What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Now that the regionals are coming to an end, I am curious, what are some of the biggest repairs you've undertaken in between matches?

In about 15 minutes:
Our team had to replace a round bar which was responsible for turning the ball intake wheels (after it got bent when 2013 ran into us). Immediately after, we had to replace the spring that powered our launcher, because the old one had become stretched and we couldn't shoot as far.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

This year? Replacing chain, reattaching it, struggling to find an effective tensioner, replacing busted wheels. This has included the meager time between finals matches (at TC).

Yeah, the drivetrain has misbehaved a fair bit. :eek:

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

technically this is between matches, but we had about 15 minutes to completely switch out our PD board before the pits closed friday night! we also replaced wheel bearings and a belt between practice matches.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Last year we had to replace a fried digital sidecar between qualification matches at the Las Vegas Regional. This year we had to go underneath our robot, un bolt one of the transmissions, drop it out, replace it, and replace a spike in between semi finals at Hatboro-Horsham.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We had a few issues this season.

The one the sticks out in my mind was when we discovered that the screws attaching two of our CIMS to their transmissions had loosened to the point the motors were sort of flopping about. We, naturally, hadn't added any sort of access to get to those screws and removing the transmissions would have been a nightmare. Certainly not something we could do between matches.

The fix ended up being a liberal application of 5 minute epoxy and holding the motors in place while it set. It worked well enough that we never bothered fixing the fix. Quick and pretty easy fix but probably the one I had the least confidence in actually working.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We broke 3 welds on our tower for our catapult after 865 ran into us at Waterloo. We bolted it all together and didn't shoot the next match because we didn't know if it would work. At the end of the day we stripped most of the robot and welded it back together.

So far we have had to change wheel bearings and the winch that powers are catapult twice in about 20 minutes

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We have had to replace our drive wheels and pullys three times this season and are due for another set in STL.
We are using a KOP drive train and have been heavily defended at our past four competitions resulting in worn down wheels and even cracked pullys. After lots of practice replacing everything takes an hour if we are lucky.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Two members from our drive team had to replace the 120 A circuit breaker on the robot on the field during the time given for robots to be setup for the match.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

During finals match 2 at the Tech Valley Regional, we busted a bearing in our drive train. We called a time-out after the match, and we had 7-8 students and mentors on the field frantically attempting to replace the broken bearing. We ran out of time, and we were forced to remove a chain and one of our wheels. However, we used west coast drive this year, and we ended up winning our last finals match with only 5 out of 6 wheels.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

At the Finger Lakes Regional we had to fix our main drive shaft that goes into our transmission. It broke during one of our semi final matches and we had only the 6 min field time out before the finals and we got it done. It was probably one of the greatest quick fixes I have ever witnessed.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

At Palmetto, our catapult snapped in half. Yea, we had to remake and reattach everything out of raw materials, since we didn't trust the material we used to make the catapult.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

During a time out between finals match 2 and 3 we replaced two gears on our shoulder. We got pushed into the one point goal with the arm out trying to score and stripped gears. The last time we replaced them was during lunch break.:yikes:

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We had to replace an entire motor during a four match turn around...

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We've replaced 1 or 2 octocanum modules after each round of district championships this past weekend due to broken mecanum wheel rollers. Luckily, we have a spare set of modules and a ton of spare rollers, so the work takes less time than the field crew needs to run a match. We replace the broken rollers on the modules we've removed and use them as replacements for the next time around.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Full cRIO swap in the semifinals at northstar last year. We sat dead on the field for one match since we didnt finish imaging it before the match, but lucky 967 managed to win the match without us.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We had to replace vex gears in our drivetrain. All the teeth had been stripped off.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

In Hub City, we had to cut all of the small bolt ends off our mecum rollers, replace a damaged hinge, a jaguar, and switch bumpers with one match before our next one. I now truly know the definition of chaos.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

