2019 – 2020
Year Two as Power Surge 4H Robotics.
The year that ended early.
The year began with promise; welcoming new members, training and learning through the Fall, confident in our potential and comfortable in our beloved Power Station shop. Excitement built as FIRST teamed up with Star Wars, Force For Change, and in January we learned of the season’s game, complete with spinning color wheels and a balancing-hanging challenge. We designed and built our robot, Darth Ziptie, with engineering concepts ready for the adventures ahead. The team attended an early event to scout our worthy opponents and get a feel for the game before our own competitions.
But, just as we were perfecting the robot and readying to compete, the world hit the pause button and everyone went home to hunker down. The competitions cancelled, working in the shop on hold, our students navigated the new challenges of having to finish their school year, and for Seniors their High School experience, remotely.
Ever a team, we held weekly online video meetings, kept up to date with opportunities from FIRST and 4-H, and did our best to help our communities by holding food bank drives, members making PPE equipment, and helping the family of dear FIRST friends who left us too soon. We managed to get in some one-on-one welding training, a tag sale fundraiser, and even held our annual outdoor picnic, albeit with remote distancing and masks, to send off our seniors and pass the torch to new student officers.
This year, along with the engineering, programming, and shop skills learned before the pandemic, we learned patience, perseverance, the importance of communication and ongoing team member support no matter the circumstances. Many thanks to our student officers for staying strong and creative, our mentors for their mindful caring, and all our members and parents for stepping up with enthusiasm to our events despite the varied challenges they were facing at home, work, and school.
Here at the end of Summer, we are trying to ease back in to our work and opportunities as a 4-H club and a FIRST team. We are looking forward to a new season of learning and being finally able to put Darth Ziptie on the field with his peers.
We don’t yet know what this coming year will look like, but we know we are ready for any mission.
May the Force be with us!
2020 Spring Newsletter
Courtesy of the team’s indefatigable Secretary, Jack.
Click the image on the right or the link below for a better view:
See how the team has been keeping busy helping our communities.
2019-2020 SEASON SCHEDULE Grid Calendar >>
- 09/06-08/2019 – Bethlehem Fair, exhibitor
- 09/14/2019 – First Church picnic and robots demo
- 10/01/2019 – Open House at the Power Station
- 10/12/2019 – PC Auto Oil Change fundraiser
- 10/17/2019 – Sponsor visit
- 10/17/2019 – Power Surge’s birthday party
- 10/18/2019 – Power Surge’s Birthday!
- 10/26/2019 – Beardsley Zoo 4-H Fair
- 11/24/2019 – Bake Sale at LaBonne’s Woodbury
- 12/07/2019 – Mohegan Sun Trip fundraiser
- Weekly Meetings and special TBD – Fall training
- 01/04/2020 – KICKOFF: game reveal viewing, team potluck dinner, inventory of the Kit of Parts, Build Season begins
- 01/05/2020 – Game manual test, game walkthrough simulation, brainstorming begins
- 01/06 – 12/2020 – Brainstorming, strategy, build field elements for robot testing environment
- 01/13 – 19/2020 – Prototyping, demonstration, design selection, build field elements for robot testing environment, order parts & materials
- 01/20 – Team visit to corporate sponsor facility
- 01/20 – 26 – Design, CAD, Electrical system, program flowchart
- 01/27 – 02/02 – Build chassis, CAD parts, prep wiring, code …
- 02/03 – Charcoal Chef Fundraiser
- 02/03 – 09 – Chassis complete, CAD files for some assemblies, full design of shooter, collector and conveyor, work on 4-H presentations
- 02/08 – 4-H Public Presentation Day
- 02/10 – 16 – Completed most CAD files, working on shooter, collector, conveyor, programming the vision tracker
- 02/17 – 23 – Assisted in the assembly and disassembly of the Mini Golf course at the Woodbury Senior Center, continue robot build and programming
- 02/24 – 03/01 – build continues, testing with our own shop-built field elements
- 03/02 – 08 – Team visit to the Waterbury District Event so new members can experience a competition and for the team to do a little scouting of the other robots
- 03/09 – 15 – Thurs Parent Meeting cancelled, mentor meeting 15th
- 03/16… – No meeting on 3/17, future meetings Tuesday evenings by remote videoconferencing until further notice
- 03/20 – 22 – CANCELLED – Western New England District Event
- 04/02 – 04 – CANCELLED – Pine Tree District Event
- 04/08 – 04/11 – CANCELLED – New England District Championship
- 05/09 – 9AM – 4PM – FILL THE TRAILER event to supply the Bethlehem and Woodbury Food Banks
- July – August – Welding classes: one student – teacher pair per session
- 07/24-25 9AM-4PM, and 7/16 10AM-4PM GIANT TAG SALE at the Power Station
- 08/08-09 9AM- 4PM GIANT TAG SALE continues at Eaton Street, Oakville (Watertown)
Thank you to all who came to our Giant Tag Sales in Woodbury and Watertown!
