Resources

Welcome to our Resources page! In this section of our site you have access to every aspect of FIRST. Whether you are a Rookie, Veteran, Coach, or Parent, these are some of the sites you will find helpful. Don't forget, if you haven't checked out our Team in a Box project yet you might want to head over there as well.

Helpful Links

FIRST
FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" and is the overarching organization that runs all of the competitions and sets up the games each year.
Chief Delphi
Chief Delphi is the defacto standard when it comes to the forum about FIRST Robotics. Anyone is allowed to take part in the discussions and a lot of great advice can be had from extremely knowledgable veterans.
AndyMark
AndyMark is an official sponsor of the FIRST Kit of Parts. If you need replacement parts, or just simply need a different wheel, this would be the place to look first.
The Blue Alliance
The Blue Alliance is a FIRST Robotics resource for all things scouting and statistics. Here you can find photos and video of all teams across FIRST.

FIRST Handbook

FIRST has provided all teams with a very comprehensive manual to prepare teams for a competition season. To download the file:
FRC Handbook

On this wonderful PDF you will be able to investigate the following titles:

About First
Who are Dean and Woodie?
Examine the Underpinning
Support and Communication
Construct the Foundation with Ethics
Prepare Meterials and Mechanics
Coach for Sucess

Draft a Finantial Plan
Establish Safety Standards
Research Available Scholarships
Frame out the Season
Register your Team
Celebrate the Project

How to Start Your Career in FIRST

18 Hints for Rookie Teams
Team Identity
Recruiting Mentors
Organizational Tips
Student Application
This is an example application to give to students who want to join your team.
Parent Permission Form
Creating a Team Packet
TechnoKats Handbook
Thanks to Team 45 for letting us see how they run their team.
End of Year Questionaire

Parent Involvement

101 Ways Parents Can Help

Sponsorship & Fundraising

25 Ways Sponsors Can Help You
Pasta Dinner Fundraiser
Fundraising Plan
Sample Budget
Business Plan
Are you doing a business plan for your team? Here is our business plan from 2005.
Donation Brochure
This pamphlet is given to companies who may want to donate or people who want to learn more about our team.

Building Your Robot

Electrical Tips
Appendages for Robots
Andy Baker gives examples of top functions for your robot.
Machine Shop Tools
Mechanical Tips
Design Process
Team 45 demonstrates how to brainstorm for a new game challenge.

Programming

Autonomous Programming
This handout, provided by Team 342, is an introduction to the 'art' and 'science' of programming robots to operate in the autonomous mode.
Programming C
Also from Team 342, this document is meant to help first time C programmers. It is designed to assist students in learning to read the default code in the robot controller.
Programming in Labview
This resource is to help understand the new control system.

Animation

Autodesk Inventor
Thanks to Team 461 for this guide to Autodesk Inventor.

Preparing for Competition

Website Design

W3C Schools
W3C Schools is the official organization that standardizes the HTML language. Here you will find many appendices on all the various tags and attributes having to do with basic HTML and beyond.
SitePoint
SitePoint is an excellent resource when it comes to today's web issues and trends. There are multiple tutorials and articles on almost any topic and they also publish some fantastic books that are easy to digest.
JQuery
JQuery is a Javascript framework. But don't go running at the thought of Javascript! JQuery is honest to goodness easy to figure out and can do a lot for your site in terms of interactivity and special effects without having to implement Flash.

Graphics Resources

Font Squirrel
Font Squirrel touts themselves as the "professional" source for free fonts. Their collection of fonts is superb and their categorizations are helpful as well.
da font
Da font is another great font resource. The types of fonts on this site though can get kind of crazy but there are still some good ones on there as well. Just make sure you look and read about each font's licensing.
stock.xchng
Stock.xchng is a free stock photo site that is user generated. The authors of the work determine how you can use it but most of the time you can use the photo for whatever you would like.