Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I had no idea Hartford did this for their 2nd event. This was their first year and they had some HUGE setbacks. Their main mentor was in a car accident and out for the season. We helped them to get their robot built and programmed. During St Joe, if my memory isn't failing which it always does, Enginerds, Rush, Robotarians and Joes helped them to build a catcher throughout the day. We ended up picking them for our 3rd pick.

Did I mention they had like 4 kids on their team? The girls on the team got to cheering for them because their ENTIRE team was on the field. :)

Here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72jV0C6NqkA

Now that post brought back some good memories. (BTW, we rearranged our numbers to make 5246, but we didn't have a 4 so we used a roughly 4 shaped giant head of our head mentor. :)

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

On this year's robot, our lift system consists of a tape measure connected to a motor with a hook duct taped to the end of it. The hook is attached to a "winch" (a hex shaft fitted through a socket wrench that's zip tied to the frame) with paracord.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

We took the entire gearbox and motor assembly out of a drill and hotwired the motor controller to the arm of our robot to put it back in starting configuration post match every match.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

This year at Dalton the RI (Hi Brandon) stated that the robot signal light was too low and could not be seen from all angles.
The students fix: Mount a Coca-Cola can on the robot and mount the Robot signal light on top of it.
Was it a kludge? Absolutely.
Did it work? Yes :)

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

YES! This thread was made for 1523 :)

My favourite ghetto part on one of our robots was our chain tensioner from last year. We used a PVC block which was circular (referred to by team members as a urinal cake), which was wedged between the chain and the trolley that lifted the tote to keep the chain tought.

We've used tables to bend metal, wrong tools for the right jobs etc etc.

There's probably other things that we've done, but I can't remember.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

It may not be the most ghetto thing I ever saw, but we definitely made a data point last night. After three weeks of completely rebuilding the air cannon (which we traditionally do every 18 months or so, but this one made it simpler rather than more complex, yeah!), something in the arduino code just did not work. This code was finally available and tested to a fail at about 1700 (5pm), and the game started at 1900 (7pm). I took to the streets to buy starter switches, horn switches, and wire. After visiting three different auto parts shops, we got down to a wonderful fast build - everyone was out of the comfort zone, myself included. While we did not make the 1900 start of game, the robot rolled out before halftime with a 12 foot (3.6m) tether consisting of 8 12 ga wires (4 red, 2 green, 2 blue) to switch the four motors on starter switches and a four-conductor set of trailer wires to switch the two solenoid valve launchers, all in a wire handler bundle, coming up into a too-small radio shack project box (the only one in the shop, can you believe it?) with the switches. We could only drive forward, with slight turns by pushing only on one side, but we helped keep the home crowd entertained as our football team lost 21-3 to Covington. Official tryouts start a week after next, but a handful of our new recruits made the cut in my mind last night.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

In 2015 our winch for lowering and raising our arms broke either before or during semi finals so we had to use duct tape to fix it

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I'm sure I've participated in worse and am forgetting, but:

Palmetto 2016. Most of the teething problems on Sandstorm III's drivetrain were sorted out early on, but right as alliance selection starts a message goes out on the Garnet Squadron group chat: Decline any invitation, drivetrain lost a bearing deep inside. I was just across the way as the defense coordinator, so I bolted over to the pit. Sure enough, one of the center inside bearings had popped free into the box tubing. We had the spare, and I had a flash of brilliance. Take the spare bearing, line it up with the hex shaft and hole, whack it with a hammer and wood block, and maybe it'd be enough to buy us some time, right? I took the whack, figuring we'd either be functional or just as hosed...and by some miracle, everything nestled into place and we would be ready for action.

Of course, we didn't get picked anyway...

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I think our second robot counts

We designed both robots to be modular, so the shooter, intake, and cheval wedges can be swapped as part of withholding allowance. By postseason (we were registered at Beantown Blitz) we really wanted our second robot to be able to compete as well and this was the result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ligerb...7667311431234/
Here you can see:
- stapled bumpers
- ziptie- and duct tape-based intake
- wooden shooter (needless to say it didn't last very long)
- PVC tube boulder blocker complete with transparent packing tape.
Thus the second robot was aptly renamed "Jankosaurus Rex"
Nevertheless our team had a lot of fun putting it together in just a few team meetings before Blitz :rolleyes:

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

This:

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

^^
What is that?!?!

I'm an advocate of getting something to work by any means necessary and so I'm usually able to tell what each jury-rigged sketchy piece does, but with that I don't even know... Might I ask what happened that required that... contraption?

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

That is one of the most unlikely wheels on Einstein: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...d.php?t=150021

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

For Recycle Rush, one of our students had the idea of using a deformable structure on our 3310-style canburglar to absorb impact energy and reduce bounce. His implementation? He taped an empty soda can to each carbon fiber rod.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Team As Sketchy As Possible hasn't shown up in here yet? We need to step up our CD game.

