Things you only do ONCE!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I was just thinking about this while writing in another thread. This may prove to be just a thread to make people chuckle but it also may serve to remind teams about safety and best practices. So here goes a start for the list...

1. Touch a soldering iron to see if it turned on.
2. Carry a battery with one hand, and dropping it. (on your foot or on the ground)
3. Put the red wire on the black battery terminal.
4. Wire the radio to a normal 12 volt output on the PD.
5. Use a crescent wrench as a hammer. (power on or off, you choose.)
6. Hold a robot part in your hand while drilling. ( a variety of errors jump to mind)
7. Put a practice battery on the robot. (actually happens more than you know)
8. Build to last year's dimensions because "they never change".
9. Use a dremmel tool to grind right next to your custom 3D printed part.
10. Mount your bumpers upside down. (except teams 11, 111, 1111)

[EricVanWyk]

11. Solder without safety glasses.
12. Use a hand drill with long unbound hair.

[404'd]

13. Leave male ends of PWM cables exposed.

[Bstep]

Design the robot with Mechanum wheels.

[theawesome1730]

15: Leave a wrench on the draw bar on the Bridgeport and turn it on
16: Touch a freshly welded part
17: Touch a rough edge on carbon fiber

[Koko Ed]

Design the robot with Mechanum wheels.

We've done it twice.

[connor.worley]

Do the trig for your autonomous mode during opening ceremonies and run the code untested in your first match.

[Kyle A]

18. Drill something without covering the electronics.
19. Put a popped of chain back on without cutting the power.
20. Spray paint a part outside in 20 degree weather.
21. stand in front of the robot while testing the shooter.

[Tom Line]

19. Stick your fingers into one of the big muffin fans accidentally.
20. Stand in front of a robot wearing a green shirt when the robot vision is set to look for a green target
21. Do a poor job tying down your fastener containers in your trailer on the way to IRI.
22. Put your finger on top of a piece of metal in front of the blade while cutting with a bandsaw.
23. Try to hold a piece of metal square into the sanding disk on a table sander
24. Forget to take the chuck out of a drill press with a plate-glass window behind it.
25. Grab a constant force spring and yank it off its top roller.

[Mike Marandola]

Leave the key in the lathe chuck. Whatever you do don't do this.

[JeremyLansing]

26. Push a team into the pyramid when they are lining up to climb.

[Mike Marandola]

19. Stick your fingers into one of the big muffin fans accidentally.


Although it is funny to watch people jump after doing this when reaching in the robot.

[Gregor]

24. Leave a chuck key in a lathe and turn it on.
25. Put 3 bolts between the sprocket and a Performance wheel, even though there is a very good reason why there are 6 holes.
26. Use a double sided intake for a ball game.
27. A week 1 regional.

[apb2390]

26. Use a double sided intake for a ball game.

Team 1684, The Chimeras, did this last year and it greatly increased our versatility. We were constantly happy to have it.

[Kevin Sevcik]

28. Test your robot not on blocks when you have a "joystick" with a Y axis that's stuck at -1.
29. Leave your hand on a pinch point while someone's testing the robot. (Sorry Josh)
30. Spray paint an entire crate on a just cleaned concrete floor. Without newspaper.
31. Stand directly behind a spinning shooter wheel with a "temporary" tread on it.
32. Cut off zip ties with a knife with the blade up.

[sergioCorral842]

33. Live

[BigJ]

34. Forget to tell the robot to stop in autonomous.
35. Stay up until 1am Thursday night in the hotel room coding autonomous.

[fb39ca4]

10. Mount your bumpers upside down. (except teams 11, 111, 1111)
And teams 1, 8, 88, 69, 96, 101, 609, 619, 689, 808, 818, 888, 906, 916, 986, 1001, 1691, 1881, and 1961. Any more I have forgotten?

Design the robot with Mechanum wheels.
This. After 2012, never again for us.

[Gregor]

Team 1684, The Chimeras, did this last year and it greatly increased our versatility. We were constantly happy to have it.

My team did a double sided intake too. It was a neat little feature, but totally not worth the space it takes up (and how much fun electronic placement gets), considering how easy it is to turn around.

[Mykey]

36. Forget to search for a prior thread of the same topic.
37. Call the "Championships" the "Nationals".
38. Forget to have a blast doing FRC!

[BigJ]

37. Call the "Championships" the "Nationals".

39. read the first line of Gregor's signature

(I kid I kid)

[DampRobot]

Seriously/jokingly suggest a water game on the next years game thread.

[Woolly]

And teams 1, 8, 88, 69, 96, 101, 609, 619, 689, 808, 818, 888, 906, 916, 986, 1001, 1691, 1881, and 1961. Any more I have forgotten?


This. After 2012, never again for us.

Depending on the font, 25, 52, 205, 502, 1251, 1521, 2005, and 2255 could get away with it.


Also, Mecanum didn't go very poorly for us, granted we've never had an incredibly solid drive-train before.
Ironically, the during the first days of build season, a group of students on our team (including me) suggested what amounts to Titanium's drive-train with Vexpro shifters.

[D.Allred]

40. Play "Ultimate Descent"

[David Brinza]

41. Believe you can painlessly stop a runaway autonomous robot by stepping in front of it (pre-bumper days).

[RyanN]

42. Weld in shorts.
43. Hop around the shop like a nincompoop like you have hot spatter in your shoes.

[pmangels17]

44. Accidentally give out spare/needed robot parts at competition because they "just looked like regular angle to me"

45. Cut yourself accidentally with a tape measure

46. Bend a pair of forceps so they fit into a small space with a nut

47. Put an 18v battery on a 12v motor

[YCJeon772]

48. Rivet right beside all the LED's

[Andrew Lawrence]

Seriously/jokingly suggest a water game on the next years game thread.

Read the "next year's game" thread. :rolleyes:

[NotaJoke]

regolith

[EricH]

50. Connect the battery's terminals with a pair of bolts.
51. Use a drill (press) and file/sandpaper as a lathe. I understand the BeachBots go through at least one lathe of that type per year on average.
52. Power on a mill with anything other than a tool in the cutter. (The bar used for tramming in the head survived, but the gauge didn't! And no, that wasn't me.)

[Oblarg]

53. Attempt to cut hardened-steel shafts on a chopsaw (In my first year on the team, the head of drive mechanics attempted to do this. You can guess how it went. Ultimately, we turned the de-toothed blade into a pretty new clock for the shop teacher, as a consolation.)

54. Let the new electronics freshmen wire up 5 of your motor controllers, and attempt to run them without checking that they did it right. Great way to burn your money, literally.

55. Stall a fisher-price motor.

56. Reach out and flick the little-piece-of-bolt-hanging-on-by-a-thread-after-being-dremmeled with your finger.

57. Splice a PWM cable and a power cable in similar locations, and then proceed to tape the splices so that they're right text to each other. To this day I have no idea who did this, but it killed no less than three digital sidecars.

