Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

60. Wire motor controllers backwards. Okay, "someone" may have done this more than once.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

This, indeed, was the cause of the aforementioned "letting the freshman wire your motor controllers without checking them" failure. If you're into starting fires and losing money, I highly recommend it. Else, avoid.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

61. Spill a soda on the CRIO
62. Pull the pin on a fire extinguisher and try to put it back in (this happened to us and the extinguisher blasted a bystander)
63. Use a file while holding the object (unless you need a nerd manicure)
64. Pop a hard candy in your mouth just as judges are walking up
65. Manually cut a part with the CNC machine
66. Try to save time by putting the tap in a power drill

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

WOW! I didn't think this was going to grow so big. I may have to limit this to a thread that just talks about robot, then another that talks about wiring, and another about mechanical so we can all filter through everything. Thanks for the input so far and keep it up.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

:eek: Who ever thought this would work?

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

67. Neglect to load game pieces into a robot before a match for autonomous.
68. Test new motors before making sure the potentiometer is set, causing your mechanism to run full speed into a hard stop, crushing the gears inside the gearboxes...
69. Testing to see if your robot can climb to level 3 when you've already been told it cannot...

This is where you find a really good use for blue/red and white duct tape. Especially when you're queuing for a match.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

70. Forget to turn the robot on for a match. . . It's now #1 on the prematch checklist.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Haha,

Yes when I was on 818 we may have done that. we had the flag on the '1;, and lets just say we had a lot of comments by people telling us our bumpers where on upside down. It led to a few fun moments.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

70. Touch the sawstop with anything just to see if it works.
71. Try to put something on the grinder/ belt sander while holding it in your hands.
72. use one rivet to attach tread to a wheel.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Believe it or not, you CAN use a tap with a vertical mill or a drill. However, the caveat to this is that it has to be a tap designed to be used in a mill/drill, and you have to go slowly in terms of RPM and a little faster than normal in terms of going-into-material speed.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

Running the wrong auto mode (luckily this was just shoot and don't go to bridge when we were supposed to go to bridge, and not going to bridge when we weren't supposed to).

Me (with a lathe too!)

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

73. Store steel cable in the same crate with a charged uninsulated battery
Poooffff!

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

73. Cut the zipties holding up a banner with a knife.

I still have a scar, and I finally regained feeling after almost a year, but it's still not quite the same. This was 6 years ago at my (and my team's) very first regional in Pittsburgh.

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

73. Unplug the robot while downloading code. Before a match.
74. Set-screw hubs on a hardened-steel shaft.
75. Set-screw shaft collar on the end of a lead-screw (well, that certainly did a whole lot...)
76. Set-screws in general where clamping hardware is possible.
77. Bolts without locknuts/lockwashers/loctite on a robot with mecanum
78. Entire robot frame made of 80/20.
79. Driving the robot (with an electronics board made of acrylic) smack into a wall on your first time touching the controls (board split clean in two - ironically, I ended up being driver at competition two years later).

Re: Things you only do ONCE!
 

80. Change all autonomous command names before St.Louis because "they make more sense". (without notifying anyone...) I am not a smart man.