I’m usually regarded as a hockey fan by friends and family. Eileen and I had tickets to the Canucks games last season. All through the playoffs I’d dash out of work early to catch games when I could. I feverishly followed the standings all the way to the final round of the playoffs and watched Edmonton battle back from certain disaster. It was tremendously exciting, especially Game 7 where it really could have gone either way – at least that is what the Edmonton fans are telling themselves even today. :^)

But then the Stanley Cup was won, and I was done with hockey. It was a combination of hockey overload plus the fact that it was Edmonton rather than the Canucks I was watching make a tremendous run for the Stanley Cup. I really was tired of hockey. We got mail from the Canucks organization inviting us to spend a lot of money on tickets for next year. I was really close to saying “nah, we’ll catch a game or two and watch them on TV and see what happens”. I was tired of hockey, especially the ever-the-losers Canucks.

Then, a few things transpired. First was our new coach Alain Vigneault (not a surprising choice). More significantly, Todd Bertuzzi gets traded in return for Roberto Luongo – a fantastic goalie. I thought we paid more than we got but we got rid of Bertuzzi and picked up the most promising young goalie in the league today, so maybe it works out ok after all. The latest rumors say that our other goalie Dan Cloutier is also up for trade; undoubtably there is more in the works too.

The team will look very different next year. I think its a shame we traded away Brian Allen and Alex Auld and we might not be able to re-sign Ed Jovanaski but overall I’m happy that the core of the team is being rebuilt.

We signed up for tickets again next season and I’m eagerly awaiting the start of the new season. Maybe they could start a little early this year?

I uploaded some photos of my new minisumo project (tentatively called The Thin Man) here, and a photo of my latest circuit board project here. I haven’t had much time to get the software written for the circuit board yet, but it appears to be working as designed with a couple of quick tests.

Ever since my trip to Calgary for the Western Canadian Robot Games I’ve been thinking about a new mini sumo robot that would be competitive with the best robots I’ve seen. My current top-contender Velox really hasn’t been very competitive for quite a while now but I wasn’t sure I really wanted to build another mini sumo. After all, I’ve also got a few other projects on the go already…

Last weekend I finally decided to start building. My new design puts emphasis on a low profile and speed. My goal is to make a thin wedge that is less than 3/4″ tall and moves at 5 inches per second. It’s going to be a very challenging project. I’m starting with a block of aluminum that is a little over 10cm square and 3/4″ thick, and I’ll cut and mill away most of it, incorporating the motor mounts, front scoop, PCB mounts, etc. into one frame. I’m also planning to design my own PCB that puts all the electronics (including sensors) onto a single board.

The machining should be complete in two weeks or so (mostly evenings and some time on the weekends) then I’ll start on the PCB design. I plan to compete at Robothon in Seattle in the first week of October so there is no time to spare – especially since I need time to prepare my other robots too!