Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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*

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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*

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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...

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

I believe you mean camelCase every time

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

NEVER AGAIN:ahh: :ahh:

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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?

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Did this just to see what would break

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

181. Not qualify for the Championship

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

How about 7 times? :P

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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 )

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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...

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Why exactly was it a bad idea? Too much friction? Did it get caught on something?

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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:

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Yes. It broke off almost every match.
NOTE: We were a team with (i think) no mentors at the time.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Unfortunately, the programming team is the wiring team, so either way. We blame ourselves either way.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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...)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

219: Not saveing periodically while CADing

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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. Saved me a few times already ;)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Bind ctrl+s to left mouse while autodesk is open?

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

219. Attempt to climb the pyramid off center

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

30. Use drill press with no safety goggles

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

-Karlis

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

-Karlis

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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) ;)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

+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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

We did the same thing last year.

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Wire while the robot is on.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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::

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

I understand completely.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Put any kind of butt on the PD Board!

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

I think he meant NUT.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

There's safety certifications for screw drivers? :P

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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!

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

239. Spill 7UP on the cRIO

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

How did this happen?

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

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