Kept out of the bag
 

Our team was wondering what fabricated parts you guys kept outside of the bag that you will continue to work on. We decided to that our elevator was only 16 pounds so we kept it out to keep working on it and perfect it. I know that whatever we build at the competition doesn't count towards the 30 pound weight limit for fabricated parts.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

We kept our Container Arm and Lift. Our Lift is a pretty small modular lift so that wasn't hard to do. We decided to keep it because we needed to work on our plastic tote tabs to try and get better performance out of them. In the end were actually also rebuilding it tomorrow completely out of Carbon Fiber structural tubing. The current lift weighs 18.6 lbs after the new one is constructed I'd be surprised if it weighed more than 10. We'll also hopefully iterate some kind of active tote alignment system into it by our second event.

The withholding of the container arm was more just to do some final adjustments to it. It could have gone in the bag one way or another.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

Forklift Elevator Car was kept out because it is being rebuilt from its previous 22lbs to a more sleek 12lbs.

Additionally, a few sensors and other electric gizmos were kept out to keep the programmers entertained.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

As usual, we bagged a complete working robot. We don't have a practice robot, so we need to get as much practice in on practice day at our first regional, as we can.

Everything that touches game pieces

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

We kept our autonomous contraption out of the bag, given we wanted to do some more testing and add adjust-ability. It's not too heavy either, so it won't cut into our weight allowance too much.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

Keeping the hooks out and the RoboRio for programming.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

Don't forget that if you are using any miniCIM or CIM motors with a Versa Planetary that those motors are now a NON-COTS ITEM having had the shaft cut!

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

Are you sure that's the case since CIMs and miniCIMs are still commercially available? If that's true, wouldn't shortening the leads make it a non-COTS item?

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

Yes, it is the case. You have cut the shaft, therefore you have modified the motor, therefore it is a Fabricated Item and not COTS. See the first sentence of the definition of COTS.

However, for the second part, I suggest that R12C takes precedence--but still defines the motor as a Fabricated Item, regardless of the status of the output shaft.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

Same here, but that's one assembly. We built two identical robots, except that the spacing of the holes attaching the grabber assembly was was different between the two. It was not just a bit off, but 3" different, so it threw off a lot of things forward of that point. We removed this assembly (a bit under 10 lb) and transferred it to the practice robot (drilled new holes in the practice 'bot). This way, any tweaking and tuning we do to it between now and competition will go to competition.

Unless we develop a new mechanism to add at competition, we will also include several pounds (~12) of pre-drilled ballasting in our parts allowance, to further lower our CoG. It doesn't seem critical, but we'd rather do it before we find out it's a problem.

Another few pounds of our withholding allowance will be spare sensor assemblies and a turnbuckle cable developed after bagging which improves our strafing capability.

Re: Kept out of the bag
 

We bagged one whole bot and kept a second in the shop! It's the first time we've machinined the parts for both at one time, and hopefully next year we can construct them at the same time too!
We should have construction of the second robot done by tomorrow.
Of course we have plans for that withholding allowance. Big plans.

We withheld a 16lb stainless steel bumper. Ok actually it's a counterbalance for the back end. We reduced the weight of our elevator/tote mechanism by 7+ pounds before bagging the bot. We have a far from optimized, but working robot in the bag and don't have the resources to build a spare robot.
Good luck to everyone - see you at Toronto East and Finger Lakes.