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Kyle A 26-03-2012 13:27

Re: Pit Designs
 
Our team doesn't have a large pit display. We normally travel in 2 school vans and are limited to what we can bring. Our pit didn't have much but it worked nicely, we had our 2 tool boxes off to the one side, battery box was behind them, the table had labeled organizers on one side, white board in the middle and manuals on the other side. Under the table we had a few crates with spare parts, they were well labeled so we knew what was inside, and on the other side of the pit was a small table with hand outs and info on the team. We also use our robot cart as our work bench for the robot. As i said it wasn't the best but it worked really nice for us, setup and tear down time was about 10 minutes.

not the best picture but its all i have right now


tsaksa 26-03-2012 14:17

Re: Pit Designs
 
This was my first year at a regional so I was overwhelmed by everything including the pits. I was the mentor assigned to do most of the monitoring of work the pits, so I had time to check out other designs whenever things were quiet. But what I was impressed with most was not so much the visual appeal of the pits as much as the utility provided by of some of them. Things like:

1. Some designs seemed to allow for a lot of storage, but without looking messy, and some either had very little storage space or looked overloaded with just the robot, some students, and a few hand tools.

2. Some configurations had no useable place to work on damaged or modified parts, and others had a solid work surface complete with a vice or other useful tools.

3. Some of the pits may have had places to store a lot of stuff, but had no way to keep common items handy. Others pits seemed organized so that you could quickly get to what ever you needed.

4. The better and more useful designs were further differentiated by those that looked like they needed to be delivered by a fleet of trucks and those that looked possible to transport in a modest sized vehicle.

It is really great to see some attractive pit designs that help to promote the teams identity. But being a newcomer I was much more interested in how to make a more functional, safe, and effective portable workspace.

pwnageNick 26-03-2012 16:49

Re: Pit Designs
 
I don't have a picture of our full pit but here is a picture of our battery cart. Building something like this helps save space in the pit and keeps plugging in all the chargers and everything very simple.


All of the chargers are connected to a power strip inside so all we have to do is roll it in, and plug the power strip cord into the provided power. Doesn't take up much room in the pit and keeps things looking clean.

Just a note, the lid goes behind the cart in the pit, covering the wheels so it does not take up any extra space.

We'll be in St. Louis for champs. If you happen to be there, you can come check it out.

-Nick

Borobo 26-03-2012 17:58

Re: Pit Designs
 
159 really goes on the simple and disorganised end of the spectrum with two cheap tables and a couple of the KOP type crates from previous years and our small electronics toolbox into which we jam every tool we can't just randomly strew around the pit area. I don't know about other regionals, but at denver, the judges give a pit housekeeping report every day with 3 options, a frowny face, neutral face and happy face. this year, us pit crew were overjoyed that we got a neutral face which In my three seasons hasn't happened before

ToddF 27-03-2012 14:11

Re: Pit Designs
 
Last year was my first year as a mentor, and I was asked to oversee our pit operations. We didn't do anything special in the pit except bring our toolbox and crates of tools and spare parts. I was blown away by some of the great pit designs at my first regional, in South Carolina. I was especially taken by the pit design of team 1319, located across the isle from us. I resolved to do something to make our pit more organized and effective.

The first step was to make a rack to hold cases of fasteners and other small parts. We took this to St. Louis, and it really helped. This year, we improved that rack by incorporating battery shelves and chargers. We also upgraded our robot cart to have a "shelf" for the control station. In addition, I got the students to design and build a "bench topper", with shelving, lighting, and a whiteboard. At the Virginia regional this year we found these improvements really made the pit a better place to work. It's still not perfect, and we still can eliminate more clutter and organize things better. Before the North Carolina regional, we plan to add more shelves to the benchtopper, and improve our signage. Now that we have the basics of a really functional pit, we can spruce it up a bit.

Some photos:






Note the trophy mounted to the top of the pit. We got it for donating the most peanut butter to the food drive, over 100 lb.

Aroki 27-03-2012 14:59

Re: Pit Designs
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by BigJ (Post 1149344)
You do realize that without anything else in the 10' x 10' space, that comes out to a little over 4 square feet per person? How did anybody move?

Never said we had any room to move. On the first day there was a lot of yelling and some pushing but after that we mellowed-out and began to effectively get stuff done.

robochick1319 27-03-2012 19:10

Re: Pit Designs
 
@ToddF

I'm totally flattered that you liked our pit! We continually strive to make the pit bright, attractive, and clean because that makes one less thing to stress about during competition.

From the pictures you posted, it looks like your pit design is great! You have things neat, organized, and well labeled.

I think the biggest concern for most pit design is structure and lighting. Having things on the floor creates serious tripping hazards and takes up valuable space. I'm becoming more and more impressed with pit designs at regionals. We sure have come a long way!

AutodeskGeek 27-03-2012 19:46

Re: Pit Designs
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by krisloz (Post 1149269)
I'm sorry, my post was unclear. But for FTC, I'm not sure if all the pit area tables are the same. I meant, if we were to to a setup like this, what should we put on it. Team number and pictures come to mind. Would there be anything else?

As far as I know, FTC doesn't have official "Pit" boxes the same as FRC. Usually, at least what I've seen, you have a table or something to work on. In FRC, we just get a section of the floor reserved for us, and from there, we build our pit.

AutodeskGeek 27-03-2012 19:47

Re: Pit Designs
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by robochick1319 (Post 1150345)
@ToddF

I'm totally flattered that you liked our pit! We continually strive to make the pit bright, attractive, and clean because that makes one less thing to stress about during competition.

From the pictures you posted, it looks like your pit design is great! You have things neat, organized, and well labeled.

I think the biggest concern for most pit design is structure and lighting. Having things on the floor creates serious tripping hazards and takes up valuable space. I'm becoming more and more impressed with pit designs at regionals. We sure have come a long way!

Also be sure to have the proper safety objects, such as a fire extinguisher, eye wash station, etc.

robochick1319 27-03-2012 20:56

Re: Pit Designs
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by AutodeskGeek (Post 1150362)
Also be sure to have the proper safety objects, such as a fire extinguisher, eye wash station, etc.

Of course teams need to have all the proper safety equipment and procedures during the build season and competition season!

A huge safety concern that I see specifically relating to pit design is the lack of space, cleanliness, and awareness of tripping hazards caused by loose wires, trash, and forgotten tools.

The Lucas 27-03-2012 23:30

Re: Pit Designs
 
The MOE Pit was created in 2001 over Winter Break and has served us well ever since. The link goes to our webpage about the pit. It includes Inventor files and assembly instructions.

While most of the pit is designed to be functional to work on our robot and others, we also have a tower with a 2001 KOP rotating green light for decoration.


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