Things Learned During Build Season
 

As a rookie, I know I've learned a ton, not all totally FIRST-related. For example:

I learned that zip ties make effective hair ties,
I learned that I rock at crimping connecters onto wires,
A girl on our team who immigrated from Vietnam about two years ago learned about the kind of strippers you don't use on wires (she turned bright red when a guy on the team demonstrated by dramatically peeling off his sweatshirt).

I know I can't be the only one who's learned stuff like this. Anyone else want to share what's happened to them?

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

As a mentor, I learned that getting changed to second shift at work makes it nearly impossible to work with the team :(

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Always design your robot to include wires and battery mounts. Also, don't give your head programmer 1 day to debug code. What he will do instead is write 40 lines of crap code just to do a unit test, and use the time between regionals to debug.... a very not so good idea.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Take "concept-freeze" day seriously.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

My team's learned that the most popular question is "Where is the Wago/Measuring Tape/ Punch?"

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

A better one: Finish the robot early so that the programmers have time to PROGRAM. Seriously, we need time to write and, more importantly, to test our code. My two years so far were awful because of this, and year three likely will be stressful again.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

What I learned during build season this year:

don't wire the PD board backwards. Bad things happen...

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

I would also add, "Where is the 7/16" wrench?". Those will always be your go to wrench for FRC. :D

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Oh. Happened to us too. We burned six Jaguars that way.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

We learned that our Victor motor controller, which had never been used before, was bad. Our only experience with the famous victor, and it was negative. What are the odds?

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

What I learned during Build Season: I miss build season. :(

While being in college, I was still able to help out my team some times, but I truly miss the full experience.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Yeah I drove 4 hours on the weekends to help...but it wasn't quite the same.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Or you could down-size to "where's the 3/8ths" shifting to the lighter 10-32 screws and bolts. :D

This year learned that 3/16" rivets are over-kill. It will be 1/8 next year. and maybe thinner gussets too. Maybe even thinner-walled square tube. Who knows?

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

My only suggestion would be to map outputs to Direct percent V-buss and force the drivers to deal with any complex cases. Last year the robot spent 30 min before bag with the programers, with no sensors. This year we pushed and got drive encoders, gyro, as well as several other sensors and will likely add one more at competition. Hopefully work to get some time in next year, a programer in a leadership position on the team really helps with this.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Honestly, way too much. 973 has helped me as a mentor, grow and learn so much this year. Granted, I'm no AdamHeard when it comes to design and fabrication but with just a bit more help and examples I will be gaining the tools to eventually gain that potential. The past 6 weeks were stellar and the next 6 should be even more awesome.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

We withheld our cRIO and are building a practice bot to test code.... i'd much rather be practicing driving and building those relationships with the rest of the drive team.

Also: bad PWM cables exist. And DIO modules are weird. I'm getting a timeloop error even though this is the same setup i have used for the past 3 years.

Also: Take advantage of practice fields and scrimmages.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

1. Yes, bad PWM cables exist. Also, bad digital sidecar modules exist. Um, wait, what? :confused: We found this one out after our programmers spent a week trying to debug code that wasn't broken, but wouldn't work.

2. LabVIEW really sucks if you don't KNOW LabVIEW. As heard from our mentor "There's no :mad: way to easily debug LabVIEW. Switch to Java soon or I'm leaving!" :ahh:

3. Just because Inventor tells you it's not going to flip, does not mean it ain't going to flip.

4. Please look at your design constraints before you actually design something. Our shooter team spent the first four weeks designing a turret shooter, only to mount it and find out they forgot that they have limited space and in it's initial position, it sticks a good bit outside the frame perimeter, and it'd have to be retracted everytime we would like to cross the bridge.

5. (Personal one) Missing Presidents Day because you're sick really does suck. You miss out on a whole bunch of last minute decisions while you're gone too.

6. Just for fun, MMR2410 has had 3 years of Sweetheart Dance royalty :) Wohoo!

Happy Competition Season everyone!

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

We learn this one every year. :(

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

As a programmer I learned that ~90% of all problems can be solved with this process: (Rather than guess/check or theoretical fixes)

1. Ping the Robot
2. Check the voltage (under load!!!)
3. Check and keep your documentation ACCURATE
4. Walk through your logic with sample data. Then have someone else walk through a psuedocode version. Numbers should match
5. If something works, save and create a backup
6. Sockets, Threading and Vision can be difficult. Split the work up
7. Use the debugger. Its there for a reason.
8. Read the output from netconsole or serial during startup. You can find many hidden errors there, such as defaulting to old code!

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

You'll never stop learning how to be a better mentor, and that's part of the fun in it.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Being an electrical lead for the first time, and now the official head driver, I now understand what 'real' stress is. I've only had 2 practice matches at a mini-regional (Sussex, WI) and a total of 30 minutes of pure driving. Now we've bagged :( and i won't be driving again until competition.

Needless to say, give your drive-team more time with the robot!

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

I learned that it's wrong to assume that poor decisions leading directly to difficult situations last year would not be repeated this year.

I learned that a pair of student programmers can do great things without supervision.

I learned that many people are unable to follow simple and explicit written directions, to answer simple direct questions, or to describe simple status indicators accurately. I have to learn that anew every year.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Sounds like it was a rough year.... :\

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Measure twice, punch then drill once - and that people tend to ignore this when under stress

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

I was out of it for three years, and come back into it, most things stay the same.

Whatever your team number is, that's how many designs you seem to go through and you still end up modifying it. (i.e. Design 1610, Version 7.)

That even students that are tag alongs or just there can be sucked into it.

Stopping for a meal break and sitting round a table with your team just goes to to show you Family is what you make it.

Decide where you want you electronics board EARLY so you don't have to redo it.

