surefire ways to break you robot

[XXShadowXX]

These are 5 ways that your robot will break during a compition. These action can only be done by a member of the pit crew who has extensive knowlegde of every system, and how to fix everyone.


Put all the tools, parts, and electric tape away.

Walk to the snack bar and spend more then $5, you will be intercepted on your way back to pits by 2 or more team members looking for you. After fix is done, your food will be missing.

Fall asleep.

Connect to a wireless network, not to do research for robotics but to have fun.

Try to watch more then 4 matches in row.


Got anymore, this always broke the robot for me :)

[Daniel_LaFleur]

These are 5 ways that your robot will break during a compition. These action can only be done by a member of the pit crew who has extensive knowlegde of every system, and how to fix everyone.


Put all the tools, parts, and electric tape away.

Walk to the snack bar and spend more then $5, you will be intercepted on your way back to pits by 2 or more team members looking for you. After fix is done, your food will be missing.

Fall asleep.

Connect to a wireless network, not to do research for robotics but to have fun.

Try to watch more then 4 matches in row.


Got anymore, this always broke the robot for me :)

Mention how great the robot is running

[David Brinza]

Just say this:

"Hey, the code's done! Let's test it!"

[My apologies to all you software wizards that are given almost all of Thursday afternoon to get hybrid-mode "done".];)

[Taylor]

Presence of parents, school administrators, or prospective sponsors.
Videotape a match.
Look across the field to see 1024, 111, and 1114 on the other alliance. Your robot may not break, but your drivers will.

[65_Xero_Huskie]

Look across the field to see 1024, 111, and 1114 on the other alliance. Your robot may not break, but your drivers will.

Haha.
What if the people that were facing them were
217, 469, 148?


Set ur autonomous mode to try to hurdle itself over the bar?

[A_Reed]

Clothesline the overpass at high speed.

Make metal shavings over the electronics and forgetting to clean them out.

[Matt C]

Sprinkle cheddar cheese liberally over your controller board, bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. :yikes:

[JesseK]

Best surefire ways to break our '08 bot:

Try to actually engineer pieces of the bot like motors to handle a pre-conceived load without burning out

Claim we actually have an idea of what we're doing

Claim that even though it's the first time we've ever done most of the things we're doing on the bot, they will all work together ok

[Chris27]

advance to the semi-finals

[Billfred]

Step 1: Retrieve our various PVC pipes strewn about the field on Thursday at Chesapeake.

Step 2: Instruct a student to take the drill and screw together the fittings and pipes.

Step 3: Queue up for our next practice round.

(With the relative youth of our team, the kids missed a spot or three each go-round until that night, where there were about five screws in every joint.)

[Tetraman]

With 5 seconds left, pull off something that takes 9 seconds to do.

[Stuart]

tell the drivers " hey lets try something different this round"

[jacob07]

why not just touch your ground battery lead to your hot battery lead? that always makes sparks. Sparks=break

[James1902]

well for all of 1902s bots all you have to do is let scott or chuck(two of our old drivers) drive it and...well this happens.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47037&highlight=exploding+wheel

[tanmaker]

bottom out your suspension going full speed down the track and run into one of the "feet" supporting the lane divider.

I successfully did this and completely destroyed one of our suspension assemblies.

[Tytus Gerrish]

Let a NOOB drive it

[Jherbie53]

Release the magic smoke that makes all FIRST robots run. This is usually followed by people quickly turning their heads in the direction of the person saying "who let out their magic smoke" and people yelling "turn the robot off!"

[jacob07]

Release the magic smoke that makes all FIRST robots run. This is usually followed by people quickly turning their heads in the direction of the person saying "who let out their magic smoke" and people yelling "turn the robot off!"

Silly magic smoke!

[Jherbie53]

Silly magic smoke!

Silly magic smoke, CIM's are for the Kit of parts.

[Matt C]

Silly magic smoke, CIM's are for the Kit of parts.

That was almost as bad as my recipe for "RC nachos".

[RyanN]

Giving a programmer full possession of the robot for a couple of hours.

[EricH]

Giving a programmer full possession of the robot for a couple of hours.Yep, that works.

[efoote868]

over use some rope that winches down your spring... watch it break and the spring fly up into the arm, causing the U-bolt to bend a terrific angle.:yikes:

[TubaMorg]

1. Remove "unessential parts" to make weight
2. Make a small adjustment to an actuator
3. Install electric panel THEN file off sharp edges
4. Use "wobble drill" method to make parts fit
5. Bring pizza in the middle of an important assembly ("hmm never did get back to that did we?")
6. Load the robot in the crate
7. Unload the robot from the crate
8. Check wire tightness while in queue
9. Have "new engineering mentor" show up during last week of build ("I'm a garage engineer")
10. Have one of your BIG students star torque a 1/4" bolt*

*Star torque: A last resort torque spec that requires the fastener to be torqued until one sees stars. It works better for larger bolts.

[GBilletdeaux930]

Presence of parents, school administrators, or prospective sponsors.


Ha this happened to us. The head of the school board showed up and we explained how great we'd been doing, everything was going bettered then planned and yea.