58. Leave a flashlight sitting in the drive train during an elimination match.

[cbale2000]

27. A week 1 regional.

Our team... EVERY YEAR. >_>


53. Pull the PWM cable out of a speed controller and let the connector fall onto the +12v input terminal of said speed controller while the robot is powered on. (Fun way to make magic smoke though)

[Nick Lawrence]

54. Win the Chairmans award at the FIRST Championship.

... Unless you're 191.

-Nick

[Grim Tuesday]

55. Use window motors on something that should be fast


We managed not to learn from our first time.

[BrendanB]

56. Use versa wheels.

[Iaquinto.Joe]

57. Leave the shooter motor unplugged before a match.

[faust1706]

Wire a kinect backwards. Not only did it destroy the kinect, it shorted the O-Droid X2 board it was plugged into. $250 dollars...gone.

[Jorge Ayala]

Design the robot with Mechanum wheels.

+1

[cpeister]

58. Cut spring steel with a hack saw.

[Grim Tuesday]

56. Use versa wheels.


I don't want to break the flow of this thread, but why not?

[Jorge Ayala]

59. Design the robot before analyzing the game properly

(My team, three years in a row...)

[BrendanB]

I don't want to break the flow of this thread, but why not?

Versas are amazing for about one match. They are the closest thing to a cleat you can use. After that they wear down extremely fast. They also don't have much if any lateral traction since the grooves only face one way.

We switched our drive wheels out a lot to keep traction throughout events.

[Joey Milia]

53. Attempt to cut hardened-steel shafts on a chopsaw (In my first year on the team, the head of drive mechanics attempted to do this. You can guess how it went. Ultimately, we turned the de-toothed blade into a pretty new clock for the shop teacher, as a consolation.)


Done that, cut the tip off a destroyed end mill to start turning it into a boring bar... but we used the correct abrasive blade...

[Eagleeyedan]

57. Leave the shooter motor unplugged before a match.

This killed us in a match but it truly was only done once.

[bgg]

60. Wire motor controllers backwards. Okay, "someone" may have done this more than once.

[Oblarg]

60. Wire motor controllers backwards. Okay, "someone" may have done this more than once.

This, indeed, was the cause of the aforementioned "letting the freshman wire your motor controllers without checking them" failure. If you're into starting fires and losing money, I highly recommend it. Else, avoid.

[Eagleeyedan]

61. Spill a soda on the CRIO
62. Pull the pin on a fire extinguisher and try to put it back in (this happened to us and the extinguisher blasted a bystander)
63. Use a file while holding the object (unless you need a nerd manicure)
64. Pop a hard candy in your mouth just as judges are walking up
65. Manually cut a part with the CNC machine
66. Try to save time by putting the tap in a power drill

[Al Skierkiewicz]

WOW! I didn't think this was going to grow so big. I may have to limit this to a thread that just talks about robot, then another that talks about wiring, and another about mechanical so we can all filter through everything. Thanks for the input so far and keep it up.

[Oblarg]

66. Try to save time by putting the tap in a power drill

:eek: Who ever thought this would work?

[Tommy F.]

67. Neglect to load game pieces into a robot before a match for autonomous.
68. Test new motors before making sure the potentiometer is set, causing your mechanism to run full speed into a hard stop, crushing the gears inside the gearboxes...
69. Testing to see if your robot can climb to level 3 when you've already been told it cannot...


10. Mount your bumpers upside down. (except teams 11, 111, 1111)
This is where you find a really good use for blue/red and white duct tape. Especially when you're queuing for a match.

[bgg]

70. Forget to turn the robot on for a match. . . It's now #1 on the prematch checklist.

[kwotremb]

And teams 1, 8, 88, 69, 96, 101, 609, 619, 689, 808, 818, 888, 906, 916, 986, 1001, 1691, 1881, and 1961. Any more I have forgotten?


This. After 2012, never again for us.

Haha,

Yes when I was on 818 we may have done that. we had the flag on the '1;, and lets just say we had a lot of comments by people telling us our bumpers where on upside down. It led to a few fun moments.

[Jeffy]

70. Touch the sawstop with anything just to see if it works.
71. Try to put something on the grinder/ belt sander while holding it in your hands.
72. use one rivet to attach tread to a wheel.

[EricH]

:eek: Who ever thought this would work?

Believe it or not, you CAN use a tap with a vertical mill or a drill. However, the caveat to this is that it has to be a tap designed to be used in a mill/drill, and you have to go slowly in terms of RPM and a little faster than normal in terms of going-into-material speed.

[Gregor]

Running the wrong auto mode (luckily this was just shoot and don't go to bridge when we were supposed to go to bridge, and not going to bridge when we weren't supposed to).

:eek: Who ever thought this would work?

Me (with a lathe too!)

[OZ_341]

73. Store steel cable in the same crate with a charged uninsulated battery
Poooffff!

[Alex2614]

73. Cut the zipties holding up a banner with a knife.

I still have a scar, and I finally regained feeling after almost a year, but it's still not quite the same. This was 6 years ago at my (and my team's) very first regional in Pittsburgh.

[Oblarg]

73. Unplug the robot while downloading code. Before a match.
74. Set-screw hubs on a hardened-steel shaft.
75. Set-screw shaft collar on the end of a lead-screw (well, that certainly did a whole lot...)
76. Set-screws in general where clamping hardware is possible.
77. Bolts without locknuts/lockwashers/loctite on a robot with mecanum
78. Entire robot frame made of 80/20.
79. Driving the robot (with an electronics board made of acrylic) smack into a wall on your first time touching the controls (board split clean in two - ironically, I ended up being driver at competition two years later).

[joelg236]

80. Change all autonomous command names before St.Louis because "they make more sense". (without notifying anyone...) I am not a smart man.

[apb2390]

81. Try to program in LabView.

*ducks*

[mman1506]

=+ 1. While programming autonomous for the next match "meh, 5 seconds should be good enough"

Queue Karthik "That robot isn't suppose to be there ?!"

[pfreivald]

And teams 1, 8, 88, 69, 96, 101, 609, 619, 689, 808, 818, 888, 906, 916, 986, 1001, 1691, 1881, and 1961. Any more I have forgotten?

1551, if you use blocky 5's!

What's not to like about rotational symmetry?

Also: great thread idea, Al!

Here's at least one:

Ram your largest sponsor in the shins with an unbumpered robot while demonstrating your drive train. (That was our first year; fortunately, the driver was her nephew!)

[Anthony Galea]

80. Grabbing a rivet after its been drilled out
81. Bend lexan with a heat gun
82. Use one robot appendage to do two different things (We had a scoop at the beginning of the year that we were going to use to pick up frisbees and hang. Needless to say, we took it off after our first district.)
83. Not weigh the robot until an hour before B&T.
84. Add a top-heavy FCS blocker to our robot.

[kylelanman]

81. Bend lexan with a heat gun


How else does one bend lexan?