If you make your own frame (ex: Extruded Aluminum) Order it ahead of time so you don't loose a week.

That sometimes even when your behind or ahead, you can be the opposite.

And that you never get FIRST out of your blood. :D

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

No matter how many times you read the competition manual, updates, Q&A, and CD, it's never enough to avoid discovering some blasted rule that you missed the first 18 times around, within 8 hours of stop build deadline.

Measure EVERYTHING. Again and again and again... And then get someone else to measure some more.

It's really fun to wrap the robot in shrink wrap after padding the corners with multi-colored pool noodles held on with too many zip ties, when you're giddy from overwork and undersleep, and finally DONE!!!

And that's just from last night...:p

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

When you need to weight reduce your frame, have freshman drill the mounting holes.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

1) You never know when the next great member will come walking through your door. (Especially a new freshman programmer who has become the Lead programmer)

2) Even a Non-Engineering Mentor can have good ideas.

3) There is no way to avoid drama. The best thing you can do is to listen.

4) A good lead engineering mentor will by necessity watch every detail. Listen to them.

5) Pizza. Never. Changes. Taste.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

I learned that prototyping early and testing your ideas works much better than one guy CADing the whole thing for us and the rest of the team doing nothing. This is what happened to us last year and we ended up finishing the robot at the last minute at the regionals but it was too late to program any of it.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

I completely symphathize - I'm in the same boat. However, I've worked closely with my management and my peers and gotten concensus that as long as my work performance doesn't degrade, I can do both. It makes for long nights though :(

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

When something works don't take it apart then make it lighter. Then not put it back together and it not work. Don't do this the hour before build ends.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

+1,000,000!

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Do it right the first time. If you don't, you'll waste enough time and material to build a second robot.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

It sounds cliche, but the most important ingredient for a successful robot is devoted team members. Our team lost access the machine shop we had always used in years past, and all we were left with was a drill press, a band saw, and some hand tools. It took some serious stripping down of designs to work with these limitations. And yet, if anything, our robot came out better this year than in previous years because there was a small group of students and mentors who were willing to work hard and stay to all hours of the night to get the robot done.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

An 8" ball has no traction in an 8" wide chute.

Sometimes, science must defer to progress.

Any tests performed with damaged equipment can and should be ignored retrospectively when damage is discovered. Particularly, multimeter continuity checks.
Corollary 1: Case shorts in motors (BaneBots, in particular) aren't revealed by damaged multimeters.
Corollary 2: Re-test said motors after replacing the multimeter.

Bumpers can, and in some cases, should, be made and painted as soon as the frame is available and interferences can be tested.

Victors and Spikes are very picky about PWM cable insertion angle.

Wiring takes twice as long as you expect, especially when you plan around this fact.

Hands are not reliable encoder mounts.

Our statistics would indicate that one of our flathead screwdrivers is more dangerous than the entire machine shop.

Laryngitis improves communication quality by raising the "vocalization threshold". This is supported by multiple cases in our leadership this season.

Success tends to occur when or where cameras are off or pointed elsewhere.

6-conductor modular terminals do not crimp correctly in a 4-pin crimper.

5 volts means 5 volts, not 12 volts.

The cRIO can read from a controller after being disabled, and act accordingly when it is re-enabled.

Digital inputs read "true" unless pulled low, by a limit switch, for example. Input values should be verified in hardware and software before being used as limits.
Corollary: Hard stops are advisable.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

When problems within your team arise (ie drama, rivalry, jealousy, etc) address it immediately. Pull in a nuetral person to mediate. A team in discord cannot accomplish the mission no matter how hard you try. So step up and be a leader where no else will.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

As a former FIRST student, freshman in college, and new lead mentor for a rookie team... I learned that as much as I thought my mentors did for my team and I, they actually did 10x more. I never would have believed the amount of time and effort mentors have to spend doing things for the team beyond what the students even see.

As far as technical things go: I also taught myself wiring, serial programming, motor curves, and a couple other things to be able to be the best mentor I could be for my new team.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Set screws don't.

You can never own too many power tools. For graduation you might want a car or some furniture. Ask for a nail gun and a miter saw instead - you'll thank me later.

If your wife is an RN, she can accurately tell what your blood pressure is just by looking at the swelling around your eyes when you get home.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Summary, Trust but verify. This goes for:

1. Motors (Rs-775s)
2. Models (Downloaded a model a motor and the mounting holes were off)
3. Welded Parts (Squareness, Measurements, etc...)
4. Window Motor movement (This can screw up attempts at precision movement)
5. and is a generally good idea

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Quoted for truth.

We used set screws on our RS550's in double doozy's, and after a bit of mild use, they both broke within seconds of each other, chewing up the gears in the process.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

i don't think it's cliche ;) what you say it's actually true. If you have a great place with all the tools you need, but your team doesn't really function as a team, then things won't get done the way they should.A small team can accomplish big things as long as they are passionate about what they do and work hard towards the same goal. I honestly believe that the problems we face and the challenges we overcome together makes us stronger as a team, and i think it's amazing that you guys kept on going no matter the circumstances. That's what FIRST is about :] and i have no doubt your team will do great at competition! good luck!

Karina Adame
Team Captain
Chairman's award Lead

"Scientist study the world as it is; Engineers create the world that's never been"

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Stock up on colored hair spray NOW. You'll forget the day before your first event.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

I learned several things...

- It IS possible to shave 8 pounds off of a robot without losing functionality.
- Jaguars wired under CAN communication can cause major headaches.
- Position mode is not fun to program.
- 4 traction wheels in a wide configuration will not turn on carpet.
- Always remember to "Set project as main" in Netbeans.

Re: Things Learned During Build Season
 

Or use bleach and permanent dye :)