So the first match he watches... the pwm for our left wheel is unplugged so first we sent us and one of our alliance members across the plane. Then we spent the rest of the match trying to defend by spinning in circles in the 4th quadrant

We won the match because of our amazing alliance partners 171 and 166 but it still was a bit embarassing

[XXShadowXX]

some more


have everything work for more then 5 matches


sit and watch the competion for more then 5 matchs, giving the chief engineer job to somebody else, this will result just as the robot is going onto the field, the new engineer will walk up to you, "We had a problem with the arm, so we took it off and replaced a broken slide, but after we mounted the new one we couldn't fit all the screws in." Then shows you a fist full of about 8 or 9 bolts.

[galewind]

forget to put a "Stop" command in your autonomous routine

[Grant Cox]

Step 1) Wear a green shirt with a demonic chicken on it.

Step 2) Attend a regional on Friday.

[Jeff Pahl]

Let a teacher / mentor / administrator / parent / programmer / web site designer / someone's little brother / sleep deprived student / me / <insert your choice here> drive the bot "just for a minute" 30 minutes before the FedEx truck is coming...

"Post, what post?"

[Éowyn]

Hit it with a sledgehammer?

[AllieLallah15]

Hmmm...

To test if your power cord in in correctly, tug on it, not being able to get it out, then assure your team that the cord won't come out. Then, do not push it back in or zip-tie it, so basically loosen it.

It will come out during hybrid period.

=D

[1t5h1e1o]

create a competition port box on your controls so that you can enable/disable for testing and practice, leave the "auto mode" switch on, and enable robot on cart with no blocks to charge pneumatics. Then, watch as your robot zooms off the cart in front of you and into a people barrier. Frantically look for someone other than yourself to blame for leaving the switch thrown even though you are the driver. :D :yikes:

Oh and do this before a quarterfinal match at FLR lol.

[Jim E]

Any action following the phrase:

"Hey! Watch this!"

[Chaos in a Can]

Step 1) Let someone put washers on a vital Supershifter part that isn't supposed to have any washers.
Step 2) Drive robot for 5 weeks.
Step 3) Arrive at regional event.

[Tetraman]

Snip a random Zip-tie.

[mrbob1000]

chew on pwm cables...

have a non electrical person try to set up a new spike or victor

say "the robot doesnt need this..."

[mlucas]

have a non electrical guy wire the battery, turn the robot on, and watch all the fuses blow...red-red, black-black not black-red


Let a nonprogrammer program robot, watch it get g22's during hybrid


Try to use an untested hybrid code


Edit:

And my personal ouchy

Stick a pwm prong all the way through your hand while being inspected

[comphappy]

Giving a programmer full possession of the robot for a couple of hours.

Hey they left it with me for four days, and it came back with a fully functional drive train and front loader.

[MFS766]

This is from my 2003 season when I was still in High school, two almost crippled us, one did:

1. Electronics broad is designed in many pieces with the speed controllers in the middle of the robot. You and a friend see the pwm came out of a speed controller. You try to reach it with your hand only to find your hand completely blocks your view and you cannot twist your hand enough to push the pwm back in. You need help; your friend sticks his hands in to hold the speed controller still and help push the pwm in. However, he can't see his hands but you can and vice versa. So directing each other, each take turns pushing the pwm while the other holds it so that the pwm is not let go and pop out. After, many tries and a lot of cursing at each other, it finally goes in. then a triumphant high-five and a quick grab for some super glue to prevent this from breaking the robot for sure in a match.
2. Showing up back to pits after the last elimination match when a team mate says the CIM motor burned out. Everyone says not to worry, the team will not be picked. So the rest of the team goes grab food, you clean up the pits. About thirty minutes later, the team representative comes bursting into the pit exclaiming that team has been picked and runs off to tell the others. Then the rest of the alliance comes lead by the head mentor Grant Imahara (pre-mythbusters too:) ) comes to tell you that the robot needs to be on the field in thirty minutes. Suddenly, realizing you have a burnt out motor, you tell the bad news, to the alliance, and try to call the team mates but they won't pick up. Quickly a plan is developed to extract the motor. After about 5 minutes of panic by everyone in the pit, Grant asks if anyone actually used a voltmeter to check the problem. You realize that no one has (the voltmeter has been rarely used, if ever). 5 minutes later the problem was found to be a loose wire that needs to be reconnected. Everything now works, crises averted.
3. Collision in semifinal knocks battery out of robot.

[vivek16]

Hit it with a sledgehammer?

no, no. THAT is the surefire way to FIX the robot. :P

-Vivek

EDIT: Rookies on pit crew for 2264, I am kidding... :yikes:

[Mike Harrison]

saying the words "should" and "work" in the same sentence...

[FRC4ME]

Run an untested hybrid mode without an ultrasonic obstacle detector.

Code the "disable autonomous" switch such that an open circuit defaults to autonomous ON.

Download new program with the autonomous switch on the competition dongle in the ON position.

Put down disable switch because you know that no matter what the robot does, it has to go left, which leads to an open area. Realize that a PWM cable is disconnected as the robot goes right. Discover the power of four CIM motors as the robot pushes another robot, two PCs, a desk, and two chairs five feet into the doorway.

