Two weeks left, it's panic time. Yesterday's meeting was good from a learning standpoint. But bad from an accomplishment standpoint. The NXT is not nearly as precise as we had assumed. Just going in a strait line is turning out to be a challenge, to say nothing of repeatability and reliability. The bluetooth continues to plague us. The robot is turning out to be difficult to program. All this while the project makes slow progress and the deadline races toward us!

We're definately going to have to rethink our field strategy. And everyone is going to have to double their efforts if we're going to make it to LEGOLAND with any kind of confidence.

I know we can do it, and I know we can have fun doing it (it's getting hard to remember this is supposed to be fun)

C'mon team, let's get busy!

Success!
Our team had another fantastic meeting tonight. We successfully programed our robot to complete the nano cable challenge. You should have heard the cheer as that little truck popped off the table. Great job team, you should all be proud!

It was a total FLL day here. We got up this morning and rearranged the garage to Nano Quest central. The space is much better, plenty of room to maneuver (moved my wife's car). Our meeting today had a loose start and stop time because several members had sporting events to attend. We made some great progress today though. We made a jig to align our robot, put the finishing touches on the duplicate robot, put the finishing touches on our dummy robot (same dimensions, no motors or NXT) and refit some of our attachments. "Wait a minute, did he say second robot?" Yes indeed, we have a second NXT set now thanks in part to our new sponsor ACECO. Now team members don't have to crowd around one little robot. We also got our feet wet in the area of programming. I must say, the bluetooth connection to the NXT is twitchy at best. I have spent way too much time trying to keep that working. It's a lousy choice, tether the robot with an ungainly USB cable, or struggle in vain with the infuriating bluetooth.

One Month Left!!!

Things are starting to heat up. With only one month left and so much to do the team is starting to feel the crunch. Tonight we built a dummy chassis (well, most of one) to use for testing purposes. Austin and Morgan did some work on the project as well. We have another longer practice this Sunday, hopefully we can get a lot done.

We would also like to say "Thank you very much!" to our newest sponsor John Lizarraga and Aceco of Lompoc! Their most generous contribution will go to good use and help the team immensely.

I just officially registered our team for the LEGOLAND tournament on December 2nd. The clock is now ticking! In other news our robot went through some drastic changes the last 2 meetings and is really looking good. It's simple yet versatile, small but robust and cool but functional. We could be programming as soon as our next meeting. The team is making progress on their project as well. They have a very clever idea and it's looking like it's going to be a lot of fun putting together their presentation.

We had a stellar meeting tonight. Not only did we figure out what our project was going to be (and made some good progress on it) our team gained a new member. Please join us in welcoming Rawley Lizarraga to the team! We're very excited he's here.

WE'RE IN!!!
I just got email from Lynn Crocket from LEGOLAND. We've made the cut for the tournament at LEGOLAND on Dec 2nd! Congratulations team, I cannot think of a greater place on the planet to compete.

We're back! We had a great vacation and now we're back and ready to get back to work on Nano Quest. Had a good extended meeting yesterday. We met at lunch time and after having some pizza we got to work on the unstainable fabric challenge. Austin and Jamie were the only team members present for the first few hours and with a lot of trial and error came up with an excellent solution we nicknamed "The Space Invader". Add that to "The Scorpion" and "The Bucky Ball Bone Bumper" and we're well on our way to being finished with our building phase. We also worked on the robot a bit, modifying it and adding a universal mount to the front. We're also excited that we may have a new member for the team. Rawley will be hopefully be joining us on Wednesday to meet the team and see the challenge. If all goes well, we'll have another member :-)

Had a great meeting yesterday. All team members were present and we had a great time. Morgan perfected her solution for the nano cable challenge. We've nicknamed it "the scorpion". Jamie worked on a universal mounting solution. Dane perfected the casters on the robot and refined the bone solution. We also realized our bone solution would work perfect for the molecular motor! Austin worked on mounting the NXT to our chassis, between goofing around and making strange noises. We are taking a break for a week and a half for a my family's vacation to Disney World!

I'm pleased to announce that team 2137 has a new member. Please welcome Eric Erland, assistant coach. Besides having mad table building skills, he's also Dane's father and will be a great asset to the team. Glad you're with us Eric!

In other news, the team had a good meeting today. Dane made some good progress with the robot's chassis. Morgan worked out an awesome solution for the nano cable challenge as well (good job Morgan!)

All the team members will be studying more about nano technology for the next few days and we'll be having our first discussion about the research project next meeting.

The team had it's first real meeting tonight, things went pretty well. The strategy is clear...let Dane do the work (just kidding, kinda). All the team members started brainstorming about the challenges and we watched one of the videos online. All team members have homework to visit some of the sites posted on the official site and learn more about nano technology.

In other news I have removed the challenge model videos from YouTube. Now that the challenge is revealed there's plenty of info out there.

Placed our first order for gear from our CafePress store today. In a few days we'll be stylin' :-)

Converted the garage to Nano Quest mission control today (moved the table to the gargage, much to my wife's relief, it was kinda dominating the living room). The hunt is still on for an additional 2 team members, stay tuned...

Wow, what a day. The details of Nano Quest were revealed and it looks like it's going to be as fun as it is challenging. We also have our FLL table! Special thanks to Eric Erland for building our table, it's a beauty. We had a team meeting this evening to go over the challenge and project. Dane couldn't wait to get building. Now I'm up in the middle of the night attaching Dual Lock to everything.

I'm proud to announce the grand opening of the Bricks For Brains shop at CafePress! Team members head on over and get your gear! The Bricks For Brains Shop

Only 2 days left to the official details of Nano Quest...

We have an official logo! I received permission to use the minifig and brick likeness from LEGO this morning (thanks Robin!). So pretty soon we'll be able to order our team shirts and I can finally stop worrying about the logo at the top of this page.

Alright, spent the morning getting to know the ins and outs of youtube.com. I uploaded all the FLL Nano Quest model videos and you can catch them here....

FLL Nano Quest model videos

Sorry FLL fans, I've had to remove the videos of the Nano Quest models. My ISP just put the smackdown on me for bandwidth. I had no idea they would be so popular. I'm glad that there's so much interest in FLL, and I'm looking for another place to host the videos. Stay tuned...

Many thanks to Mike Fischer for his generous contribution to the team! You rock dude!

Well, it's been over a week and we haven't heard from any of the local businesses. I guess we're going to be on our own (no biggie, we shall overcome). I'd like to send a shout out to Jim Kelly and the fine bloggers of The NXT Step. Our LEGO NXT community is growing and growing, it's quite exciting to watch.