Pictures of Pits

[rcosborne11]

As a rookie non-engineering mentor, I would like to see what other teams are doing for their non-engineering parts of their pits. (trophy display, button distribution, fliers, etc.)

If folks could post pictures and ideas of what they do, it would be greatly appreciated.

I know some feel that the pits should be for the robot and we shouldn't display banners, etc, but in reality we want to have a chance with the judges for chairman's, safety, entrepreneurship, etc. and the judges need to see what we do for things like outreach, etc.

Thanks for helping out a rookie! I will post pictures of our pit in a following post as reply...I am waiting to get them from our picture taker.

[HighlandersFRC]

We are another rookie team this year and have some ideas and tips from our experiences. First thing we did was look at other pit ideas from past tournaments and see what we like and what we didn't. Our team decided to create a 2X4 structure that can support peg boards, bulletin boards and banners (and some day down the road a monitor). We attended 2 regional tournaments this year and the first one we struggled to display items like the Chairman's award, Entrepreneurship submission, Safety manual and other documentation. For the 2nd tournament, we went with double stacking 2 end tables we found at Target and putting side pocket holders on them and putting the monitor on top of it (bolting down the monitor to the top shelf). We received the Rookie All Star award at our first tournament, but decided not to display it when we attended our 2nd tournament. We displayed our buttons in a bin on the end table and put a sign that said "Take one"...We printed out several copies of all documentation so that the judges could take them and not return them...I hope some of this helps and you see something in the pictures that can help as well.

The Highlanders
#4499

[Justin Montois]

I couldn't find any pictures but you should check out 2016's pit. I saw it at buckeye and we took notes. It made a 10x10 pit feel like a workshop.

[yarden.saa]

2011 -
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=477660185593543&set=a.300361389990091.94626.229291670430397&type=3&theater
2013-
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=625613334131560&set=a.625612477464979.1073741826.229291670430397&type=3&src=http%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ak-ash4%2F485899_625613334131560_1827954861_n.jpg&size=600%2C800
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=625612784131615&set=a.625612477464979.1073741826.229291670430397&type=3&src=http%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ak-snc6%2F283424_625612784131615_91333879_n.jpg&size=960%2C640

[EricLeifermann]

Here is our pit 2826 (http://www.waverobotics.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=136861120)

Our trophy display is under each video screen on the left and right side of the entrance.

[Eagleeyedan]

Here's an interactive panorama of our pit. It's our 2008 design but the frame hasn't changed and it basically looks the same.

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=e398424b-b1ce-432b-8baa-f9f8988c4782

[Eldjotnar]

We've found that branding our image everywhere possible comes in handy when alliance selection comes up. As a result, we try to put our logo and number on everything, while still maintaining a shred of decency. I also highly recommend trading cards with stats about your robot to hand out.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8121/8629612586_c673c27532_o.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8629631542_575ee250f9_o.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8532/8629631106_af05c0a761_o.jpg

[ks_mumupsi]

Thanks Justin.. 2016 is fortunate to have a great group of mentors one of whom specializes in building cabinets and other woodworking skills.

Here is link to our gallery. There is no single clean shot that shows the entire pit, but you can piece it together.

https://picasaweb.google.com/107223557424202123031/FIRSTTCNJ?authkey=Gv1sRgCMCqr7zbutbNRA

The back cabinets were originally a 4x4x6 crate as per FIRST specification for our tools and power tools, which we used to ship through shepard.

In the front we have a Chairmans setup with a TV screen which we use to live stream events or hold rankings information if there are not enough displays at the event, or we will run team videos. Below the TV is another 6 drawer cabinet which holds our team buttons, extra shirts, monkey heads and other paraphanelia.

[Itay]

Here's an interactive panorama of our pit. It's our 2008 design but the frame hasn't changed and it basically looks the same.

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=e398424b-b1ce-432b-8baa-f9f8988c4782

I love your panorama! It's amazing!
And btw your pit looks very good!

[ice.berg]

As for awards, signage, and banners we are pretty minimal. (or so we think) In the front of our pit we have two 5 gal. buckets with cement that hold sections of 1 in EMT to hold our sponsors, contributors, and community outreach banners. Then in the back of our pit build into one of our cabinets we have an aluminum rod structure that can display 2 blue banners. Our team chooses not to display any trophies since they are pretty fragile and are quite tedious to transport safely so we just leave those at home in the H.S. trophy case.