[captainking]

1. Belittle programmers (we can make driving a living hell)
2. Come to us electricians telling us that a tight wire came out of it's connector, Din, or Maxi-style fuse box.
3. Rush us, lets see you robot run if we've torn out your parts

[T3_1565]

1)try and show off your week 6 robot (just days before ship date) to your school at the valintines day assembly
2) while attempting 1. have the programmer control the arm (not the arm operator)
3) remind him that the claw is only ziptied on, and that under no situtation do you try and raise the arm while it is holding the ball, he can scoop up the ball, and he can rasie the arm without the ball, but CANNOT raise the arm with the ball.
4) watch him raise the arm with the ball, shaking head while hearing zipties snapping...
5) watch claw fall off in from of 1000+ students...

[Racer26]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this one yet.

Use an unpatched 2007 radio.

Holy cow those things were a deathtrap looking for a place to happen... Our robot attacked various objects around the shop with all the random packet loss, and the code that somehow failed to disable robot outputs when radio data was lost. Robots running at full tilt towards walls, people, tools, etc is just bad.

[galewind]

oh oh oh I got a great one!!!

screw in the tether cable

[evanisthat!]

Let Arefin near it! :p
ahahaha I kid I kid,
Best way to break a robot....is to ummm... leave off limit switches which stop arms from moving during autonomous operations? Perhaps...
But really, the best way to break a robot, is to build one. Because the existence of a robot is a prelude to its destruction.

[m3ch4num470r]

Leave a flashlight on the robot. This happened to us in the quarterfinals at Trenton. Our robot crossed two lines in hybrid and then stopped. When our drivers tried to take control, one wheel wasn't working. Turned out the flashlight was actually IN the drive belts, turned on, illuminating the robot. I had the drivers e-stop the robot, but you should've seen the look on the ref's face when he pulled it out.

*Make your robot look like a trackball. Wait for another robot to hurdle it.
*Hook a claw around one of the plates on the rack from last year. Pull as hard as you can (hint: the steel chain will NOT break)
*Attempt to drive down stairs.
*Pull out the programming cable while downloading. Assure your head programmer that you saw the program state light turn green (happened to us at Chesapeake)
*Have a critical part of your robot exposed (happened in semifinals at Chesapeake. Our forklift was toast).
*ENTER FIRST ROBOTICS!

[Tetraman]

Would it be considered anti-FIRST to continute a thread about how we can wreak our own robots?

[XXShadowXX]

This tread was not created to describe ways that we destroy our robot, this tread was created to laugh at the things that have lost us important matches, or screw ups that we laugh at and wish to share. I started this tread with actions nonrealating to robotics that would through the intercession of some unknown force make your robot screw up, but people started to use this tread to desribe disasterious and hilarious stories of build season, and competion.
First was created as a program that was to inspire math and science, and by seening our failures is how we learn.
"Experience is a thing that is learned right after it is need." Unkown

And these stories are how we learned in disaterious, but hilarious ways, i see no anti-FIRST reason with that. If you do please post why

[laultima]

*Pull out the programming cable while downloading. Assure your head programmer that you saw the program state light turn green (happened to us at Chesapeake)


Ergh, happened to us 30 minutes before shipping. We where finally loading the final drivers code for our first full test and someone turned off the robot while the code was still loading, and no one could remember how to hard-reset the RC.

Ramming the most delicate part of the robot into the lane divider in a completely unnecessary defensive move (we where trying to prevent a set with about 3 seconds left to go, half a field away from the overpass).

[Herodotus]

I can think of many surefire ways to break a robot.

Drive it behind a Boeing 747 that is taking off.
Shoot it.
Blow it up.
Push it out of an aircraft without a parachute.
Put it in front of a semi.
Throw it off a building.
Fire it from a trebuchet.
Fire it from a canon.
Fire it from a canon that is being thrown by a trebuchet.
Put it near a very large tesla coil.
The dog ate my robot.
Set fire to it, can't get much more surefire then that.
Use too many puns.

[RyanN]

Hey they left it with me for four days, and it came back with a fully functional drive train and front loader.

I left the robot for one minute with our programming mentor while I went and looked at something else, and he managed to hit the overpass at full speed with our forklift. Luckily, it didn't break it. The robot instead drove until it tipped partly on its back side and the wheels were no longer in contact with the floor. We have a good CoG.

[EricH]

I left the robot for one minute with our programming mentor while I went and looked at something else, and he managed to hit the overpass at full speed with our forklift. Luckily, it didn't break it. The robot instead drove until it tipped partly on its back side and the wheels were no longer in contact with the floor. We have a good CoG.330 had an incident where a programming mentor was the only one in the shop and broke the robot. It was minor--an output gear on a redundant motor--but still...

[bduddy]

By far the most surefire way is to declare that "We've finally finished the build early!" At that point, it is almost guaranteed that the robot will suffer a total existence failure, or worse, during your most important match.

Of course, and more seriously, a lack of testing is almost a more-guaranteed killer (why is it that everything that gets tested already works and everything that doesn't get tested doesn't work?). I think this is what let my team down this year...