85. Forget to plug the wench motor that raises your arm for climbing in before a match and have the team try to blame the programmers when the arm won't move and the robot doesn't climb because the programmers were trying to make the lights do a disco flash at the top of the pyramid.

[pfreivald]

81. Bend lexan with a heat gun

We've done this on several robots with excellent success. Why not?

86. Get married the night before kickoff. (Anniversary? What's that?)
87. Forget to send thank-you notes.
88. Fail to zip-tie the Anderson Connectors for the battery/PD board.
89. Use a twist and some masking tape instead of solder on sensor wires, just for now to test it real quick, then never fix it.

[Anthony Galea]

How else does one bend lexan?


Sorry, I meant thick lexan. When I did it, I melted the lexan and it was a very shady result.

[bgg]

90. Blame the programmers before you double check that the PWMs are all connected.

[Oblarg]

Re: lexan, whatever you do, don't lasercut it. We've got a nice big materials sign behind the lasercutter in the lab I work in, and next to "polycarbonate," in big red text, is "TOXIC FUMES: DO NOT CUT."

[MagiChau]

91. Use jaguars for drivetrain CIM motors

[IndySam]

92. Use casters
93. Use a scissor lift

[Oblarg]

93. Use a scissor lift

As a previous member of 449, I would like to take issue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed9orBXtxdE) with this.

[Woolly]

94. Drill above an uncovered Jaguar
95. Use solder the size of your index finger for 16 gauge wire
96. Wire the "Angle" terminal of the gyro get vi to the set motor value vi
97. Touch the robot while the gyro is calibrating
98. A barrel roll with your robot
99. Order pizza while that one guy who can eat 8 pieces of pizza is around
100. Let your laptop's battery die while coding
101. Test the robot for the first time without blocks
102. Walk 4.5 miles after your team's bus broke down
103. Hack code together to make something from a stock WPI library VI work
104. Make your pick-list based on average alliance score.

[IndySam]

As a previous member of 449, I would like to take issue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed9orBXtxdE) with this.

My statement stands.

[Oblarg]

My statement stands.

That was one of the best and most reliable systems we've ever had on a robot. It never failed. It never even required maintenance. Worked like a charm for every competition we attended, and for demos for years after.

It was also incredibly easy to make and not demanding in terms of precision, at all. Several pieces of angle-stock with three holes drilled in them, some bolts, and some nylon washers.

[AutodeskGeek]

105. Have mini wars over whether it should be "shooterSubsystem" or "Shooter_Subsystem"

[joelg236]

105. Have mini wars over whether it should be "shooterSubsystem" or "Shooter_Subsystem"

Camel case. Every time.

[BigJ]

105. Have mini wars over whether it should be "shooterSubsystem" or "Shooter_Subsystem"

We ain't writing no dot-net in here.

My students hate my love of conventions for nameing. whitespace, casing, etc. I'm thinking of implementing checkstyle...

[EricH]

That was one of the best and most reliable systems we've ever had on a robot. It never failed. It never even required maintenance. Worked like a charm for every competition we attended, and for demos for years after.

It was also incredibly easy to make and not demanding in terms of precision, at all. Several pieces of angle-stock with three holes drilled in them, some bolts, and some nylon washers.

That would be successes one, failures some much higher number. I've seen a couple that were very poor, and one or two that looked decent but didn't perform as you might expect.

[ttldomination]

105. Have mini wars over whether it should be "shooterSubsystem" or "Shooter_Subsystem"

Why, in all that is holy, would you capitalize the words if you're using an underscore?

Pressing the shift key, ain't nobody got time for that.

- Sunny G.

[theawesome1730]

Versas are amazing for about one match. They are the closest thing to a cleat you can use. After that they wear down extremely fast. They also don't have much if any lateral traction since the grooves only face one way.

We switched our drive wheels out a lot to keep traction throughout events.

We've run the same versa's all season with very little wear. It's 8 wheel drop.

[MStump]

106: Get everything ready for your first match and forget to plug in the shooter.

[moogboy]

107: Leave the scouting iPad in the shooter chamber for the entire match, putting the robot overweight.

[Mk.32]

65. Manually cut a part with the CNC machine


Hmm why not?

I use the jog wheel/MIDI to run the machine for basic facing/cutting/drilling operations. Though for anything more then one or two holes I just type of a can cycle script.

[Chadfrom308]

57. Leave the shooter motor unplugged before a match.

Use code from 2 weeks ago in a match by accident

[Siri]

90. Blame the programmers before you double check that the PWMs are all connected.
You mean we're only allowed to do this once? :( ;)

[bardd]

108. Trust a programmer to not use your private parts to test the bridge manipulator.
109. Trust a programmer to not use your chest as a shooting practice target (happened in 2012, not 2013, fortunately).
110. Trust a programmer to not use your back to test the strength of a 'box manipulator' (part of our FLFL robot, a platform attached to a piston to change it's angle).

Having written this, I'm getting the feeling that programmer doesn't like me...

WOW! I didn't think this was going to grow so big. I may have to limit this to a thread that just talks about robot, then another that talks about wiring, and another about mechanical so we can all filter through everything. Thanks for the input so far and keep it up.
And another for injuries...

[kwotremb]

108) Put the main breaker on the top of your robot only protected by a polycarb shield.

Lets just say that the totes from 2003 can deflect polycarb when the come crashing down when you hit the stack during autonomous.

[karomata]

Forgetting to turn on your robot right before a match, and watching it sit there for 2 entire minutes.

[bbuncher12]

109. Build a metal-on-metal lift with no bearings or lubricant
110. Not cover the jags
111. Plug the power wires of a Spike into the motor output (it smells horrible)
112. Not put on a compressor because you assume that the pneumatics won't leak
113. Put Mechanums on backwards
114. Assume the CAD team will get the dimensions right
115. Not tell other subgroups that you're changing something (who am I kidding, we do this every year!)

[ASmith1675]

116. Not properly insulate the bottom of the gyro from the robot frame
117. Mount the cRIO is an area with serious danger of a falling lift (it still works...)
118. Use clippard air tanks. (Exploding a tank Thursday at Midwest regional makes the pits real quiet, even when it was only at ~30PSI)

[Michael Hill]

19. Stick your fingers into one of the big muffin fans accidentally.


This happens WAY more than once.

[Mgjohnson]

66. Try to save time by putting the tap in a power drill
:eek: Who ever thought this would work?

It works. We did this while building our arm, but we used a mill.

[Andrew Schreiber]

54. Win the Chairmans award at the FIRST Championship.

... Unless you're 191.

-Nick

Except HoF teams can reapply after 5 years now... so... ::rtm:: ?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

119. Mount the PD upside down, gravity works against the breakers.
120. Mount the radio inside a "U" shaped metal robot base to protect it.

[Jon Stratis]

121. Assume a crimp connection is secure enough for any of your electronics.

[apb2390]

121. Assume a crimp connection is secure enough for any of your electronics.

If you can pull the crimp off of the wire, it wasn't strong enough.