You helped the environment by giving second lives to useful things and helped us fund our upcoming season.
Thank you for supporting our future business leaders and engineers!
Giant Tag Sale
Friday July 24 and Saturday 25th, 9:00 to 4:00, and Sunday 26th 10:00 to 4:00
Vintage, estate, holiday, tons of good stuff!
at the Braxton Building,
60 Weekeepeemee Road, Woodbury, CT
Find things you need and support the team at the same time!
COVID-19 Updates
While staying home to keep the virus from spreading, FIRST® and the FIRST communities have been active on social media, announcing awards nominations, highlighting team efforts to help, and encouraging virtual projects.
The Power Surge team has been busy while staying safe. Individual members have been doing what they can to help, as seen in the post about Chris, below. The team has been conducting weekly video conferencing meetings and held a food drive for local food banks.
We are looking forward to being able to meet in person at the Power Station, but for now we are trying to help everyone stay healthy.
Best wishes to all,
Power Surge Mentors
March – April 2020
Team officer, Chris Valleca, a junior at Nonnewaug High School, presented protective face shields to Candice Baral of the Woodbury Ambulance Association. Chris created shields using CAD on his 3D printer hand distributed them to local health care providers.
Thomaston Savings Bank President and CEO, Stephen L. Lewis presenting a grant check to student members Natalie DeConstanso and Patrick Boylan, and mentor Dan Biron, at the TSB 2019 Foundation Night at the Thomaston Opera House. (photo courtesy Thomaston Savings Bank)
The trailer will be used by the team to haul their robots, tools and equipment to competitions and demonstrations around New England. The trailer will also be used to support local community services.
Gabriel Sousa, Thomaston Savings Bank Branch Manager (on the left), Power Surge 4-H Robotics team President Steven LeClerc (middle) and mentor Brian Leclerc (right) outside of the Bethlehem Branch of Thomaston Savings Bank with the new Power Surge 4-H Robotics team trailer. The trailer was purchased for the team with a grant from the Thomaston Savings Bank Foundation and the Watertown Foundation.
***THANK YOU***
FILL THE TRAILER FOOD DRIVE
Thank you for filling our team trailer with
770 lbs of food
for the Woodbury and Bethlehem Food Banks!!
Saturday May 9th
at LaBonne’s Market, 238 Main Street South in Woodbury.
Our community is struggling with keeping food on the table and the Food Banks may be their only source.
Power Surge 4-H team members and their robots were there to take your donations to fill the trailer. You also donated $367 in cash donations for the food banks! Thank you to LaBonne’s Market for hosting the event.
Thank you for helping out this worthy cause for those in need in our communities of Bethlehem and Woodbury.
at LaBonne’s Market, 238 Main Street South in Woodbury.
Power Surge 4-H team members and their robots were there to take your donations to fill the trailer. You also donated $367 in cash donations for the food banks! Thank you to LaBonne’s Market for hosting the event.
Students pretending to be robots walk through the game to gain a better understanding of the challenges, strategy and scoring.
Adding to the whiteboards during Brainstorming
Brainstorming in full swing!
Doing the Math
Game walk-through to help with strategy.
Brainstorming before deciding on a robot design.
Prototyping to test ideas.
The Build is On!
Prototyping
The team visited sponsor United Technologies Corp’s Pratt and Whitney assembly plant in Middletown, CT.
They are standing inside a test unit in front of a GTF engine, a PW1000, that is ready to be tested. It was a great learning experience for all!
Photo courtesy UTC. Many thanks to UTC for being a persistent supporter of FIRST.
***** Go here to see the Game Animation video
Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company are collaborating with FIRST for the 2020 season: FIRST RISE, powered by Star Wars: Force for Change.
This Star Wars theme spans the four FIRST programs, described on the FIRST website as building a “planetary metropolis… creating a place where collaboration and collective wisdom can elevate new ideas and foster growth,”
The 2020 game for the FRC program is called INFINITE RECHARGE.