[hopkins]

let some little kids drive it during a demonstration to your sponsor in a room full of huge pillars and take your hand off the disable switch for just a second

[Lions for First]

let a freshmen anywhere near the robot at anytime (unless enclosed in a lexan box)

[Uberbots]

letting hybrid run without the autonomous switch in your hand. (we have many shards of fiberglass on our field for this reason)

programming with the autonomous switch enabled (owie)

overconfidence

[lasereyes]

Hey they left it with me for four days, and it came back with a fully functional drive train and front loader.

Whenever I get my hands on the robot, I end up running it into a wall (oops, I wrote the hybrid code wrong:ahh:).

On the bright side, the mechanical people always end up adding extra reinforcement to the parts I bend/break.

[hopkins]

Not having an actual disable switch, so you make one, wire it backwards because the diagram confused someone, and fry the OI. Then you're done for a while.

poor programmers/electrical people. they get such a small amount of time to do so much! and this is real sympathy.

[MFS766]

This one makes me laugh in retrospect.

The robot was 80 pounds overweight. Someone hands me a grinder with a cutoff wheel and says "starting trimming.....everything!"

[CurseofDragon33]

Use Super Glue on the gears instead of Gear Lube.

Use wood instead of aluminum.

Drill a hole into a motor.

Enter the robot in a Demolition Derby.:P

[GaryVoshol]

I can think of many surefire ways to break a robot.

Fire it from a canon.

Yeah, them prelates can be darn tough on robots. :)

[BanksKid]

who needs to unplug a backup batterie at the connector when you can rip the pins straight out of the robot board?

[technoL]

- attempt to drive backwards under the overpass with the arm up (http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/match.php?matchid=5074) (last 15 seconds)

- pay attention to people in the stands

- leave the autonomous switch on while testing

[swamp_child]

use a globe motor to manipulate the part fo the arm which lifts the trackball.
They really arent made for that much force.

[Cappeh]

Run matches with a small crack/hole in your chassis where your air compressor is? 8D Thank god we found that.

[deshirider430]

Forget to tighten down all the bolts when replacing parts on the elevator.

http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/match.php?matchid=6050

Focus in at about 60 seconds left in the match, our support brace which runs from the elevator to the back of the robot snaps off and the whole elevator dips forward. Lucky for us this was an easy fix, and we got some points for herding the ball across the red finish line :rolleyes:

[Ian G]

A few things that happened to us:

Driver is egged on by a mentor to spin the robot with a arm holding a trackball straight up...

During the pre-ship scrimmage, my team didn't tell me they were testing automode... which consisted of the robot running full speed down the track and then reversing... sometimes I think 127 and type 0, which is why I tell them to test it on blocks.

On Thursday afternoon, I finally get to download code to test... and the robot inexplicably wouldn't turn on.

Try to add more IR receivers 30 seconds before the match...

[A_Reed]

Upon entering FIRST you immediately apply Murphy's Laws.

[Jaime65]

Look across the field to see 1024, 111, and 1114 on the other alliance. Your robot may not break, but your drivers will.

Hahahaha
True!

[XXShadowXX]

Let a programmer try to fix a manual problem with the solinoid.

Programmer:"I got it to work"
Me:"How"
Programmer:"This was the problem" Hands me solinoid.



Upon entering FIRST you immediately apply Murphy's Laws.
so so true.

[Engineer]

Any action following the phrase:

"Hey! Watch this!"


For those old enough, this statement is usually preceded by the words "hold my beer" and then followed by a trip to the hospital.

[FRC4ME]

Spend thirty minutes preparing everything for the practice field - turning on print statements, making a list of what you're going to do, writing test code for different situations...etc.

After we did this at the Chesapeake regional, we went to the practice field and started to test hybrid. The robot would go forward, stop, go forward, stop...etc. We wasted our entire practice field session figuring out that our battery was low.

[Rick Thornbro]

Turn on power

[llama]

allow your mentor to have a doctor pepper in the pit... ours did and he spilled it on the control board....it wouldn't have been too bad had he not immediately assumed that we had wired the robot incorrectly and spent 2 hours yelling at us to fix it and burning out our lift motor in the process

[comphappy]

We dont have much in the way of mentors to start with, and they certainly dont tell us what to do. I think it is better that way.

[A_Reed]

Keep it on display for a few years and then tell a freshman to reference an old design. They end up taking it apart and not knowing how it goes back together.

[BordomBeThyName]

Build a robot.

Try to replace your transmission 30 seconds before a semifinals match.

Hold said transmission on with zipties.

Allow your robot to watch 330 and 1717 be on an alliance together.

Forget to add the line of code that makes the lead screw stop spinning when it gets to the limit switch.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Register for the Davis Regional :D Defense is rough there :D

Brag about how your robot hasn't broke yet this season. Ours hasn't... oops :mad: do'h!

[artdutra04]

Design the entire robot to be held together using 6/32 screws*. :rolleyes:

* 6/32 is usually the most commonly broken tap in machine shops (followed by 10/24), due to the ratio between the diameter and the number of threads per inch. I despise 6/32 with a passion and will avoid it at all costs, whether it means shrinking down to a 4/40 or increasing to an 8/32.

[lasereyes]

Register for the Davis Regional :D Defense is rough there :D

Brag about how your robot hasn't broke yet this season. Ours hasn't... oops :mad: do'h!