At Lake Superior we lost our shooter in Quarter Finals because a hard hit knock off some magnets and messed up how we worked it, Didn't have a good way to get to it at the time and moving everything risked causing issues with our pick up so we opted to let it be. (We were seeded 5th and picked by the 2nd seed, won the thing. Super exciting matches) I think it would have been some sort of anxiety trying to fix it between matches. We got it fixed up at 10,000 lakes properly. There were lots of in between fixes there as well. Various things with the pick up and shooter, however I'm quite glad there were issues at the regional because we have them not only fixed but also managed to improve them as well :D (We won 10k Lakes as well. Also very fun regional)

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

So, this wasn't in-between matches (too big to possibly fix in that span of time), but it's one of the biggest mechanical failures I've ever dealt with in FRC.

Originally, our roller arm was driven by two PG188 gearmotors.

During match 4 of Greater DC, our roller arm took a significant hit while it was lowering, shearing both of the output shafts clean in half.

Due in part to lacking the requisite number of replacement parts, and in part to not wanting to repeat the failure, we decided to switch to a pneumatically-actuated arm. This entailed completely redesigning the arm's attachment to the frame, improvising connection points for the pneumatic cylinders, and significantly expanding our pneumatic system.

It took all of our pit time for the rest of qualifications to finish.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

In 2012 at Duel on the Delaware, our shooter and turret fell off (about 20lbs worth of robot) between eliminations matches. The lazy susan bearing literally snapped. However, all the zipties in our and 341's pit managed to reattach the turret enough to work for auton, and we wound up winning with our amazing partners, 341. That was an interesting day.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

This year... replacing a #25 master link. That's the only actual repair the team has had to do all season! This certainly is different from year's past... last time we made it to champs, it seemed like we were swapping out motors every single match due to a design that burned them out!

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

This year at Wisconsin we had a drivetrain issue in our last match before lunch. When we tried to drive forward power to one side of the drivetrain would only be applied intermittently. Since I thought it was a control issue I offered to stay in the pits and try to find it while everyone else got lunch. After I powered up the robot, I realized it was actually a gearbox issue. Myself and another mentor took apart the entire left side of our drivetrain and found that nobody had greased the gears, so during a pushing match, the already worn teeth had stripped off about 3/4 of the gear. Luckily we had some steel gears with us and were able to replace them and got them greased, the other side had been greased but we changed them out for steel and regreased any way.

Once some students got back we finished and reassembled the drive, but we basically did a complete rebuild of our drivetrain over lunch. Now people seem to think that aluminum gears are too weak for FRC, even though these held up for 1 1/2 regionals with NO GREASE. I am quite impressed they managed to hold up that long, and I am quite certain that aluminum gears, if grease properly are more than sufficient for FRC. I only wish I had a photo of all the shavings we dumped out of that Toughbox, it was quite hilarious.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

After our first match Friday morning the robot inspectors deemed our ground clearance too low, we were causing damage to the field. While I drove across town to find some larger omni wheels back at the school the team took apart our four drives and enlarged the openings in our Octobase. Didn't quite finish before our next match, had to skip one, but it was a great show of skill and tenacity from our pit crew to do it so quickly.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Possibly one of the top 5 most impressive repair jobs I've seen in FRC.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Agreed. Done on the field, in 6 minutes, including the removal of a pot that indicated arm angle. Pot was removed/restored without losing presets.

-Brando

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Presets were adjusted. While you and Joe were setting the bot up their STUDENT programmer came out and fixed them. Color me impressed.

There wasn't a time where people weren't in our pit trying to fix something this year at peachtree. Not our best year

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

2004 Great Lakes Regional would probably count, if it hadn't happened at the end of what turned out to be the TechnoKats' final match.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/16516


The "Year of Fried Sidecars" at 2011 Boilermaker gets my vote, but that's mostly because replacing the Digital Sidecar on that robot 1) involved removing and replacing a lot of wires with almost no room underneath a bizarre assembly of chains and sprockets, and 2) had to be done several times during the weekend.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We had the exact same issue with our last match before lunch at MSC, the robot behaved exactly as yours did. Upon opening up the gear box we were treated with a giant pile of aluminum dust. We are so thankful for all of the teams who donated replacement gears to get us back up and running in time for the next match!