[Sam390250]

122. Place a powered up PCB onto an exposed metal plate
123. Cut an unknowingly live PWM cable
124. Set a battery and battery charger on fire simultaneously in a lunch room (this was not my doing by the way)
125. Use Lunacy wheels
126. Try to power a crab drive with a servo

[Karibou]

127. Minibots. (surprised this hasn't been said yet)
128. Touch a part right after it's been welded
129. Use a hacksaw to cut a grove in a part on the lathe

[C. De Vries]

114. Assume the CAD team will get the dimensions right


Hey! I think our CAD team does a fantastic job. I'm the only person on it, but I think we did okay...

130. Use Toughbox Nano Tubes.

[BrianArneson]

Hey! I think our CAD team does a fantastic job. I'm the only person on it, but I think we did okay...
This^
131. Be the person who makes the bumpers. Everyone should experience it once, but only once
132. Touch a CIM after it just got burned out from being under too much stress and not think "hmm this might be hot"
133. Let someone decide to put mechanum wheels the wrong way so crawling is forward and normal is left/right for "strategic reasons" Even with gyro assisted driving it still never went in a straight line

[Nemo]

131. Waste a lot of programming time on vision processing only to have it not work at all at the event.

After one year of that, we learned our lesson.*

*Actually it took four years.

[bduddy]

n+1. Reach into that little area under the bandsaw platform, where little bits sometimes fall - while the saw is still moving...

n+2. Stay up until 4 AM a day you're volunteering at Championships to finish a project, only to realize the project isn't due until next week

n+3. The Kinect *ducks*

[pfreivald]

119. Mount the PD upside down, gravity works against the breakers.

Really? We did that this year and experienced no problems... Good to know, though!

[meibnotu]

This^
131. Be the person who makes the bumpers. Everyone should experience it once, but only once
132. Touch a CIM after it just got burned out from being under too much stress and not think "hmm this might be hot"
133. Let someone decide to put mechanum wheels the wrong way so crawling is forward and normal is left/right for "strategic reasons" Even with gyro assisted driving it still never went in a straight line

For the bumpers.. twice in a row man -.- This is what happens when you're one of 3 at the shop at 4:30am.

134. Request that your sleep deprived (over 24 hours) mentor drives you, the shooter, and other mentors to a scrimmage.
135. Show up to Championships with 2 lock up forms and no unlock form.
136. Let your code say that the shooter wheel is absolutely NOT supposed to come on when using rmps.
137. Zip tie washers to a wheel to try and balance it.
138. Put yellow casting putty into the holes of the same wheel to try and balance it out.
139. Have your driver station somehow end up in the scrap bin.

[Tommy F.]

140. Forget to reconfigure the joysticks on the driver station after swapping c-RIOs right before a match.

[Whippet]

141. Forget to tether the robot in the pits.
142. Leave the safety mode on while re-imaging the cRIO
143. Test the code while the robot is sitting on the table, with no blocks... *coughlorenzocoughcough*

[cgmv123]

Really? We did that this year and experienced no problems... Good to know, though!

The only thing that's holding your breakers in is friction. Usually the fit is tight enough to keep it in, but one good hit can knock one out.

[Adamc4]

144. Practice a 50 pt. climb and dump, which we had never tried before, at CMP on the half court practice fields 1 hr before queuing time. Without using belay hooks... our robot was a victim of the only tornado at CMP this year.

[CalTran]

145. Forget to close the main pneumatic release valve.
146. Run 2 BB550s on 1 Victor due to a shortage of Victors
147. Decide not to strap in the battery because you need to be on the field.
148. Use 14 Clippard Air Tanks. Inspectors do not like this.

[Thad House]

149. Spend an hour trying to design a custom direct drive gearbox using an 84 tooth Vex gear for a 4 inch wheel, then you realize the diameter of said gear is 4.3 inches.

[mman1506]

149. Build a robot that takes 10 minutes to change batteries.
150. Use clear bakelite for a robot chassis bedpan (are mentor thinks it's plexi, it's not)

[Nate Laverdure]

148. Use 14 Clippard Air Tanks. Inspectors do not like this.
If this amount of stored pneumatic energy (just over 10 kJ) is released all at once (i.e. due to tank rupture), the resulting pressure wave can cause eardrum rupture anywhere within a ~5 ft radius.

[CalTran]

If this amount of stored pneumatic energy (just over 10 kJ) is released all at once (i.e. due to tank rupture), the resulting pressure wave can cause eardrum rupture anywhere within a ~5 ft radius.

Huh. Mr. Gregory was simply surprised by the sheer volume and then had to wait the full 6 minutes while we filled up.

[nitsuj27]

151. Design and build turret without drive practice.
152. "Last-minute" code change.

[theawesome1730]

153. Assume the soft limits on your Pizza Box are going to work the first time

[jwallace15]

154. Leave a space heater on in the programming area overnight.

155. Drill perforated sheet metal with a hand drill without clamping it down (cut the fingertip off of my finger).

156. Put a circular file into a drill press to simulate a lathe (it made about 2 revolutions, bent 30 degrees, spun 5 more times, then snapped off and flew across the shop. I never found it...).

157. Use a dremel to cut a hole bigger in a 2X6.

158. (non-robotics related) Try to rotate the square piece in Tetris.

159. Almost use up all of your team's bandaids...

[Aroki]

Camel case. Every time.

I believe you mean camelCase every time

[orangemoore]

160. Build a 70" tall robot to fit under a 30" bar

NEVER AGAIN:ahh: :ahh:

[DallonF]

161. When cubing joystick inputs to produce a smoother curve, mix up the inputs to the Pow() function so that you're raising 3 to the power to the joystick input rather than the joystick input to the power of 3.

The result, of course, is that a joystick input of 0 (not touching it) will result in a motor output of 1 (full speed ahead).

I'm sorry, Luke!

162. Test complex autonomous code that relies on gyro and vision during a qualification match. We tested all the individual components in the build room, so it'll just work, right?

[MissRaptor]

163. Spray paint your pit outside the schools back entrance without cardboard.. (Whoops an hour and much goodini and other cleaners later)

[V. Gray]

164. Redo the Chairman's Award video submission during the competition because "It doesn't seem to follow the guidelines."
165. Practice on a surface that is different from the competition surface so that major design flaws go unnoticed. Like having too much friction to turn properly.

[April_robo]

79. Driving the robot (with an electronics board made of acrylic) smack into a wall on your first time touching the controls (board split clean in two - ironically, I ended up being driver at competition two years later).

Did this just to see what would break

[April_robo]

165. Practice on a surface that is different from the competition surface so that major design flaws go unnoticed. Like having too much friction to turn properly.

166. going around the school gathering rugs to replicate the field floor

[tr6scott]

167. While on the field doing setup, have a member of the drive team, with a 1" Craftsman Combo wrench in his back pocket, and the Classmate drivers station sitting on the floor, decide this is the time where he needs to "Show us how he shakes his thing". Wrench was fine, Classmate, not so much.