To discover more about FIRST RISE 2020 go to firstinspires.org/
To learn more about the Star Wars: Force for Change philanthropic program go to starwars.com/force-for-change
Take a tour of FIRST founder Dean Kamen’s house at the Founder’s Reception, and see him talk about the latest inventions his company, DEKA, is working on, in these videos on twitch.tv/firstinspires
Access the Game Manual here: firstinspires.org
Access other videos of the Playing Field and Kit of Parts here: YouTube play list
Each year the FRC challenge is revealed the first Saturday in January. New game, new field, new robots.
The clock counts down from that point on. Teams have about eight weeks until the first competition to design, prototype, build, test, and practice driving a robot they design to meet the challenge.
Alliances of three robots versus three robots strive to complete multiple tasks to earn points. Offense, defense, strategy, operator skill, and teamwork, combined with the technical attributes of the robots, make for exciting and suspense filled matches.
The robot build starts with a basic Kit of Parts (KOP) provided to each team. Within the constraints of the rules laid out in the Game Manual teams build upon the KOP to create their robot.
This year’s game is all about teamwork and precision. Teams need to score a certain number of game pieces, rotate a color wheel a specific amount of times and/or to a specific color, and hang the robots on a swinging bar with extra points if the bar is perfectly level with the robots on it. And the tasks have to be done in a specific order.
May the Force be with with them!
Viewing the Kickoff broadcast at the Power Station
Opening the Kit of Parts
Brainstorming begins
Taking inventory of the KOP
The festivities start January 3rd, with a reception for sponsors and mentors at the New Hampshire home of Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST.
Representatives from our team will be there to hear the speeches, network with the community, see the game reveal and field in person on Saturday morning, and pick up our Kit of Parts (KOP) from FIRST HQ in Manchester.
The team gets together Saturday morning to watch the broadcast of the game reveal and brainstorm briefly on the challenges ahead.
After the game is announced, a code key is provided to unlock the download of the Game Manual. Every member reads the manual before reassembling at the Power Station that evening for the Kickoff Potluck.
At the potluck we celebrate, brainstorm, and await the return of the New Hampshire team bringing home the KOP.
After inspection and inventory of the KOP, Build Season is officially on!
!!! KICKOFF !!!
January 3-4, 2020
You can watch the live stream of the Founder’s Reception on Friday evening (6:00pm to 8:30pm) here: twitch.tv/firstinspires/
Access the Game Manual here: firstinspires.org
Go here to watch the game reveal Saturday morning (10:00am to 12:00pm): twitch.tv/firstinspires/
FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION
2020 game:
“INFINITE RECHARGE”
Each year the FRC challenge is revealed the first Saturday in January. The clock counts down from that point on. Teams have about eight weeks until the first competition to design, prototype, build, test, and practice driving a robot they design to meet the challenge.
The challenge is in the form of a game played on a competition field with elements that change each year.
Alliances of three robots versus three robots strive to complete multiple tasks to earn points. Offense, defense, strategy, operator skill, and teamwork, combined with the technical attributes of the robots, make for exciting and suspense filled matches.
The robot build starts with a basic Kit of Parts (KOP) provided to each team. Within the constraints of the rules laid out in the Game Manual teams build upon the KOP to create their robot.
Thank you to LaBonne’s Market and all who supported our
BAKE SALE
Your contributions are what make our upcoming competition season possible!
Digital Electronics Lessons
September 2019
Team alumni, Alex Williams (in back in photo), has returned to mentor after obtaining his degree in computer science. Here, he and mentor Hogan Eng are going over the binary number system, binary counting and digital logic gates. After going through theory the students wire up logic chips and look at digital waveforms with an oscilloscope. They are building up to simulating a dice roll with electronic circuits and LEDs.
CAD Lessons
August 2019
CAD (Computer Aided Design) classes were taught by team alumni Justin Varecka, with Mentor Matt helping to get the system up and running with Solid Works software. These classes ran several weeks until Justin returned to school.
Bethlehem Faire 2019
September 6 – 8, 2019
Power Surge brought two robots to exhibit at the World Famous Bethlehem Faire. Robots are cool, but the 4-H connection attracted a lot of interest. Spectators learned about the team’s first year as Power Surge, FIRST and 4-H, sponsorship, and membership on the team. Stay tuned: video will be posted here soon!
