Bumper Foam Productions

Exactly what I do on the robotics team is a fair question, and one I suspect gets asked on occasion.  Sometimes it is just necessary to have an extra adult around to keep an eye on things.  I'm also mostly in charge of the Farm System, as I have a level of comfort with the middle school world view that is either remarkable or worrisome.  Or both.  Other than that, and some janitorial duties, I guess I'm the Department of Odd Ideas.

Here's one.

I found out that a team that had been around for ten years was giving out tiaras to mark the occasion.  Not just for themselves, they were handing out tiaras to other teams in their tenth season.  Like us.  So, anticipating this I had the kids make a Congrats on Ten Years trophy to give in return.  The usual parameters, made of scrap parts from last years robot and mounted on a bit of bumper.  Complete with fabric of course.

Well, problem is...they forgot our tiaras.  

This was of course corrected when we were both at State.  I think they brought us some extra good ones.  So, who wore it best? (By the way, from my long expertise at test taking I can assure you that None of the Above is a valid answer...).

Yes, I am showing mostly the adult coaches hamming it up here.  Some students have the proper sense of fun.  Others tend to take themselves a bit too seriously.  As most of us did back in high school.

Big thanks to Team Ferradermis for the creative gesture.  One of several nice things about the new format this year is that we now compete "in state" and get to know our fellow Cheesehead teams much better.  

Oh, about the title of the post today.

At our last event we were tasked with putting together a "highlights" video on short notice.  It turned out well, thanks to our video editor, a conscripted camera person and the help of various other folks.  On completion I asked if the people who had worked on it wanted to be crediting by name.  They said, nah. So a silly production company name was used instead.

Well at the state event the highlights video was done by a different crew, so we got to do a sort of Promotional Video.  Something to show potential sponsors and so forth.  In typical Bumper Foam Productions fashion it was filmed within a wrench throw of our pit (no actual wrenches thrown) and edited into nice form in 90 minutes.  It's very satisfying to hand off a USB drive and say, "Here, five hours ahead of deadline and we made everyone look good".  At least that's how I see it...

And of course......

Back to The Land

No, haven't gone full organic hippy farmer or anything.  The Land is the unimaginative designation for the hunting property up north.  Which is also a huge Keep Busy project.  There will always be things to do.  Clear lanes near the established stands.  Plant tasty deer treats.  My son's family tapped maple trees and boiled down lots of syrup.  There's fire wood to cut.  A rickety garage structure that needs attention.  We should probably build an outhouse for occasional use.  My years of digging up old 19th century privies will at last have a practical use.

With robotics entering Rest Up phase its time to get to work.  There is a narrow window where some of these tasks are easier.  You really don't want to be doing heavy outdoor tasks in hot weather and with a cloud of mosquitos trying to carry you off.

Hank loves these work sessions.  He is the Happiest Dog in Wisconsin when he's up there.  Off leash, so many smells, so very many sticks....  He carried this one around for quite a while, clunking me in the back of the legs multiple times.

He's is not the only single minded life form to be out on a warm mid April day....

That little villain is a "deer tick".  Ixodes Scapularis if you prefer.  Yep, the ones that carry Lyme disease and various other cooties.  Hank is at least helpful there.  He gets a monthly dose of medication that ensures that tick bite him and die.  Wish they had that for humans.  I just have to take a shower immediately on return to civilization, and put all garments I had on right in the washing machine. I still find a few ingenious ones lurking around.  

FIRST Robotics 2026 - The Road Home from State

I'll have more on this down the road a bit.  It takes a while after a watershed sort of event to get perspective.  Did we Win it All and qualify for Worlds?  No, not even close.  But that's OK.

It was in some ways a surreal experience.  We drove down to the venue (outside of Milwaukee) running ahead of a storm front.  A few hours after we drove through some places along the way they were hit hard by tornadoes.  At the event proper all meaningful night before practice and field calibration was cancelled as we huddled in interior hallways while sirens blared.  I blame our friends from the next door town.  Their team name is STORM, which is some sort of acronym.  Their event give away buttons....

Our team of course has had experience with nasty weather curtailing practice time.  It bit us hard at our Lacrosse event, so we were well prepped and did not suffer too much from this latest schedule glitch.  I am however convinced that at some point someone on our team inadvertently offended an Old Gypsy Woman who put a curse on us.  I must relate a few stories along these lines one day...

We played well early.  Our design was simple and rugged.  This is good, we had no serious mechanical issues.  But there were a dozen or robots with seriously better designs, and as the event went on we encountered them with predictable results.

Still, we were an attractive second pick robot, and went into the playoff rounds feeling strong.  First match was against the alliance that eventually did Win it All.  Yikes, they deserve the trip to Houston.  Had we snuck in we'd have been even more outclassed there....

