Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

team 1568's box was about a 5-6 hr paint job on monday b4 shipday....one person whitewashed the top and sides of the bot, and then our art team also our human player and coach set to work, on one side we have out logo, the other has the first logo, its the old one b.c. h forgot there was a newer logo, the other side has a tiger claw, and the front......well youll have to see that at UTC

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

Re. the food thing...

Food and drinks in the pits are a really bad think..Does your robot like to eat pizza, mayo, pickles??? Drink the Dew??? Not mine! Does nasty stuff to his digestive system (aka, electronics)!!! :ahh:

A lot of how this is handled does depend on the volunteers at your regionals. (NJ Regional atendees, you know better than to even try this!) Water may be OK, but that's all.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

Our crate is simple, just plywood w/ doors that open.

But the paint job is amazing.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

On our crate we painted our logo on one side, the inverse paint scheme on the other and the FIRST logo on the top. Also all team members signed it and when Dean Kamen came to the Finger Lakes Regional we got him to sign it. :)

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

At the BAE regional, the seating nearest the pit floor was folded back in into it's self to save space (a lot like at a high school gym). The seats folded in such a way that they created perfect little cubby holes that you could stuff your jacket into. Most of the teams near the fringes of the pit figured it out.

Sure, it's not to secure, but I wasn't to worried about someone walking off with my jacket (there were much nicer ones right next to it).

-Andy A.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

coats?!?!? we need to put our coats somewhere??!!?! :p
well at the competition for us it'll be a bit "chilly"

we never really do anything with our box..every year it stays the same...since my dad built it a few years back...just a few renovations b/c of rules and another thing..but otherwise it's the same...

all well have fun with the cool crates..

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

We built our crate one summer as an off season project. It is hinged in the center and opens up into a portable workshop in under 5 minutes. There is a bench table top that slides into place and has a vise attached to it. The other side has a set of cabinets for the battery charging station. It also has a set of florescent lights, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, etc.

Someday I'll post a picture.

Jay

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

Our crate is pretty neat this year. We added some nice hardware on it, and a cool paint job - like on the "roof" of the crate, we put footprints to make it look like a bird walked across the top of it - check it out @ philly or nats

anyway, as for coats, bring a pvc pipe, cut it a little bigger than the width of the box, hammer it in place, and bring some hangers! depending on how many coats you have, it could work. Or you could figure a way to permenently install it in there.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

Team007 had an old fashioned stand alone coat rack last year. It was to hold their black jackets (part of the field crew uniform last year) but everyone piled coats on it. Mark, who built the crate, also rigged a hammock inside. I have a picture of him asleep in the hammock, inside the crate, which was conveniently stored right next to the pit in NJ.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

I airbrushed the crate last year.
With our site rennovation I can't do that kind of work anymore.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

This year we Graffitied the Kaizen Symbols (look at my avatar) onto the crate. We also repainted the previously blue team numbers to red and black.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

Yea, it's my rookie year, but this crate made our space much more usable. Especially with all the batteries charging in it on one shelf, and all the laptops on another, and all the coats in another...

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

We don't do anything special with our crate, but it does look special. It is shaped like an outhouse. It has an angled roof and a moon cut into the front door.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

We are using the same crate as last year. our crate is wooden with colorfull letters carved into the wood. its really pretty haha
With coats...we just put them anywhere i guess..last year when i was on pit crew id just leave mine on a self thing in our pit, same with my purse too. Or wed just leave our stuff in the stands.

Re: The crates.. making them special... and what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

I saw a very good idea at the Great Lakes Regional employed by Team 406, the Mumford Magnums. They actually brought a mini 3-4 foot long coat rack and some hangers and used it to define one of the walls in their pit. This helped to not only organize their pit, but it was an effective way for them to hang their jackets. Yay Mumford!!! :D