[itsjustmrb]

Here is picture of our pit. We use the Stanley Fatmax tool boxes for holding all our spare parts and we us an Ipad app for inventory control.

Hope this helps,

Mr. B.

[markmcgary]

FRC4322 Clockwork Oranges Pit at Inland Empire Regional (https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1jylvm1df99lu1/4322_pit1.JPG)

FRC4322 Clockwork Oranges Awards Display at Inland Empire Regional (https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jg2l97a1rraaz9/4322_pit2.JPG)

[Flalex72]

These photos were taken by a judge at Waterloo and shared with the team.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5y6mme9kgddm8o7/Q7k4lNkwqA/2013%20Wats%2011.6%201305%20Busy%20in%20the%20Pits .jpg?m
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5y6mme9kgddm8o7/ZvH45tV45z/2013%20Wats%2026.2%201305%20Pit%20Saturday.jpg?m
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5y6mme9kgddm8o7/h6rERFTltQ/2013%20Wats%2026.3%201305%20Pit%20Saturday.jpg?m
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5y6mme9kgddm8o7/J2gE1jtlc9/2013%20Wats%2026.4%201305%20Pit%20Saturday.jpg?m

The pit is the result of a few years of design work, and the team is very proud of some of the features built into it. The pit is modified Pipe and Drape supports with Kee Clamps on the corners. The walls are felt on the inside to allow photos to be attached with velcro and easily pulled down to be shown to judges or visitors. The outsides are Fabrene material, like a sealed tarp and we can arrange them with the FIRST logo as shown or like a Canadian flag. The walls can also be setup individually at other events as a backdrop, and we have separate base plates for that.

The frame and walls can be assembled in under half an hour with some training, and completely without a ladder by jacking the corner posts up after putting together the top. The monitor up top shows live rankings from a laptop, the front ones show our sponsor logos and our chairman's video using Western Digital players. All of the monitors and the lights you see on the front are connected to custom extension cords, and we calculated the power draw since they technically violate the "no daisy chaining" rule.

All of the furniture inside is custom built as well. The displays are kept on the table provided, and it remains a tool free space (or at least we try). This separates the display function of the pit from the "pit" function of the pit, and it's a pretty reasonable balance. We also have some stricter pit rules than some teams, including no sitting and absolutely no food or drinks except water in sealed containers. Behavioral changes like these are much easier to implement than a new pit and can have great results.

[seg9585]

Team 4276 pit. The reason for the canopy is two-fold: to post sponsor and communication banners, and also to hang our own lighting which I highly recommend. You never know what the lighting quality will be like at the pits.

http://eric.segonline.net/2013/frc/pit.jpg

[ice.berg]

FRC4322 Clockwork Oranges Pit at Inland Empire Regional (https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1jylvm1df99lu1/4322_pit1.JPG)

AN APPLE/ORANGE PICKER? I would love to hear what that is used for!? :p

[markmcgary]

AN APPLE/ORANGE PICKER? I would love to hear what that is used for!? :p

Some of the students made a bunch of these 14579, which were given as gifts to alliance members. They were stored in the orange picker.

[Ivan Malik]

I wouldn't say that a creative pit gives you an advantage with judges. I know of a few teams who have had huge success with just binders chalk full of information and a few students dedicated to answering questions. The teams pull out the binders when someone asks what their team does, but otherwise they are tucked away for the sake of space. Flash isn't the important part, it's communicating what you have done succinctly and effectively that does the trick.

Now if you are talking about trying to drum up support for your team in the eyes of other teams, flash is what it is all about (behind just plain being an amazing team that is)

[PingPongPerson]

http://cvhsrobotics.com/gallery3/var/albums/Autodesk-Oregon-Regional---In-the-pit/DSC01921.JPG?m=1363144926

Here is our pit! We have used a similar structure for the last 3 years, and have been slowly adding to and fixing it each year. There is also a projector screen on the left side that displays a slideshow of stuff such as safety tips.

[Flalex72]

I wouldn't say that a creative pit gives you an advantage with judges. I know of a few teams who have had huge success with just binders chalk full of information and a few students dedicated to answering questions.

Absolutely. Content is key, regardless of how you choose to communicate it.

[CENTURION]

Here are some photos of our pit in St. Louis last year.