168. In the Michigan State Finals last year, fail to strap the battery, which leads to zip tying the anderson connectors this year.

169. At Championship this year, fail to zip tie the battery. (practice match)

170. Testing new gyro code, without plugging in the gyro... (same practice match) bot can really turn on a dime though.

171. Let the lead programmer do wiring. 10 minutes trying to figure out why we are jamming all of the time, only to finally notice the shooter is spinning backwards. (another practice match.) It was really tough to see it spinning backwards... thought that would have been more obvious. His defense was.. "I wired it red to black and black to red, just like the practice bot" Oops, I guess I should have wrapped the preactive bot motor leads in colored tape too.

[Tetraman]

10. Mount your bumpers upside down. (except teams 11, 111, 1111)

10b. Teams also included in this exception are 8, 88 and 888.

172. Using a power drill without sleeping in the past 48 hours or more.
173. Show off your nonworking robot to your big sponsors at the end of the season.
174. Steal the 174th item on the list for Arctic Warrior pride.
175. Build a minibot.
176. Forget to bring your mother's cookies, treats and other baked goods to build season meetings and expecting your fellow team members to forgive you.

[techhelpbb]

10. Mount your bumpers upside down. (except teams 11, 111, 1111)

Interesting fact we were not originally Team 11. If you flipped our original number upside down it would also be the same. We have always been behind the 8 ball and sometimes we do seem to do things upside down but they workout. So I guess that is our essential team numbering requirement.

197. Use your frisbee shooter under hanging light fixtures with elevation secured by loose planks.
198. Assume the robots shooting frisbees are the most likely to hit you with a frisbee.
199. Let certain people with a track record of crashing into people drive the robot.
200. Forget to secure the trailer door before driving on the freeway.

[Travis Hoffman]

181. Not qualify for the Championship

[bardd]

201. Not qualify for the Championship

How about 7 times? :P

[Anthony Galea]

202. Use a skidplate as the only thing holding you up on the back of the robot (2010, our team's rookie year.)

[Lij2015]

I'll add
203 Accidently(not me) pressing the "Play back recorded drive-train command" button on one of the joysticks , near a wall.
Especially when the recorded command to test it was me going 0, to 1, to -1, back to 0 just to see if it played the values.

[Jeff Waegelin]

204. Fall from the 30-point level and break your shooter...

(well... only once in actual competition...)

[bbuncher12]

165. Practice on a surface that is different from the competition surface so that major design flaws go unnoticed. Like having too much friction to turn properly.

Last year, our robot didn't turn either, but that was because we used eight-wheel drive and our belts were too tight

205. Assume that all freshmen understand sarcasm (we jokingly told a freshman to ask the build team for a polycarbonate stretcher because we cut the electrical board too small. Ten minutes later, our build lead came over asking us what the heck we were talking about :D )

[dictionaria13]

206. Accidentally wire a 5 volt Axis camera to one of the 12 volt spots in the power distribution board, and then when that one gets fried (admittedly with very little smoke and smell), plug in another one to figure out what's wrong.

The programming mentors wondered why the Axis camera wasn't sending a signal to the driver's station. Then they figured it out. :rolleyes: (They couldn't even blame electrical, because they had done the wiring themselves.)

[Owen Makin]

207. 2012: not read the rules and ram the opposite alliance bridge thinking it would stop them from scoring...
208. after tethering in the pits, not reconnecting the radio to crio and wondering why your robot isnt moving during the match
209. putting the robot away while forgetting its tethered to a laptop... jk... it happened twice
210. forgot to charge your driver station laptop at competition, and realize its out charge at the alliance wall right before autonomous and dies...

[fb39ca4]

202. Use a skidplate as the only thing holding you up on the back of the robot (2010, our team's rookie year.)
Why exactly was it a bad idea? Too much friction? Did it get caught on something?

[orangemoore]

208. after tethering in the pits, not reconnecting the radio to crio and wondering why your robot isnt moving during the match

210. forgot to charge your driver station laptop at competition, and realize its out charge at the alliance wall right before autonomous and dies...

208.
At our regional this happened but the FTA saved us the match

210.
If you use a classmate they have chargers at the alliance stations

[Owen Makin]

208.
At our regional this happened but the FTA saved us the match

210.
If you use a classmate they have chargers at the alliance stations

208.we werent saved and they ended up just sitting there.

210. our classmate wasnt updated, our computer was compatitable with the charger, and even though it shut off at the wall, it booted up fast enought that we ended up playing that match

[Gregor]

208. after tethering in the pits, not reconnecting the radio to crio and wondering why your robot isnt moving during the match

You never need to disconnect the radio from the cRIO. Plug the tether from the laptop into any of the other radio ports, while still maintaining connection with the cRIO.

[Thad House]

You never need to disconnect the radio from the cRIO. Plug the tether from the laptop into any of the other radio ports, while still maintaining connection with the cRIO.

I'm assuming that he was talking about 2010 or 2009, when the radio only had one port.

[Owen Makin]

I'm assuming that he was talking about 2010 or 2009, when the radio only had one port.

no it was this year. i have never heard of that though, im the only one on my team who knows how to do any of the wiring or programming stuff. And the mentor i used to have never showed me that.

[kghaemi96]

211. Forget to turn the robot on before a match starts

212. Break 2 drill bits in 1 day

213. Get attacked by killer treading

214. Try to defend against 2485's Sun Tzu. <3 (over 50 penalties called, I didnt realize they were touching us)

[David8696]

211. Forget to turn the robot on before a match starts

212. Break 2 drill bits in 1 day

213. Get attacked by killer treading

214. Try to defend against 2485's Sun Tzu. <3 (over 50 penalties called, I didnt realize they were touching us)

This last one made my day. :D
Also because your blocker may end up breaking... Just sayin'. 45 mph, 3300 rpm.

I'm aloud to brag about that because I was in no way involved in the bild team :rolleyes:

[Anthony Galea]

Why exactly was it a bad idea? Too much friction? Did it get caught on something?
Yes. It broke off almost every match.
NOTE: We were a team with (i think) no mentors at the time.

[2348humanplayer]

I was just thinking about this while writing in another thread. This may prove to be just a thread to make people chuckle but it also may serve to remind teams about safety and best practices. So here goes a start for the list...

1. Touch a soldering iron to see if it turned on.
2. Carry a battery with one hand, and dropping it. (on your foot or on the ground)
3. Put the red wire on the black battery terminal.
4. Wire the radio to a normal 12 volt output on the PD.
5. Use a crescent wrench as a hammer. (power on or off, you choose.)
6. Hold a robot part in your hand while drilling. ( a variety of errors jump to mind)
7. Put a practice battery on the robot. (actually happens more than you know)
8. Build to last year's dimensions because "they never change".
9. Use a dremmel tool to grind right next to your custom 3D printed part.
10. Mount your bumpers upside down. (except teams 11, 111, 1111)

This is funny, one of our students did number 6, but not for FRC, but for his senior project. Ended up getting a pretty good puncture wound, nothing life-threatening, but had his hand bandaged up for weeks.