But what is class?  This is an outstanding group of students.  The core of the team are kids we've seen grow up and thrive over the last four to five years.  We'll miss these soon to graduate stars.  They are a big part of our success.  There's some new kids coming up as well.  Another tip of the cap to the students who, once again, were tasked with a complex video project on a tight time line and with insufficient instructions from the event organizers.  It is very satisfying to be able to hold up the USB drive and say: "Here ya go.  3:18 duration, done five hours ahead of deadline".  I'll get it posted here in the days ahead.

And we won the Quality Award.  Basically this is for the team that builds the most robust machine in the competitive field.  I think we mostly got it for the impressive THE MEG bar that anchored the front of our design.  It took some mighty hits as our driver gained confidence.  And throughout the entire event, heck the entire season, we never lost an intake component.

There are some good stories there, stories for another day...

On the way home we stopped for food.  The team wanted McDonalds.  We'd been to a Chick fil A a couple nights before.  Great food, but their Play Land had a sign saying you had to be under a certain height to Play.  McDonalds has a more lenient policy.

FIRST ROBOTICS 2026 - State Tournament

So the robotics team qualified to go to the State Tournament.  The top teams there - I think its 8 - get to go to Worlds at Houston.

It's been a good season.  Since we moved up to being a "two event team" in 2023 we've usually had one good event and one not so good one.  This season, despite some really weird luck with things like weather, we did well at both our events.  Placed 6th at one, 9th at the other.  

In a year where we were starting a major rebuild this is quite good.  Software in particular over performed.  And for once the kids started with a realistic design and just forged ahead building it and gradually optimizing it.  

How this will translate to the next level of competition is unclear.  We will be facing the top teams from all four of the qualifying District events.  I'd say at least ten of them have decidedly "better" robots.  But its more complicated than that.  

Matches are played between "alliances" of three robots on each side.  Sometimes there are a couple of major scoring robots....and a third member of the alliance that shuttles game pieces, plays a bit of defense, etc.  That third robot can be the difference when the Big Boys go head to head.

Well, that's the theory anyway.  

The robot has looked good in its final tune ups.  We discovered for instance that one of our four drive wheels was basically not working for part of the last event.  Now fixed.

If nothing else we'll go, have a good time.  Play Well With Others.

Details when available.

Merrill Wisconsin - an odd gun in the Park

 Seen in a Veteran's Memorial park, Merrill Wisconsin.

It is of course an artillery piece, but what an odd one.  Huge springs!  Let's look for additional clues.  Here's a view that shows more, although with light that is less good.

And some helpful markings around the business end of things:

These read: 7 inch No. 48 Wt. 1689 lbs.  JPF Insp. Watervliet Arsenal 1900.  Elsewhere on the gun it says Model 1892 Bethlehem Steel.  Although that might be the gun carriage, not the gun proper.  Finally, there is a bronze bit that has stamped on it: No. 48 Model of 1895 Watertown Arsenal.  I'm a bit confused now.  So what is this critter?

To start things off, Watertown Arsenal and Watervliet Arsenal are not the same outfit.  The former mostly made gun carriages.  The latter made the guns, and as in this case, the howitzers.  Howitzers are short, stubby, larger caliber weapons designed to fire shorter distances and at very high angles.

So far so good.  But this is a very odd bit of artillery.  Most of what you see in assorted war memorials are either WWII surplus stuff or captured items from I or II.  This is neither.

It appears to be an item of obsolete coastal artillery.  That's a much less common variety of monument, but you can see how they'd get surplused.  I've run into one or two in my travels.  But nothing like this critter.

Even without the dated plaques it has to be 1890's tech.  Earlier artillery pieces would usually have wheels and/or some means to solidly dig into the ground or be welded to the deck of a ship.  Every time you fired it the recoil would move the gun and you'd have to reposition it.  In 1897 that all changed, when the French unveiled their 75mm cannon with hydraulic recoil dampening.  This was the model for all artillery for the next hundred years.

Before that there must have been assorted experiments with springs and similar gadgetry.  I've nosed about here and there in sources and can find nothing specific on this "thing", perhaps the internet will toss me an answer.

Was this some low production run experiment?  Some boondoggle project right around the Spanish American War when somebody in the War Office bought the fantasy that the Spanish fleet might sail into Boston harbor some day?  Who knows.  

Can the Dog actually Read????

I am not particularly impressed with the intellectual prowess of my dog Hank.  But sometimes you have to wonder.  Two images from a recent spring time walk.

OK, not the most flattering image of Hank, but it is what you see from the human end of the leash...

But an example of canine literacy?  I'll spare you the action photo....

Mascots and Me

Because of course there were mascots at the recent robotics tournament.  And I show no signs of growing up...