We did both. This is totally true!
a) We went to Davis.
b) After the first day, we bragged about how our arm hadn't broken or been damaged. The next day, we rammed a wall and our arm got badly damaged (luckily we had all of lunch to fix it).

[A_Reed]

Rely on COTS parts that are meant for industrial purposes.

In buckeye the steel cables(inner core) in our Brocoflex belts mysteriously fell apart after one match and the only thing holding them together was a thick layer of red linatex rubber.

[BornaE]

Program the robot to intialize with all the pwm at 254 and all the realys on for hybrid mode.
Then put the robot in hybrid w/o unplugging the prgraming cable, or tether cable :D

[XXShadowXX]

-have a novice programmer program hybrid, he believes that 0 is neutral
-let some one with no programming experience program robot
-have a programer try to fix the robot
-have driver fix the robot
-fix robot on the field
-field the robot after using any of these words in staging or in the stands before you go on.
--should, work
--watch, this
--got it all working
--will, work
--your sponsoring us?
--you want to sponsor us?
--i double checked everything
--those pwm's arn't going any were


lastly attach anything with loktite it will have to be removed right after the loktite sets

[Rupnick]

try using a little baby motor to lift a lift with so much friction that your operating at roughly 10% efficiency.

[jacob07]

330 had an incident where a programming mentor was the only one in the shop and broke the robot. It was minor--an output gear on a redundant motor--but still...

Programmers....what shall we do with u?

[lasereyes]

Programmers....what shall we do with u?

Easy: Let us do our work so you guys can win.

[EricH]

Easy: Let us do our work so you guys can win.
Just don't do our work (building/breaking) for us, OK?

[lasereyes]

Just don't do our work (building/breaking) for us, OK?

We try our best not to...

[Enigma's puzzle]

show optimism

[mgreenley]

1. Bring every part you can to the field just in case (ATL). Murphy's Law dictates that the one gear you don't have a replacement for is the one that will break.

2. Forget to tighten loose bolts. Realize later that part of your frame is only staying together because being hit so often (Ramp Riot, it was a pretty contact-heavy year with the King of the Hill bit) bent two pieces of the 80/20 together...and that there are no tightened bolts on that corner of the robot.

2b. Fix that. Something worse will go wrong (see 1).

3. Wire a battery backwards. (Thankfully we caught this when we were checking our batteries in the shop before we tried to use it).

[MishraArtificer]

Use the old KOP BaneBots transmissions. Let's just NOT go there.

[Ross340]

Get picked by a good alliance.
nuff' said.

[Alalea]

Dropping a ball on it. Directly on it.

Atlas...*tear*

[afi419]

short from the battery across the frame.

[Protronie]

Look across the field to see 1024, 111, and 1114 on the other alliance. Your robot may not break, but your drivers will.

TOO TRUE ! :eek:




Walk to the snack bar and spend more then $5, you will be intercepted on your way back to pits by 2 or more team members looking for you. After fix is done, your food will be missing.



I've had something similar happen often back when I was with the vol. fire dept. I'd be settled in watching a movie with a big bowl of popcorn... a alarm would come in which would be a not a big deal, by the time I'd get back to the station ... my movie would be done, pop corn gone, soda gone and someone would ask if I had any more popcorn... never failed :ahh:

[Qbranch]

Just don't do our work (building/breaking) for us, OK?

Uhmmm... I know I'm not the only programmer that makes parts too...

Plus... I'm sure I'm not the only programmer that has fixed hardware problems with software...

I've had something similar happen often back when I was with the vol. fire dept. I'd be settled in watching a movie with a big bowl of popcorn... a alarm would come in which would be a not a big deal, by the time I'd get back to the station ... my movie would be done, pop corn gone, soda gone and someone would ask if I had any more popcorn... never failed :ahh:

Yep... I had a pizza disappear when I went to drive once at BMR... apparently, the person who ate it disappeared too. :confused:

-q

[Adam Y.]

Let it roll off the table. (Yes they did happen and oddly enough it was nothing more than a box frame with four wheels.)

[XXShadowXX]

..

[XXShadowXX]

more way to break your robot

weight reduction
rounding off corners with metal file

[Bryan Herbst]

The other coder and I found a great way to break the bot.

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, IFI loader decided to change the file it was downloading to the bot to last years competition code. We didn't figure this out until after our next match. Before that match though, we were really freaking out. The lift wasn't responding at all, when the driving joysticks were pushed the full speed, two of the motors would reverse with for no apparent reason (we never did figure that one out). Luckily, we used mechanum wheels both years, so driving below max speed worked relatively well. No autonomous (thank god they hadnt gotten to that last year by the time they compiled this version). No lift, and no green light underglow either :(


Its all good now ;)

[CalvinDude1]

- Run hybrid mode with tether or programming cables plugged in (Seriously, I have no idea why, but it screwed up our hybrid every time we did it)

- Try to program with a homemade cable that happened to have one of the wires get yanked from one of the pins (You have never seen the RC flash so many error messages and strange patterns of lights)

- Make your own field, get gripper caught in lane divider (We didn't have any lexan/plexiglass/whatever over the bars) and then turn your robot in an attempt to get it unstuck

- Tweak the values for your hybrid code "Just a little bit"

- Build a cart that doesn't have anything to prevent the robot from just rolling off

- Run your hybrid code without first resetting the gyro

[NorviewsVeteran]

Upon entering FIRST you immediately apply Murphy's Laws.

