Though the build season starts in January, it is very important to teach all of the members the necessary skills needed for the build season. This way, a team can spend more time on the robot. For the third week, the rookies were taught to wire the robot by the wiring lead Joshua Chen.
He started off with explaining what is included in wiring. Then he went on to explain the basic terms and tools we need to know like wire gauges, wire strippers, crimps, among other things. Then he talked about soldering and how it is properly done. He also taught the rookies how to make and use PWMs & CAN buses. To further educate the rookies a video was used for clarifications.
After Joshua’s lesson one of our mentors, Alain St-Amant, revealed what sub team each person will join along with what project team they will join. The project teams were made to better prepare the team members and help them to collaborate with others. It also helps them experience how a typical build season would be like. The sub teams are made to split up the work into four teams.
After Alain’s reveal, one of our new mentor and former member of the 4946 Alpha Dogs, Tanner Krauter, gave a presentation on how his former team did things from the beginning of the preseason to the end of the season. This presentation was given so that we can compare and improve ourselves. After Tanner’s presentation, we split into our sub teams where the leads assigned work that was similar to what they would assign in a typical build season day.