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Between a practice and competition match-

Replace two wheels, one axle, three wheel bearings, a radio, a power distribution board, remove our shooter and everything above the drive base, re weld the upper structure, swap an air cylinder, cut, bend, rivet, and install a new lexan shooter top and feeder funnel, swap an optical sensor, disassemble the lead screw gearbox for the climber deployment, and finally unbend the 1/2 inch steel lead screw, which had been bent at over a 90 degree angle.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

My jaw just dropped and my boss just started laughing when he saw what i was looking at. that is seriously impressive. How well was it driving with less than half of the teeth intact? :p

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We had the potentiometer that measured our shooter height seize up while testing right before a match. In the ~5 minutes that we had to be on the field for the match, we diagnosed the proplem, removed the set screw holding in the old potentiometer, unsoldered the old potentiometer, found a new potentiometer, soldered it in, and re-mounted it. We literally finished as the match before ours ended, and managed to get onto the field and win the match.
A similar situation occured at the Pine Tree Regional last year when we had to replace an encoder on our climbing arm.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

It wasn't really driving that well, but it was still able to move forward, we guessed that the momentum of the robot was providing a "fly-wheel" effect between tooth engagements, but it was seriously messed up. Once we stopped to inbound, we were effectively stuck the rest of the match, we just rotated back and forth.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Jeez! What happened? :eek:

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

In between the end of the last practice match on practice day and the closing of the pits I helped a team make their bumpers from scratch. The team in question was 5151 who had attended the regional without any bumpers. It was hectic and awesome.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

This year (for the second year in a row) we had to replace a cRIO between matches. The first time we had to do this 2 of us (me and our main electronics guy) had to replace it in 6 minutes (standard time out) between semi-finals of the 2013 North Star regional. However we weren't fast enough for our code guy to deploy code to the robot so we just sat there, but our alliance was able to carry us through. This year, the cRIO just died during practice day so we had some time to replace it, after convincing the CSA that it wasn't our fault that it died...

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Here's a couple that stand out to me, both of which are from Crossroads regional:

-2481's fall from the top of the pyramid during the semifinals in 2013. I didn't see the details but the damage was so severe that despite the efforts of all involved and the alliance's timeout coupon the robot couldn't be restored to full functionality (it was limited to defense). It was a nasty fall; getting the robot driving was an achievement in itself IMHO.

-The winning #2 alliance in 2014. That poor alliance had some lousy luck with robot breakage (and still won no less). Due to 5188's failure in Q3-1, bye-bye went their timeout coupon. In Q3-2, 5188 broke down again, and the backup coupon also went bye-bye. The bad luck subsided until finals match 1, when 1108, the alliance captain, had (IIRC) some LED light wire pinch, short, and melt away (the insulation at least), taking out a large chunk of their wiring. below said wire. They still won the match. Due to the extensive damage, and despite the opposing #1 alliance graciously calling their timeout on 1108's behalf, they spent match 2 in the goalie zone, paralyzed. However, after a pit run during the match and fast hard work between the matches, they got it running minus the catapult and went on to win the match and the regional (and a load of other awards). I honestly don't think I've ever seen such an impressive comeback.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Not between matches, but I think the biggest fix MOE had had to do in recent memory was between the last finals match at Lenape in 2013 and the first day at Chesapeake. We went into that finals match with C clamps holding our robot together, as the welds holding the upper frame to the lower frame broke. We came to Chesapeake with a brand new welded frame and managed to move everything over in time to not miss anything.

This year we haven't really had any major issues, we had to replace a wheel due to shearing it off it's pulley as well as a failed ball shifter plunger (which JVN was gracious enough to provide 6 spares for!) on our drive. At the time we fixed it with a total gearbox swap (only 2 bolts) so that wasn't so bad. Our main source of work in the pit has been our winch which we have 2 of and can pull and swap it in no time when it has any problems.

