March 14th: Silicon Valley Regional (Day 1)

Today was very busy!

We all woke up with barely any sleep in us. Still, we managed to get to competition in the harsh rain and weather conditions. Unfortunately, we did get some water onto our robot, but we were able to dry it up easily. Still, the risk remained, so we let it be for a while before ever turning it on.

When we went to the competition, our robot was in shambles. We continued building different components together, including our algae outtake system and our intake system, but we didn't end up getting them to work. Our code remained untested.

For the most part, our inspection went well, but we didn't pass because there was a problem with the RPM. It was causing a short on our frame. Fortunately, because I didn't understand the rule update, we re-wired it in the correct configuration, and re-did our main breaker wires, and we passed inspection!

Since California is moving towards the district model in 2025, they're making events end earlier, which means that we couldn't work on our robot as much as we wanted to today. Our code remains untested, and we didn't step foot onto the field at all today except for the driver's meeting.

I also auditioned for singing the national anthem before competition, which was a bit exciting. I was rather ashamed to not have learned the full song completely. From the experience though, I made some new friends! I didn't get the role but I'm still happy I auditioned.

There were also some college decisions that came out today. Not too good but some ups and downs.

Thanks for reading,
Issac