2013: For the most consistent points in every match, Optimus Climb started on the corner of a tower. It then fell over and spent the whole match climbing up it. This was also entirely in teleop.

2015: A milk jug was used to create spacers on our pulley. We also had a slide drive that only worked on our concrete shop floor and never carpet.

2016: At the Iowa scrimmage, we found that our intake was good for firing boulders straight up. Solution: Sherman 1.2: Bagbot. (we later decided to just make a bootleg of another team's intake in the 4 days between CIR and Iowa)

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

If you think that's bad, you haven't seen our 2013 robot. It was similar to yours, but instead of pulling itself up, it spent the whole match slowly flipping itself end over end up the tower, trying not to rip the tower apart in the process. We usually try to forget that year ever happened.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

At least you got up the pyramid

Besides that, the awful mess of velcro, tape, and zip ties that struggles to keep our 2016 climber arm just for it to break.

And in 2014...this

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

In NC this year, our alliance in the playoffs had a very interesting time.

• Our tread fell off both matches

• Team SPORK 3196 had some issues with their high goal shooter breaking. Before the QF matches, they determined it wasn't fixable and went with a low goal shooting mechanism. In order for their auto to work, a switch had to be pressed down so they just duck taped it so the auto would work.

• Our 3rd partner, 3680, got flipped in a match

Feel free to watch some of these matches here.

P.S. Teams in Indiana are very nice and easy to work with. But 3196 and 3680 were definitely some of the nicest people I worked worth over the last 2 years. I hope to come back next year to NC next year (and not decline like in 2016 :D)

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

On 399's 2013 robot we sheared a 1/4-20 bolt that drove our disc feeder kicker mechanism at a robot demo, so we used velcro to hold zipties to hold a screw driver in its place.

5012's offseason rebuild 2014 - in our first match at Chezy Champs, a collision with a partner shattered our MDF intake jaws. We spent the entire weekend rebuilding the jaw with whatever parts we could scrape together with materials from 399, 1678, 8, and 5136. We arrived in San Jose with this, and left with this monstrosity constructed from 399's spare catapult cradle, fiberglass rod, surgical tubing, and string. For our next offseason events, we rebuilt it out of 1/4" aluminum and lexan.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

L-bot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4nsFmmZPmo

The most magnificent robot I've had the pleasure of working on BY FAR. The scoring mechanism is a cardboard tube attached to a piston. With a sweet 2 wheel drive and 7 caster wheels, it glides effortlessly across the arena! And how could anyone forget the 60lb steel plates zip tied to a piston on the side of the robot!

Oh boy...

In 2012 at Beantown Blitz one of our alliance partners had issues with chain popping off on their drive train during eliminations.

As a last ditch effort we got our bulkiest zip ties and made an awesome chain tensioner by wrapping one the around the chain loop. Then two more ties attaching the tensioner off to each side of the parallel plates of the drivetrain (to keep everything vertically and horizontally centered). It actually worked surprisingly well. I can't find event results or videos of finals. But I'm pretty sure we went through multiple matches and finals in that configuration.

Definitely one to keep in your back pocket.



Sent from my LGLS751 using Tapatalk

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

2 years ago our non-FIRST robot was held together almost entirely by zip-ties.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I've seen a robot that bounced around so much they had to use duct tape to hold down the RoboRIO (which was secured sideways on one of the sides of the robot)

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

we used zip ties on our 2015 robot to push around the pool noodles. Very effective I must say.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

This is actually a very reliable fix by the way. It doesn't sound fantastic when it's running, but it will last many matches without replacement. It is easier on the zip tie if its just tensioning one side but works on both.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

For Recycle Rush, a team (I think it was 1510) decided that they needed to turn their bot into a defending robot for one match. Their solution: tape three totes on top of the robot. It was pretty funny to watch.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

but why

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Litter blocker?

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

If I recall correctly, Jankosaurus Rex actually won the event. ;)

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I don't recall 1510 ever doing that for Recycle Rush, but we definetely did something very similar and sketchy during Stronghold. :D

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I'm not event going to mention the most ghetto thing I have done to a robot...

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I came up with a very clever nickname for our robot. D.A.D, Duct-tape and Dreams. You can guess what it looked like.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Not really on our robot, but to aim our high goal shooter at our off-season event, Team 2619 put a piece of electrical tape on the spot on our laptop screen where the goal needed to be lined up with on our camera. "Vision tracking :)"

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

We put an image overlay on SmartDashboard, and we used a screenshot of the laptop screen with TableViewer to try to get the correct values into our program. This screenshot also included the dashboard. Our driver then proceeded to score several consecutive perfect shots on the practice field.

He was aiming off of the still screenshot of SmartDashboard in MS Paint and didn't even notice until we thought that the camera froze.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

In 2014 my team's robot (157 AZTECHS) made to eliminations for the first time in years. We were doing well, until one of the belts on our drive train snapped during a match.

We ended up using nuts, bolts, duct tape and zip ties to try to keep the belt together long enough to finish the competition...