[V. Gray]

90. Blame the programmers before you double check that the PWMs are all connected.
Unfortunately, the programming team is the wiring team, so either way. We blame ourselves either way.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

There was a day when we got bored at work many years ago. While looking at a Murphy's Law poster we decided to come up with ridiculous units for measurement. From the poster, 'furlongs per fortnight' jump to mind. We then decided to make another for measurement for length and came up with the femto (10^-15) parsec, then the kilo microwatt. We also received a piece of equipment that had a warning label on it that stated "Do not connect to a power supply in excess of 115,000 millivolts." Just when we thought we had seen it all, we received a specification in our rental agreement that we had to provide a TV signal from our transmitter to the building RF distribution that "must be no less that 1,000,000 microvolts." While that sounds harmless enough, our transmitter at the time was capable of producing 866,000,000 microvolts.

[pfreivald]

the femto (10^-15) parsec

I've been known to give distances in attoparsecs... (How tall are you? Oh, about 58 attoparsecs...)

[Storcky]

215: use one Victor 888 and one 884 on the drive system then spend a week trying to figure out why the wheels are rotating at different speeds.
216: not test 215 until after competition season is over. Yay for offseason events!
217: give the robot to the programmers for essentially the first time around 6 PM on practice day. (Ok maybe this one is wishful thinking...)

[martin417]

I've been known to give distances in attoparsecs... (How tall are you? Oh, about 58 attoparsecs...)

If you are a Mork & Mindy fan, that would be nano-nano parsecs....

[fiona.crush1011]

218: Rivet tread to a wheel powered by 2 mini-CIM Motors to give the shooter extra grip on the frisbees (It worked for about 1 frisbee then because it was spinning so quickly a few of the rivets came undone but kept spinning and the tread whipped around and broke a few pieces on our lexan shooter)

[Boe]

219: Not saveing periodically while CADing

[BrianArneson]

219: Not saving periodically while CADing Totally this^ All the CAD programs really need an auto-save feature, especially when the assembly starts getting really big. It's very easy to forget to save even if you set the reminder every few minutes. I learned very quickly on this one. I just ended up creating a macro on my mouse to ctrl+s every couple minutes. At least the save window pops up so I can decide what to save or not. You could do something similar with autohotkey (www.autohotkey.com). Saved me a few times already ;)

[Iaquinto.Joe]

Totally this^ All the CAD programs really need an auto-save feature, especially when the assembly starts getting really big. It's very easy to forget to save even if you set the reminder every few minutes. I learned very quickly on this one. I just ended up creating a macro on my mouse to ctrl+s every couple minutes. At least the save window pops up so I can decide what to save or not. You could do something similar with autohotkey (www.autohotkey.com). Saved me a few times already ;) Bind ctrl+s to left mouse while autodesk is open?

[orangemoore]

218: Rivet tread to a wheel powered by 2 mini-CIM Motors to give the shooter extra grip on the frisbees (It worked for about 1 frisbee then because it was spinning so quickly a few of the rivets came undone but kept spinning and the tread whipped around and broke a few pieces on our lexan shooter)

This year on our prototype shooter we had an 8" plaction wheel with a super glued tread that work really well. We didn't need to make it because we had it from the 2010 season. That year our team was really concerned with things not coming apart.

[mahnyi]

219. Attempt to climb the pyramid off center

[Dival]

220. Using an 8WD with four 35 chains only.
221. Using an 8WD without lowering the mid wheels.
222. Wiring the whole robot with 14 AWG wires.

[Joseph Smith]

223. Weld the entire shooter assembly as one piece so that it can't be fixed at the state/world championships when a weld breaks.

[tStano]

224. Touch the back of an non-insulated sensor board to the chassis of the robot while its powered on.

[Fernando]

30. Use drill press with no safety goggles

[sergioCorral842]

226: Pop the game piece (Has not happened to us, hopefully won't)

[kmusa]

If you are a Mork & Mindy fan, that would be nano-nano parsecs....

How does one give positive reputation (for technical accuracy) and negative reputation (for bad pun) simultaneously? :p

-Karlis

[kmusa]

217: give the robot to the programmers for essentially the first time around 6 PM on practice day. (Ok maybe this one is wishful thinking...)

Yep. We have yet to realize that we were only supposed to do this once.

-Karlis

[yash101]

11. Solder without safety glasses.
12. Use a hand drill with long unbound hair.

I solder without safety goggles. I also drill while holding things in my hand (carefully). You just need to make sure the your hand isn't in the path of the dill. I also carry batteries with one hand and never drop them (even though I'm a weak Indian).
^^^^BUT DON'Y TRY THIS YOURSELF CAUSE I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU LOSE A HAND OR TWO!!!^^^^


Also(things you do only once):
--don't drive robots through doorways. carry them too. If you want, ask me and I can try to record a video of why not to do it.
--wire the connector on a battery backwards.
--pick robots from the frame, not the signal light :D
--put horns on you robot

However, here's something I noticed, but they would be under "Things you only do NEVER":
--weld without eye or hand protection
--never disassemble those batteries even if you like playing with acids and chemicals.
--humans vs robots
--don't try to charge a battery by plugging it into the wall :D
--don't draw more than 120 amps continuously from a battery

--and best of all: DON'T DRIVE ROBOTS OFF THE TOP OF BUILDINGS, ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS A COP CAR RIGHT UNDERNEATH :D


What to do:
--Create a battery tray and line the bottom with a thick layer of baking soda. a sheet of paper above it is also good. Avoid wood because I think baking soda and wood might create a mess
--Travel with baking soda
--CHARGE BATTERIES AT A LOWE SPEED THAN THEY ARE RATED
--batteries plus loose metal objects equals fires, and so is a no-no. KEEP BATTERIES IN THEIR OWN COMPARTMENT
--MAKE SURE THE BATTERY IS FIXED PROPERLY. --i should have posted a picture of how our testbot battery was affixed --a big no-no
--turn off the breaker and unplug the battery if you see some magic smoke.
--if you need help, ask for it. don't be shy. I (and many others) will be willing to assist you at competitions
--If another team needs a part or needs to borrow a tool that only you have and aren't using, go ahead. It'll only increase your team reputation


I hope this helps ;)
I also hope this makes you laugh (part of it) ;)

[Alan Anderson]

I also drill while holding things in my hand (carefully). You just need to make sure the your hand isn't in the path of the dill.

No!

You also need to make sure your hand isn't in the path of whatever it is you're drilling when the bit catches on it and spins it around at high speed. Basically you need to not be holding the part.

[magnets]

I solder without safety goggles. I also drill while holding things in my hand (carefully). You just need to make sure the your hand isn't in the path of the dill. I also carry batteries with one hand and never drop them (even though I'm a weak Indian).
^^^^BUT DON'Y TRY THIS YOURSELF CAUSE I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU LOSE A HAND OR TWO!!!^^^^


You really need to be more safe.