I just have to say, this thread has been great to read.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Talk about broken wheels basically at our second district the defense picked up a lot and we had one or more broken wheels pretty. Much every-other match. Fortune fly for DCMP WE SERE ABLE TI FUBD A SOLUTION BY USING LEXAN SPACERS

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

This happened after being picked for elims at Orlando. We had a JVN style shooter with a "choo-choo" linkage. We had an issue because after about two regionals worth of use and some misuse and over-tensioning the shooter. We broke teeth off of our 48 tooth geat that we had machined to fit perfectly onto the end of our cantilevered shaft. So in effect our shooter not only didn't work right in our last qualifying match it also meant that it wouldn't fire in autonomous very reliably either.

We didn't have a backup gear or the required mill, and lathe to do the job.

However, our alliance captain (1592) apparently had the exact same gear made for the Versaframe and then SPAM (180) had the machining power we needed...right in their pit. So they assisted us in the machining of a new gear and in less than half and hour we had a perfectly functioning machine again. That never missed a shot in the elimination rounds at Orlando.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Probably the biggest oh-hell moment I've had was with 2815 at Palmetto 2012. We got called in as the backup team just before SF2-1, so naturally we were thrilled to have a crack at the title.

Match starts, and we didn't really do autonomous due to the nature of the shooter. Alright, no sweat. Teleop begins, we move about a foot, and we die on the field for the match. We lose the first match, meaning it's win or go home.

So, six minutes to diagnose Mystery Robot Death that hadn't really hit us all season long...or the season ends. Check every wire and connection we can put hands on, throw it back on the field, and hope it holds together. Our best theory is that a main battery cable got loose on the PD board, but we couldn't confirm it since so many wires got touched. What I can confirm is that we won the four matches that followed, punching our ticket to St. Louis. :D

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Being a first week regional really can be interesting with a lot of teams finding out for the first time that possible mechanical issues exist. From a programming stand point my team had to reprogram another team's autonomous this year while in line.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Our fixes this year have been fairly minor, our biggest was a digital sidecar in 15 minutes. They didn't plug the ports back in right, so we were DOA for our next match but ended up winning it anyways.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Thans for the shoutout! That was truly a brutal fall and absolutely horrific to watch your robot take a peter pan off the top of that pyramid. With that said, it was the greatest showing of GP I've witnessed in my 6 years as a mentor. We were flooded with support from a ton of teams and it was truly humbling. Thanks again to all those awesome teams at Crossroads last year. We were hoping to make a return trip, but scheduling didn't allow it unfortunately. For those wanting to see the carnage, here is the video of the match.

http://youtu.be/aeyDgrnOkMs

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We broke 2 welds on our pick-up arm and had to wire it together again. In elimination rounds in Auburn, be played alot of heavy hitting defense, and alot of offense too, because 2046 kept having cRio problems. Anyway, we bent all the axels for our octanem drive. We also broke the casing on one of our vex transmissions (we played finals and semi finals with a cim almost falling out of the transmission) We also broke multiple mecanem wheels in finals too. We basically spent wednesday and thursday morning fixing everything.

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

We've had to switch winches, while combating quick district turn around! Our pit crew also made a new manipulator in the pits, out of parts of a different one. We call it the, "flapper."

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

In 2013, we went through the Montreal Regional with our frisbee shooter almost never working. We only found out the problem Saturday at lunchtime : the shooter's motor was connected to a defective PWM port on the Digital Sidecar. We were ranked 33rd at the end of qualifications and thus didn't move on to the elimination round. In a rush to find the problem on Thursday, we thought that maybe there was a problem in the code, so we completely redid the robot code from A to Z, which didn't change anything. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the competition and that's all that counts ...

Re: What's the biggest fix you've had to do in between matches?
 

Well we in between our frc elimination matches had to build a new collector which took us about 2 weeks to do and had to basically get the other one wired chain put on wheels and shaft put on, replace pneumatics in about 15 minuets