ONE OF OUR COACHES TRIPPED ON OUR FTC BOT

THAT'S RIGHT MR. GRIMES, I'M PUTTING YOU OUT THERE

[Chris/Fish]

Forget to secure the battery so it falls out of its holder...and onto the main breaker.

[The Megan 2207]

Find a minor problem and say, "I can fix that." It will turn into a major problem.

Alternately, say, "I can make that work better."

[lasereyes]

Alternately, say, "I can make that work better."

I think that was the reason why the mentors wouldn't let me make some changes to the robot that would make it work better...

[Enigma's puzzle]

Say, "we will get it after the next match",

Responding yes to "Is it fixed?"

Any time They call for the Pits to clear

[logicalyrandom]

-Cross wire the speed controllers. Fortunately we realized what we'd done before we turned the robot on.

-Forget to replace broken fuse.

-Forget to tighten zipties after replacing battery

These are all things we did with a test bot earlier this year.

[NorviewsVeteran]

-when figuring where to put the battery, remember to drop the uncovered contacts directly on the metal frame. TWICE.

seriously though, kick it away with your RUBBER SOLED SHOE

[Gabe]

Don't loktite the set screw on the CIM shaft.
Go full speed off any kind of ramp.
Not bother making an enable/disable dongle.
Use cheap limit switches to halt your lead screw's travel.
Overconfidence.

[AdamHeard]

-when figuring where to put the battery, remember to drop the uncovered contacts directly on the metal frame. TWICE.

seriously though, kick it away with your RUBBER SOLED SHOE

I'll second this, but a little more general.

Design, Wire and Maintain your robot so that shorts are not probable. Electrical layout should be the responsibility of both the mechanical/design teams and the electrical teams. Don't ever get into the us vs. them mentality. If you're mechanical and don't go out of your way to make electrical easier, you can't complain when it fails.

Your wire runs should be clean, organized, labeled and easy to differentiate between wires. If you have a short, or a motor not working somewhere, etc... you want to spend as little time possible finding what wire is hooked to what.

Electrical failures suck, they can cripple a mechanically perfect robot, and can be difficult to fix and diagnose.

Same goes for the relationship between mechanical/design and programmers. Make it as easy as possible for them... You are the SAME team afterall

[Booksy]

-when figuring where to put the battery, remember to drop the uncovered contacts directly on the metal frame. TWICE.

seriously though, kick it away with your RUBBER SOLED SHOE

Yep. Done that. Leaves a cool battle-scar on the frame though:)

Also, wiring through holes with sharp metal jagged edges.

[synth3tk]

- Drive the robot during a match where important school board of directors are watching.

- Deciding during the regional that after your robot can barely drive, you need to have some super-cool autonomous mode programmed before the next match.

- Assign a non-mechanical member a very critical task between regionals

[kyungjin]

Find a way to make it to the final match.

This mostly pertains to VEX (first year doing FIRST):

- Have your battery removed by your alliance's robot (with the help of the opposing team's robot) during autonomous mode.
- Get "pinned" by another team from your own school and spark a controversial topic according to the "rulebook"... and lose.
- Be given a faulty frequency crystal and table during the match that shuts off your robot 30 seconds at a time... twice.

We've always never been able to place first cause of stupid things we can't control... curse anyone? haha

[ExarKun666]

-Have, a team member screw in the sprockets and then doing it so they are lose, then switching the same sprocket, and trying to get it in the sprocket hole again, but then stripping it, and then not being able to find a replacement in time.
-Tell a incompetent fool to press a trigger that controls the piston that goes up and down for your claws on the bot, and the fool goes trigger happy, leading to the snapping of the robot in two pieces.
-Rebuilding the gear box 18+ times, and then it still doesn't work
-having one wheel with a lot of drag then driving, and try to go full speed and the bot spins in a very quick circle with parts flying everywhere

[kgzak]

Programing you motors for you lift to always to drive it down. (Nothing like the smell of a burning motor)
Finish programing while waiting to get on the field of you second match
Drilling a hole in your gearbox and not getting rid of the shavings
Use loktite to keep your gearboxes from coming apart then realizing you don't have a high enough gear ratio for mecanum wheels
:yikes:

[ExarKun666]

Another way, is by not ziptieing down your encoder cords, or PWM cords, then running the robot in autonomous, then it spins and all you see is flying cords and pwm cord heads, you stop it and realize the all the cords got caught in the wheels.

[surferacf]

While not technically part of the robot...

We were testing one day when our battery ran out. We pulled it out of the robot and asked one of the new kids to go back to our the room and get us a new one. He only saw one other battery, and it was half-charged.

I believe his thought process was "I can transfer the power from one half-charged battery into another half-charged battery to make a fully-charged battery! Hey, these connectors look like they can be plugged into each other..."

(Someone noticed just before he tried this and yelled. We all still have our limbs attached:) )

[ExarKun666]

While not technically part of the robot...

