the sky. :( Oh well, we don't care now, because you'll see in a minute.
After the tourney, we saw that we got all Goods and Excellents on our judging sessions!
But, best of all...... We got the 1st Place Robot Programming Award!!!! But, then... We also got the 1st Place Overall Regional Qualifier! We get to advance to State! And, then, also... Do you remember our rookie team called The Sharks? Well, 11 teams got to advance to State-Level, and The Sharks got 9th!!! Rookie Team!

Aaron, Yelling in Background! (Only if I had that Coke in the fridge, I'm still tired :D )

Less than one day left!

We have less than one day left till our Regional Tournament! Jarren and I worked on the robot, and almost got 400 points. It's programmed to do it, it just hasn't worked yet! :[ Later, Aaron came and we all worked on the Project and Teamwork Boards.

Calvin, feeling sorta ready for the tourney!

Tuesday 9/22: Field Trip!

Today we went on a field trip to the Police Station. After that, we went back to my house (where we meet), and talked over what we learned. Then, we made a public survey about our innovative solution. We also tried to think of a name for the innovative solution, but is still undecided.
Also, before our field trip, we chose to use the Retail 2.0 programming software, because it makes smaller programs.

Calvin, waiting 'till next meeting :)

Figuring out what NXT software version to use

We have been trying to make a decision on what NXT-G software version to use. Some of us want to use 1.1 and others want to use 2.0. We haven't made our decision yet, but we will at our next meeting.
My conclusion:

• Pros to 1.1:
• Almost everyone has it
• Everyone is familiar with it
• It's cheap (or was, they don't sell any Retail NXT-G software separately anymore)
• Cons to 1.1:
• None
• Pros to 2.0:
• It makes the smallest programs of them all
• Cons to 2.0:
• It's sort of glitchy since it was a total remake of the software
• Along with that, we might get into a glitch of the program in middle of the season and have to use 1.1
• Some people on our team (including me) don't know of the technical differences of 2.0 and that will cost extra time out of the day (actually more than 1 day)
• Some of us (including me) aren't interested in 2.0 at all and don't want to have anything to do with it.

So I think this whole 2.0 thing is overstated and really isn't much better if it's better at all. NXT 2.0 is basically out there to get people to buy more stuff.

Fair winds, Aaron (Arr, "Talk Like A Pirate Day" on September 19th for all ye pirate mateys)

Robot base

Hey everyone! Yesterday, we made a robot base, now we are gonna work on actually programing and building attachments, etc. Still working on the project, though there's not much info on that. I'm gonna build a duplicate of our robot later (and Jarren too, if he can!). ALSO, the tournament dates where announced today! Our regional tournament is gonna be held on November 21! whew, that like to weeks earlier than it used to be! The state tournament is gonna be on December 12!

Calvin ;)