1.) I'm sorry, but you have to be stupid to solder without safety goggles. My good friend was soldering, and to save time, he didn't put his safety glasses on over his eyes. An impurity in the piece he was working on came to a boil, and splashed right into his eyeball. He is now blind in that eye. Before you go to solder, think to yourself, "is my eyesight worth the inconvenience of wearing safety glasses?"

2.) If you're drilling through foam or plywood, then it's ok. If you're drilling through aluminum, and the bit catches on the part, it'll spin and cut you. If you're unlucky, it'll break your wrist. I've seen it happen.

[Whippet]

No!

You also need to make sure your hand isn't in the path of whatever it is you're drilling when the bit catches on it and spins it around at high speed. Basically you need to not be holding the part.

+1 to this. One of the captains of my former team almost lost two of her fingers when she was drilling a hole in a piece of wood and the bit caught. If it's possible for it to go wrong, it usually will, and always at the most inopportune time.

[omsahmad]

218: Rivet tread to a wheel powered by 2 mini-CIM Motors to give the shooter extra grip on the frisbees (It worked for about 1 frisbee then because it was spinning so quickly a few of the rivets came undone but kept spinning and the tread whipped around and broke a few pieces on our lexan shooter)

We did the same thing last year.

218b: ^^^and hand feed the frisbees. The conveyor belting spun around and fractured my finger.

[Dinoyan]

Wire while the robot is on.

[pfreivald]

You really need to be more safe.

Really, really, REALLY.

"I do X that I know is in violation of basic and fundamental shop safety rules" would get you banned from my team in a heartbeat, while you still had one.

[BBray_T1296]

My team did a double sided intake too. It was a neat little feature, but totally not worth the space it takes up (and how much fun electronic placement gets), considering how easy it is to turn around.

We had a 4 sided intake in 2012. Made for an awesome undercarriage picture. Didn't turn out particularly useful though...

[xXhunter47Xx]

Fry a jaguar from wiring it reverse polarity.
Except no we did it twice.

[c.shu]

Try to balance on a bridge while dragging your battery across the floor behind you.

[Bulah!]

227 (i think that's what number we're on): Build a top heavy robot that moves very quickly
228: Allow the vast majority of your team to go home before testing the newly wired drive train.
We were supposed to be finished this past Saturday around 4:30, but something went wrong with our victors and it was 7 ish before we (myself, our programmer, our coach, and two mentors) actually went home. If we had more people there, maybe we would have figured out the issue much faster.

[RobotDoktor]

Definitely don't drill anything metal, sharp, or both while holding it with your hand. Fortunately the scar is pretty much gone now.

Other things to avoid:

Cutting small parts on the chopsaw (it will go flying)
Leaving the chuck key in a drill press/lathe/mill
Holding resistors while soldering them
Stalling AM9015 motors (burned out the motor and melted the brand new Anderson connectors)
Send poorly dimensioned drawings for machining


I should point out that CAD autosave is not a thing because of the time it takes to save assemblies of hundreds of parts.

[themccannman]

Leaving the chuck key in a drill press/lathe/mill


This is a good way to get a chuck key lodged in your skull. No joking matter, this could legitimately kill you.

[EricH]

Leaving the chuck key in a drill press/lathe/mill[/LIST]

The Torbots found a way to deal with this on the drill presses, or 2/3 of them at any rate. First, the chuck key is chained to the stand of the drill press... then the "On" button is covered in such a way that the chuck key has to be used to turn on the drill press. The "Off" button? WIDE open in case of needing to hit it quickly.

[theCADguy]

Accidentally overwrite someone else's changes when working in a CAD assembly

Forget to dimension the locations of holes in a CAD drawing

Use the extrude command to create a hole on Autodesk Inventor

[Kingland093]

I know someone tried to wire a controller into the PDB with the battery connected and a circuit breaker in the slot.

[matthewdenny]

Put a 1/4 20 but on the PD board.

[Peyton Yeung]

No!

You also need to make sure your hand isn't in the path of whatever it is you're drilling when the bit catches on it and spins it around at high speed. Basically you need to not be holding the part.

Quoted for truth. I had to go to the ER last season when the piece I was drilling got caught in the bit.

[kuraikou]

I did this one and now whenever I use a chop saw I check, we were dumb and didn't place the saw in a good place so when I went to cut a metal tube the power cord fell and went into the saw causing quite the fireworks and scare.::ouch::

[Caleb Sykes]

233. Get into the top 8 at an event without a scouting list.

234. Test angle-correction gyro code for the first time while tethered.

235. Not make a pre-match checklist.

[orangemoore]

233. Get into the top 8 at an event without a scouting list.


I understand completely.

[pmangels17]

Put a 1/4 20 but on the PD board.

Put any kind of butt on the PD Board!

[orangemoore]

Put any kind of butt on the PD Board!

I think he meant NUT.

[yash101]

That is true. BTW, let me say, that was before my first safety lesson. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself, but now I drill with a vise or a clamp. Also, I typically use a drill press because even though it has a stronger motor, it seems safer because the bit is less likely to move and cut a finger off.

So back onto the topic:
don't touch both terminals of the battery, especially if it is raining and you just came in, wet!
Don't touch spinning motors. Those BAGs may seem tiny but they pack some force and some speed for their size. Even worse, don't touch those old-and-trusty CIMs!
Don't touch a robot if it is on and enabled. You don't know when something can go awry and the next thing you know is the robot is pushing full-force towards you, likely to hurt you! Always disable and/or shut down the bot before doing things.

[coalhot]

224. Make a thread about Things you only do once! ;)

[matthewdenny]

I think he meant NUT.


I meant nut. The phone screen is little and my fingertips are not.

[pfreivald]

That is true. BTW, let me say, that was before my first safety lesson.

So here's another one: Let anyone (student or mentor) use a tool or machine for which they have not received training and signed-off safety certification.

[Nirvash]

So here's another one: Let anyone (student or mentor) use a tool or machine for which they have not received training and signed-off safety certification.

There's safety certifications for screw drivers? :P

And not checking an output voltage with a multimeter before connecting the expressive radio.

[orangemoore]

227.
Run an electronics board assuming everything is okay even though it has sat for 9-10 months.

228.Not knowing to check that the regulator was not properly adjusted. And learning from a loud high pitched noise that something was wrong.
Luckily there is no noticeable damage.

[Nate Laverdure]

There's safety certifications for screw drivers? :P
Yes. On our team it's called General Shop Safety.

[pfreivald]

Yes. On our team it's called General Shop Safety.

Exactly. Even a screwdriver needs a "not a prybar" primer. General shop safety certification comprises hand tools.

[Exla357]

Team alumni from CSU were helping us find a leak in the ball. Instructions were to:
1. Fill ball partially with air
2. Put in sink full of water
3. Use bubbles to isolate leak

What they did:
1. Fill ball fully with water
2. Put in empty sink
3. Laugh
4. Not find leak

[fsgond]

No!