We were testing one day when our battery ran out. We pulled it out of the robot and asked one of the new kids to go back to our the room and get us a new one. He only saw one other battery, and it was half-charged.

I believe his thought process was "I can transfer the power from one half-charged battery into another half-charged battery to make a fully-charged battery! Hey, these connectors look like they can be plugged into each other..."

(Someone noticed just before he tried this and yelled. We all still have our limbs attached:) )

What? That sounds like a complete disaster!

Another way is building your robot completely, then in a practice match, run the autonomous code, that you have never tested (enough said) [our team did this, and our robot ran into the center divider, and the battery plug came undone, and we didn't know why our robot wasn't working until after the match.

[samir13k]

hmm...

blame it on the programmer until the point where he needs an extensive break half way through the qualifying matches. Only to realize it was the mechanical peoples fault who needed to shave down some metal to fit within the size limits, while the piece is in the up position which is strategically located right over the electronics panel... which makes the autonomous go insane which causes the robot to suffer extensive mechanical damage from a run in with a wall in the middle of the playing field....

or short and sweet: BLAME IT ON THE PROGRAMMER SINCE HE DID NOT WRITE CODE THAT FIXED MECHANICAL PROBLEMS!!!:rolleyes:

[jnoor]

1.) Just program the robot to drive backwards without notifying the drivers.
2.) Unplug the battery chargers the night before the competition.
3.) Sabotage another teams robot and your robot is definitely broken then.

[MagiMage]

Drive into a local reporter (true story).

[tim_reiher]

Driving it repeatedly into a wall will usually do it.

Given the wall, you might have the added bonus of that breaking, too.

And hey, if you're really lucky, you might knock down another team's OI, or just knock down the whole receiver tower.

[samir13k]

1.) Just program the robot to drive backwards without notifying the drivers.

..hmm. we had an orientation switch to switch between the directions.... of course i was the only one who ended up using it at competition:rolleyes: For some reason it confused all the other drivers:rolleyes: lol

[Justin Montois]

Let Rees touch it.

Haha

[sunnyboy780]

Tell the programmers to build anything. ANYTHING.

[thefro526]

1) Let it sit for almost 6 months and then take it to an off-season because someone said it "looks ok".

2) Tell a judge your robot has been designed not to break.

3) Deprive your driver of their sleep or morning coffee, they may just break the robot out of spite.

[daltore]

-Put your OI on top of the robot on the practice field to test autonomous.
-Assume that since you've shown someone how to make a part, that they've made it correctly.
-Let the robot exist the night before ship day.
-Host a major demo.

The first one was how Tom almost got flatter. The second is how we ended up with magic wires. The third is how I found out heat guns are really good for use on cold pizza at 3 in the morning. The forth is what Murphy was trying to say.

[roboraven15]

1. Drive robot down stairs when practicing driving threw hallways in school

2. Let aaron make a unnecisary "improvement" (lmao inside joke)

3. spill slushee on the controls.

5. pour thermite over robot, then pour lighter fluid in mouth. Take a match or lighter, put it up to mouth and blow fluid out over robot. :ahh:

[Katie_UPS]

...Get picked by the number one alliance. Scream and cry because the alliance is awesome and there is no way you won't go to Atlanta. Scream and cry as the alliance's robots' motors burn out and arms get bent. Lather. Rise. Repeat.


EDIT: I'd also like to add that you guys are abusing the crap out of the programmers. (Although I'm not any better...)

[Renee Becker-Blau]

Tell Renee to tighten the electrical block. (She then loosens the electrical block >_>)

[Abra Cadabra IV]

A good way to break your bot is 1) accidentally set your joysticks up backward, 2) make your programmer write autonomous at the last minute, 3) don't read the instructions while setting up your gearboxes and 4) don't tighten the wires in the power distribution block enough. Nothing quite like running into a wall and knocking the wires out of the PDB... and even if that doesn't happen, the wheels aren't running at the same speed anyway so it's all good. :yikes:

And blaming the programmer is a good way to ensure that nothing gets fixed. I remember some "code errors" last year that were caused by plugging our left wheel PWM into the port for our piston, the piston into the port for our compressor, etc. Gotta love rookie year.

[The Megan 2207]

You could always fix something on the robot, then order pizza for the whole team. When the pizza arrives, the team will drop everything and go eat, feeling satisfied that whatever was wrong is now fixed. According to our good friend Murphy, by the time the pizza is eaten, the robot will no longer function.

[ExarKun666]

And blaming the programmer is a good way to ensure that nothing gets fixed. I remember some "code errors" last year that were caused by plugging our left wheel PWM into the port for our piston, the piston into the port for our compressor, etc. Gotta love rookie year.

However when we did plug everything into the wrong ports I remember very clearly that Hima said that it worked for that round, don't ask how, I'm still trying to figure that out.

Another way is to let someone to touch the controllers, they mess with the trim, and don't tell anybody, then you turn on the robot, do I need to say anything else? lol

[Karibou]

Drive it into a Christmas tree (or into the table that is supposed to be protecting the tree). I managed to loosen one of our robot's fingers by doing this...it didn't break, it just didn't work... :D

...Or you could just let me drive it during a match...I can't drive straight on our mockup of the Overdrive field without any other robots; I could destroy a robot in seconds if you were to put me behind the OI in a competition.

