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Mine? No Inventor 2012.

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Usually, the venue lighting is more than adequate. I can think of exactly one case where it wasn't, and that was because somebody (I don't know who) apparently thought that viewing a monitor of the field in the pits was more important than not having to use a flashlight to work. The safety folks straightened that one out.

If you want extra lighting, try some clip-on lights attached to the top rails, or some form of small spotlight-ish light that can be attached there. They're adjustable in angle, and if you do it right you can bring one down and light up particularly troublesome dark spots.

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It's plastic covered metal mesh that we got from our sponsor. I like it a lot and we have about 20 panels of that size left over. It's light weight and rigid.

Here's a closer picture:

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Add in my vote for no roof.
And add some shelving in there, that'll support several crates. Having 10 crates for all your 'stuff' keeps thing well organized.

Cooling fans? Never had the need. Then again, we're talking New Jersey in March. Radiant heaters might be a better choice, or maybe snow boots.

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Siri - You'll eventually feel the concrete floors after 2-3 days of competition in a few years!

My team utilized a tent pit structure (the "Storm Shelter") over the past few years. It was originally closed off up top but until we added some mesh for ventilation and light. We also added some LED lighting to the inside of the tent to help with visibility.

We keep on improving it and will into the future.

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My ideal pit is minimal. Since our rookie year we have had a large curtain backdrop the popped into our shelving poles that we hang banners and such off of. It looks really nice and simple which I love. We also keep things neat and organized such as tools in open bins neatly laid out in the shelves so they are easily accessable but out of the way. We also try to keep our pit table cleaned off. At the Connecicut regional we had a nice table cloth, printer/scanner, brochures, and buttons our table in as a neat display that was extremely functional and left us a lot of room. The only addition I would like to see for future years is a foam floor, some cushions to place on our bins so we can slide them out and have a comfortable seat, and try to make our banners/sponsors more unified and in team colors!

Personally I really, really dislike pit walls, roofs, and clunky displays. I think they have some appeal to them however they are extremely uninviting, crowded, and once you have a robot and a few bodies there is not a lot of room left. In crowded/busy events this is even more problemmatic because such pits/teams have a tendency to spill out into the aisles because their pit displays take up most of the standing room. Additionally since 10x10 is never a guarantee based on which event you attend it is much easier to adapt to a smaller pit with less stuff. With our various shelving sizes we can easily adapt to a small pit by adjusting what order we put them long our back wall. Sorry if this offends some people it is just one of my pet peeves! :o

Less is a lot better in the long run!

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I've always been curious as to teams who bring these to the regional and how much functional use they get out of it. Would someone care to enlighten me as to the uses?

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We used ours for scouting data that was brought down by the scouts. It was also nice for alliance pick lists because you can type things up easily/neatly. We also used it for a couple of other minute tasks such as copying match schedules and making customs ones for the drive teams and scouts.

I'd highly recommend teams invest in a printer to bring if they have the space.

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Ah. Alright then. We just use tablets, texts, and kids to keep scouting and pit somewhat connected. The pick lists we just create in a notebook with a pen. Other than that, we'd just use a computer in the pit for programming/keeping track of the webcast.

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Yes actually. Our Michigan events tend to be humid and hot. Not very fun to work in.

Our cart will essentially be our toolbox as it can carry 8 batteries, a fully equipped toolbox, some emergency electronics, and a first aid kit with room to spare. We actually opted to have a minimalist pit and have the cart act as our rolling pit (keep in mind that this thing rolls with the push of a finger while it has 400 lbs on it :cool:). Joel Hurd can support our claim of having some pretty sweet carts :D

I do agree with you Brendan. I like a simple, clean pit as well.

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We had a ref print something on ours last year. We were the only team he knew of that had one and we were right by the queue.

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We're actually looking to redo our pit over the summer, as our old pit has a few things that are just not as necessary any more. For example our current pit has a wall at the back which becomes our crate. We haul around a ton of tools and parts for us and others to use as it is. So with bag and tag for everything but champs(it would be a lot easier for bag and tag from Canada to champs but anyway) we figure we can have a smaller/lighter crate in the trailer

I personally am not a huge fan of enclosed/covered pits as I don't find them usually as welcoming..... I'll be checking back on this thread for ideas and ill post our before and after pictures (maybe a CAD for the second one).

We're still trying to figure out how to get a mini fridge and pop out chairs on our robot cart as well..

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This thread reminded me of the two story pits; I have never seen them myself as they were outlawed before my rookie year, but it sounds awesome just from the sound of it, as long as it is sturdy and there is some sort of railing to stop people from falling.

Oooo Pit Design! I love seeing different pits and how they get set up! I'm a big fan of any pit that integrates the team's theme into it, especially the ones that do it in a simple, effective way. I remember thinking Purple Precision's pit their rookie year rather nicely communicated "purple" and "precision", and how clean and organized it was.

Our old pit was huge, a full ten^3 frame with black, floor-length curtains on three sides and a difficult-to-assemble shelving unit (although, as others have stated, we avoided a ceiling on our pit). Our toolbox was broken from too many bus trips and hauling around a ten-by-ten chunk of carpet was getting difficult. The last straw was when our undersized team took over two hours to set it up last year. (For reference, a picture of the pit in 2011: )

So this year, we ditched the full outer frame for a back frame that held a single banner at ten feet. We took a shorter tool box, and adapted a new outer shelf set to the height of the tool box. With a mirrored shelf, the tool box became our display shelf, computer stand (for showing a technical presentation and cad models), and battery shelf (although it may not stay that way, we're still figuring out batteries). Next, we moved the shelves to the back and turned the shelves into self-contained units. Each shelf would fold at the center hinge and form a crate. Each crate (four total) fits perfectly underneath a charter bus, and there are holes in the center of the end panels of each box that serve as handles and hanging points. Then there's four 4ft pipes with end caps and hooks for tall storage and transporting the back frame that sit on those hanging holes. Finally, we have some industrial LEDs mounted on the top shelf to illuminate the pit. We ditched the carpet, and we have a small wooden frame shaped to the base of the robot that velcros to our crate so we can test without using the floor.

What's nice about it is how open and inviting it is compared to the old pit. The trade-off is visibility, but I didn't see any drop off in visitors at St. Louis, so I'd say it was a good exchange. And the best part was it only took about 20 minutes to set up. A few improvements we still need to make is adding back in a single curtain as a backdrop, and putting in better boxes for our giveaways. Oh, and making all the silver parts gold to tie it in with our robot a bit better.

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My team is currently working on a new pit design, but we are taking a lot of inspiration from the poofs 2011 pit.





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Don't forget when designing your pit, its about what is best for YOUR team. Treat designing your pit like you would design your robot. Something great will come from a pit that is tailored specifically to your teams needs.