The structure is made of 80/20, and it is modular and splits down into eight basic sections, and some connecting bars that hold the sections together.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/562805_10150784800093069_2012208563_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/574459_10150784804818069_123499080_n.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/149311_10150784806868069_1798601489_n.jpg

[FlyOrangePants]

Team 422 here:

I can't find too many good pictures of our pit, I guess we don't focus on it too much while taking pictures. Unfortunately in this one there's, uh, my family blocking out the robot, other students, and mechanical happenings. But we weren't focusing on that stuff anyway!

We made new banners this year, and hung them up on shelves. They're zip-tied to PVC which holds them on. The banner on the right has some facts about the team, our motto, past awards, etc. and the banner on the left is dedicated to our sponsors. The big banner near the top is again zip-tied to (green and silver) PVC, and it has our team name and number.

We sometimes show off unusual trophies on the top shelf of the shelves, like the "Star of the Day" award in the picture or a "Life-Saver" award a team made for us last year in NC (Thanks to Team 3763). We don't usually bring any other trophies or awards though.

We really like this setup because it's easy to setup with a couple of people. All we did was buy a couple of light-weight shelves and modify some PVC to fit over it. After that, it's just some zip-tie magic, which we're very used to with all the last minute additions at competition!

[BrendanRadabaug]

here are two different renditions of our pit (2012 and 2013) one thing we have found very handy is to have a partnership with a Entertainment equipment rental service. thanks to a bacon alumni and mentor we have SEAL (http://www.seal-fla.com) they supply us with some awesome beams and our bacon beacon. our pit changes every year with new ideas but one object always stays from previous years. the tv, obnoxious siren lights, and the bacon beacon are all from different years of implementation but we like too much to stop using.

One big thing to remember when making a pit is that although we usually get the 10' square be ready to shrink in to something smaller, in the 2012 picture we were in a 8' by 9' box.

[Eagleeyedan]

I love your panorama! It's amazing!
And btw your pit looks very good!

Thank you :) I'm making an updated one for this season since that one's older but it's virtually the same still ::safety::

[JoeWithTheSpecs]

Here's some pictures of our pit at MSC.
(Warning, the last two are very high-resolution)
http://i2.minus.com/icMtG2fjZ73OL.jpg
http://i3.minus.com/iIz45RKCEgaOt.JPG
http://i7.minus.com/ilJqwD4MgbAxE.JPG

Our pit is able to transform from 8x8 feet up to 10x10 (and anywhere in between).
As far non-engineering/marketing/business things go in the pit;
We put posters/banners on the "walls" of the pit.
The back two have our team banner and sponsor banner.
The two sides we are able to have up to six 36x26in posters (oh and apparently two blue banners ;) ) .
We like to make posters for each competition we go to, highlighting if we won any awards, and where we finished in eliminations if we made it that far.
We also make a poster with a map of the control board for the robot, which can be used to help with presenting the robot.
Not seen in the photos are our LamBot Team 3478 poster, the poster for the FTC team we mentor, or our Outreach poster which highlights the various outreach events we participate in.
New this year is that little yellow bookshelf we keep in the outside corner of the pit. Here we have shelves for our buttons, ducks, and our safety manual, business plan, and first-aid kit.
We also have a small shelf on the side of the bookshelf that holds copies of our business plan (for quick access if anyone has any questions, or if a judge comes by), business-cards, Leader Dog cards, and scouting sheets that have information about our robot.
Finally; on top of that book shelf is a small laptop playing our safety animation, and a few other commercials, on loop...

[gabrielau23]

Here's our pit:
http://oi47.tinypic.com/2jch3bn.jpg
Couple of notes:
1. There are two people on the left, not one, so......yeah
2. Foam on the floor is very comfortable in a place where you're standing all day. Only downside is that static electricity becomes a problem. Solution? Squirt the floor every few hours with a little bit of water.
3. Our battery chargers you can't really see, but they're in the lower left. I believe we carry 8 batteries with us to competitions, but the rack can hold up to 4. You NEVER want to run out. And if you have a battery that just won't give you the same voltage under load, immdiately mark it and never use it again, especially if you make it to elims.

[rcosborne11]

Thanks so much to all the great replies! You have helped us out immensely. I hope to see some or all of you at World's! Stop by our pit 1741 Red Alert Robotics if you get a chance. We'll trade buttons, etc.!

I would of course love to continue seeing pictures and I will be taking pics of pits at World's and post them here.

Thanks again,
Chris

[rcosborne11]

What is the ipad app?

and anything helps! Thanks!

Here is picture of our pit. We use the Stanley Fatmax tool boxes for holding all our spare parts and we us an Ipad app for inventory control.

Hope this helps,

Mr. B.