[Stephen of REX]

Let the robot be inspected:

An inspector unplugs the gyro that made our robot drive predictably. He plugs it back in backwards. Not only is the robot now confused, but it is very hard to notice that the gyro is plugged in backwards.

Oh, and try everything to make the drive work after that:
1.Turn the tread inside out for smooth side.
2. Add wire rope to wheels for increased traction.
3. Ask ref if you can wrap wheels in duct tape.
4. Notice that the gyro is plugged in backwards.
5. Oh no, we don't have any replacements for these inside out wire rope wheels!

Extra: let team vice president drive. Even only for a second. It will break.

[samir13k]

let team vice president drive. Even only for a second. It will break.

Huh, thanks!
(Post PS) If you didnt figure it out im vice pres! lol...and driver:rolleyes:

[Stephen of REX]

Oh, sorry. I didn't mean all vice presidents, its just that our former vice almost broke the robot on several occasions.;)

[nathanww]

Let someone who's not a programmer program the robot("So 0 is off, right?""NO!")

Set the "acceleration control" knob to the lowest possible setting(although come to think of it this just broke everything around the robot)


Have your lucky potato fall off at the Davis regional

[lasereyes]

Have your lucky potato fall off at the Davis regional

That's what zip ties are for! :D

[Seth Mallory]

let a freshmen anywhere near the robot at anytime (unless enclosed in a lexan box)

How do you keep the freshmen in the lexan box?

[Bsteckler]

Duct tape:D

Also some Minion (TM) brand tranquilizers :ahh:

[qwertyuiop[]\]

"Lets take the robot to the party at the Lanctots"

"Who tried to turn the trackball into a hamster ball?"

toolchests at the top of ramps

[Seat Ninja]

Well doesn't break the robot, it just screws up the match.

Don't put a guard around the on/off switch because you assume that there's no way in heck another robot will hit the itty bitty red button during a match.

yes... it did happen

[FatBabyJezus]

1. Take hammer.
2. Slam hammer down on bot.
3. Bot breaks.
4. All FIRST teams are happy...except yourse =PPPPP
-----------
1. Take chainsaw.
2. repeat as same for hammer.
-------------
1. Take flamethrower.
2. Turn on flamethrower and aim at bot.
3. Dispose of destroyed bot.
-----------
1. Take bot to empire state building.
2. Drop bot.
3. walk away whistling.
=]

[jphuard]

\;788118']"Lets take the robot to the party at the Lanctots"

Lol, bringing the robot to the noob twins' house is definitely a good choice. :P

[crake]

Drive it into a table holding a bowl of salsa. Thank goodness for industrial PCB washing machines!

[Azure Kite]

Drive headfirst into a table.

Watch as the table falls and SMASHES the motherboards!

So...how much money do we have left?

[phencer42]

Saying "I wish we could take a break now." :p

[Mr_I]

True story:
1. Take your bot to a potential sponsor, who's having an open house for their employee's children
2. Show all the kidlings all about your robot, the operator interface, etc.
3. Have one of the darlings fiddle with the Autonomous Mode switch, without your knowledge.
4. Turn your robot on. It now follows the "Drive Fast" instruction, waiting for the IR "Turn Left" command.
5. Since you weren't prepared for Autonomous, you don't have the IR beacon ready. Robot now drives at full speed into a steel support column.

[Mikesername]

While test driving the robot in the cafeteria with a bunch of non-FIRST people watching, try to show off and do doughnuts.

...without the battery securely attatched.


I did this, and the battery went flying off of the robot like I didn't think possible. It was funny in a "oh my God the battery just flew" sort of way.

[ZakuAce]

Driving your 2008 robot around in the gym with a trackball and your arm fully extended to 10+ feet. Then your mentor decides to make a sharp left turn. WHAM! It tips over. Luckily the only thing damaged was the radio antenna, but a less beefy arm would have been destroyed. And right before the ship date.

[Urban Hawk]

let team 1886 run it in competition....
check the thread how fast have you broken stuff? to see what i mean.

trying to lubricate the axles with glue

deciding that your robot needs swiming lessions

trying to push your robot down an up escalator

you try to see if magnets stick to the computer components of the robot

you test your robot in autonomous mode inside your house and watch as it fires forward into a wall

you forget that you left your cup of water inside the robot before the next match

[GillSt.Bernards]

When your school building is surrounded by windows (Which we have) and you test autonomous mode in that hallway for the first time without the bumpers on. The robot was not the only thing broken after that.

[M. Gildner]

.308 rifles work good

[chiquita77]

Let the freshman drive!!!!

[powerkane]

lol here is one leave an electrical student alone in the roopm when mechanical work needs to be done

[EricWilliams]

Solder the leads onto the KOP accelerometer backwards, connect to NI Analog Module with correct orientation. Turn on robot. Make sure you're wearing safety glasses. Watch accelerometer chip desolder itself from the PCB.

DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS

[Xoid]

let me drive it.
here let me show u!
100% guarantee of ultimate "breakage."