It didn't work too well.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

There's a running joke that a peg leg is better than a caster on an FRC robot. It's... not a joke anymore.

There was a team at Beach Blitz that lost a wheel from their (long-suffering) swerve modules. They came out for their next match or two with that module wrapped in tape--looked like gaff tape, maybe duct tape or gorilla tape.

The kicker is that their robot still drove OK with that "peg leg", continuing to play defense.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Ok, this wasn't on our robot per-se, but I think it still applies. At out week 1 Stronghold competition this year, we had a camera with live feedback mounted to the top of our shooter. Instead of applying crosshairs to the driver station video feed, we duct taped two pieces of string to the laptop in a "calibrated" position so our driver could make high goal shots. We had 100% accuracy at the high goal that week... 1 for 1!

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

We did something similar, but with clear packing tape on the screen and dry-erase markers.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Sorry we haven't responded to this, but thank you!! You guys were one of the best teams we have ever worked with, and you definitely made that competition awesome! You really should come back to NC next year, we would love to see you all again!

Our shooter mechanism wasn't the greatest. Taping it seemed like the smartest thing to do at that time :D

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

I've heard rumors that 1717 made LA finals in 2012 with 3 swerve modules operational(they didn't have time to replace the module until the break between SF and F).

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

CVR I believe.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

In 2013 on team 308 we realized that we needed a way to block shots from the corner so we used "locally sourced materials" left over from lunch (otherwise known as a pizza box) and a bit of duct tape and that worked ok. Later in the season we replaced it with a fiberglass driveway marker "borrowed" from the parking lot of the event and that stayed the rest of the season due to how well it worked.
Pizza Box Frisbee Blocker

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Why to think outside the box, as it were. Hope your upgrade was more effective.
Is it my imagination or does one of the robots in the video still have power on at the end of the match? I see a green light on when the field assist open the net.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

It looks like a vision targeting light to me. I think they stay on as long as the robot is turned on, similarly to the safety light.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Exactly, and at the end of a match all power should be off. The safety light goes off to assure all robots are powered down. So this was interesting to me. Did they not power down at termination of the match?

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

They probably connected the light directly to the PDP, and not the cRio, so the cRio wouldn't be able to shut it off.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Power to the robots does not shut off until someone hits the robot main breakers; however, all robots are disabled after the match. Disabled means that all the outputs controlled by the RoboRIO (AKA, all the outputs!) are shut off. There are no particular rules stating that stuff not controlled by the RIO has to shut off when the robot is disabled; after all, those items have no way of knowing that the robot is disabled. You'll typically see that on LED strips or targeting flashlights/ring lights that are "constant on", or on lights that are controlled by a Spike relay that is set to stay/go on when disabled. Not uncommon to see some lights on until main breakers are hit.

The "Safety" light is actually the RSL, Robot Signal Light. Its primary function is to display what the robot status is, not to be a safety light per se. As I recall, it goes solid (NOT off) at the end of the match, or when the robot is disabled, but it has several possible states that help field staff troubleshoot problems.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Power does not get turned off at the end of the match (though you are supposed to turn it off before moving your robot off the field). It is perfectly legal to wire a light straight into the PDP (this could obviously change in future years, but I see no reason why it would). All moving parts have to be controlled by the roboRIO, and software running on the roboRIO prevents control signals from being sent to any actuator when the robot is disabled. At the end of a match, all motor controllers are still powered, they are just being sent a signal that tells them not to move.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

Today, at Mission Mayhem, was full of plenty of ghetto moments I thought I'd share.

1: we have wedges on the front of our robot that we put down to let us get over the Cheval de Frise, and a 3/4 inch aluminum Stock connecting that to a cylinder. We sheared the 3/4 in half and I was running around trying to find a pencil or something to fix it with; 179 luckily gave us a pencil, it worked for a little bit but broke the next match. We ended up taking apart our standard and ziptying the rod to the 3/4 to keep it straight. It worked very well

2: both 1523 and 1524 were having drive train issues all day, at the end we realized 1523 was missing a spacer in the gearbox. We ended up using a zip tie to keep the gears in place. It worked very well until .6 seconds into our first Quarterfinal match when the other gear box blew apart.

We feel really bad about choosing 1251 and 59 and then dying, but they were really good sports about it, and we actually won our second quarterfinal match (without 1523) against 2383 and 3653 by 2 points.

And our intake fell apart, but we didn't bother to botch it because it broke in our first quarterfinal match.

Re: What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?
 

It's definitely not the MOST ghetto thing I've ever seen on a robot, but it's probably the most ghetto thing that I have personally done.

Once when I was putting the robot on the field, I noticed one of the battery terminals had come unscrewed. We didn't have any extra batteries on the cart, and there wasn't enough time to run back to the pit to get a new battery. Luckily, I had a small zip-tie in my pocket, which I used to hold the Anderson connector onto the battery terminal. I wasn't really expecting it to work, but it did for one match until we could get back to the pit and replace it.