You also need to make sure your hand isn't in the path of whatever it is you're drilling when the bit catches on it and spins it around at high speed. Basically you need to not be holding the part.

I have to agree with Alan and everyone else on this. I used to be one who never would clamp the items, until that one day that the drill bit caught the button box, spun it around and hit me in the hand. Luckily it was plastic and not aluminum or my black and blue hand would have been no hand at all!

[Team 2016]

Immediately grab the newly flattened side of a part that was just on the belt grinder.
Grab a battery by the wire.
Blindly feel for burrs underneath a sheet of metal fresh off the mill.

[Team3266Spencer]

239. Spill 7UP on the cRIO

[orangemoore]

239. Spill 7UP on the cRIO

How did this happen?

[Jacob Bendicksen]

How did this happen?

That's... that's actually quite impressive.

[Kevin Selavko]

240. Let a freshman solder unsupervised because he said he knew what he was doing.

[BBray_T1296]

Leave the drive fuses in while testing autonomous in the pits with the wheels on the cart.
The robot drove off the end, took a nose dive, but luckily our teacher caught it. Ramp lower-er tore his shirt and gave him a battle wound.

[RaxusPrime]

241. Let your mentor give a spirit team member sparkles and expect them NOT to put it all over the drive team. ::ouch:: so many sparkles......

[tr6scott]

Try to unsubscribe to this thread by clicking the link in that is sent in the bottom of the email.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/subscription.php?do=removesubscription&type=thread&subscriptionid=222243&auth=fef32326629bd970034ecdbe72225738

Leads to this...

An invalid threadid or forumid was specified.

[kylelanman]

242. Destroy 3 10-Turn-Pots on your winch by overturning them before deciding that regardless of code complexity an encoder is more appropriate for the task.

[Bmarshall645]

Hi we're a FIRST Robotics Rookie team #4905 from Ayer and Shirley Massachusetts.

We are having an awesome rookie year!

Please check out our safety video and drop a line to say hi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHnIbFnJU4&noredirect=1


Check us out on Social Media:
https://twitter.com/AyerShirley1st
http://andromedaone.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ayershirley1st

[zachrobo1]

243. Let programmers use the mill having no clue what they are doing as you are showing off the shop to new mentors.

[Whippet]

244. Let the shop monkeys attempt to modify the code in your absence.

"But we only wanted to reverse the direction of the motor!"

[Kingland093]

245. Change designs 9 days from the end of the build season

[yash101]

243. Let programmers use the mill having no clue what they are doing as you are showing off the shop to new mentors.

I'm a programmer and I have the electrical memorized and I can manufacture anything I want to make! I think that's more of a meme than reality :D.

[yash101]

244. Let the shop monkeys attempt to modify the code in your absence.

"But we only wanted to reverse the direction of the motor!"

Well, that is sometimes required. I helped a rookie team fix their robot when they lost their arm and didn't have the right motor. There were only 3 kids and NO mentors so we showed them how to reverse the motor even though I don't code in LabView!

[magnets]

Not begin assembling the final robot until today (3 days left of build):D

[Snapshot]

256. Find a 12VDC -> 5VDC converter labeled "BAD". Decide to find out why it's labeled as such.

Needless to say, lots of smoke came out, and I debated using its terrible smell as a deterrent.

[xXhunter47Xx]

256. Find a 12VDC -> 5VDC converter labeled "BAD". Decide to find out why it's labeled as such.

Needless to say, lots of smoke came out, and I debated using its terrible smell as a deterrent.

Related,
257: accidentally touching the unprotected terminals on the pressure switch to the unprotected terminals of a spike.
Let's just say the magic smoke came out and it smelled like a sweatshop.

[adammiller3122]

258. Almost driving your Robot down stairs! (Oh wait, we did that twice in 1 week!) At least it didn't go down!!!

[Kingland093]

259. Wire the solenoid backwards and then spend the next 5 days trying to figure out why it isn't working

[Joseph Smith]

260. Use locktite on the bolts that hold your camera mount to a lexan panel.
261. Put the bumpers on the practice bot with a hammer.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

260. Use locktite on the bolts that hold your camera mount to a lexan panel.
For those of you wondering about this item, locktite causes crazing of Lexan panels which leads to a failure of the panel.

[zachrobo1]

I'm a programmer and I have the electrical memorized and I can manufacture anything I want to make! I think that's more of a meme than reality :D.

Thing is, that actually happened to us once :p

[Joseph Smith]

For those of you wondering about this item, locktite causes crazing of Lexan panels which leads to a failure of the panel.

I'll say. Within a minute cracks were spreading from the bolt holes. I've been told by a very reliable source (the creator of Talons) that a drop of locktite will make a Talon casing crumble in minutes.

[kelseysea]

262. Tip your toolboxes on their sides for travel. (Everything falls to the back and you can't open the drawers without some struggle.)
263. Wire your robot with the wrong gauge rookie year, thus having to rewire almost the entire thing Friday morning at your Regional.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

240. Let a freshman solder unsupervised because he said he knew what he was doing.
I do this from time to time. Once I did it and watched in horror as he touched the hot end of the iron. True story!

[Daniel_LaFleur]

240. Let a freshman solder unsupervised because he said he knew what he was doing.

I do this from time to time. Once I did it and watched in horror as he touched the hot end of the iron. True story!

I did this as well, only to smell the burning smell from our maple toped workbench. :yikes:

[Chadfrom308]

It was a couple of students and I and no mentors on Thursday in the pit. We saw the robot in the bag and thought "Why are we wasting time!?" and we opened the bag without being inspected ::rtm::

Lets just say we wont ever do that again. Fortunately another mentor from another team saw us and told the judges and we were okay-ed

[JamesCH95]

264. Assign a veteran driver's ex-girlfriend to the drive team.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I did this as well, only to smell the burning smell from our maple toped workbench. :yikes:
There is nothing that compares to the smell of burning flesh, especially when it is your own.

[Spatel7793]

Forget to secure your battery. throttle forward full speed.

Follow a security personnel with your robot.

Wrestle robot because you let one of your inexperienced drive team members take the wheel during a public outreach event.

Scare a baby with your robot...personally my fault.

Cut the x-shaped extruded aluminum thin on a table saw....would have hurt when it came flying out.

Place robot under any kind of pipe.

Allow students to acquire air compressor and pvc tubing...so many air powered marshmellows....

Forget your flag at school.

Scout for the entire length of competition weekend without sleep.

Drink coffee or energy drinks, except gatorade during all nighters.

Mount the cRio upside down....badly.

[PandaHatMan]

At championships in 2012, hold the joystick forward while pounding on the glass because your robot is unresponsive. (Robot shoots forward across field and jams itself into opposing alliance bridge :deadhorse: ). It was, however, the fastest our robot ever went.

[electroken]

Bash my head on the truss at mid-field. At least I hope it's only once. Ouch!