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

This year our box became a table. inside we piled all our coats cuz we didnt know where else to put them. this wasnt very effective and it was quite crazy! esp with 33 students and like 10 mentors...

do you guys have any ideas???

your help would be great.

-Ashley

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

thats what parents are for. they hold your coat during comp and bring dougnuts on late nights in the shop. or you could just leave you coats in the bleachers and designate people who arnt needed in the pit to watch over them. plus that way you dont have to many people who arnt needed swamping the robot when work needs to be done.

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

I think a cooler full of Bawls or Mt. Dew would be nice, for those hard working pit crews. Or maybe a cot/air bed so they can squeeze in a quick nap between repairs :p

As far as coats, we usually grab a whole section of the stands for our team and pile coats onto one or two chairs. FLR was nice because the top row of the regular seating had a big space behind it where you could put coats/backpacks.

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

well, i hear people make thier boxes into workshops. what else?

and i dunno about the whole coat thing.. isnt it considered "saving seats"? i dunno

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

yeah but come on, i know it isn't the correct thing to say but that and the no food in the facilities rule are rules that everyone breaks. As long as they don't take up to much space and are kept in the back I'm sure no one will care

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

when we walked in i reminded everyone about the no food thing, aka the huge signs that were right by the door, and then when i saw other people with food, and how that was not enforced at all, its just one of those things. saving seats wasn't that much of an issue. rather for us, (much more on saturday) our parents and adults took our teams seats in the bleachers where our coats where, so we were like sardines on the stands, but it got us closer together!(?) our box was filled with coats, and i have a great shot of a member that dove in, and got a little comfortable!

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

Yes, you are correct when you say that these are not rules that are strictly enforced typically. Those that run the competitions depend on teams to execute gracious professionalism and comply to these rules. Remember, gracious professionalism means doing things graciously even when no one's watching.

Ashley, thank you for trying to follow the rules. Jacket placement is something that every team does differently and is a bit of a sticky situation.

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

I don't think it is considered saving seats unless you tell someone that they can not sit in a certain seat because it belongs to your team or something of that nature but leaving your possessions such as coats or book bags is not a big deal as long as you are willing to move them if some wants to sit in that seat.

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

Our crate, about as special as it gets is a quick stencil job with our logo on the sides about 3 hours before it has to go on the truck. We didn't have a lot of storage space in the past so after each season the crate gets destroyed, but somehow we manage to keep the one side that eevryone signs. This year we have a new shed at the school we can use to store stuff, and it will be finished before next season, so maybe as a pre season activity we can make a really awesome crate. I have a friend who has access to large screan printers, and he might be able to hook us up with some really cool screans to put on the crate. I like what some teams do with their crates, like turn them into mini-machine shops with there mini lathes and mills but we havnt really had the time to make anything like that. We always bring a table, and a large took chest plus lots of shelving to keep things organized along with our "tent" and extra lighting. The crate would simply take up too much space with all of our stuff. It is fun though to go around and check out how some teams use their crates.

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

Yea it may not have been a problem for you, but last year some random guy was standing over our robot eating a sandwich. The crumbs were falling into our robot and I was thinking, is he for real.....? If that wasn't enough some random girl tripped over some wires on the floor and spilled water on our robot. Yes I moved in the way and most of it splashed on me..... but that could have done some real damage. This year I am going to be very strict about food in our pit area. Word of advice, if someone is making you nervous near your robot.... say something to them!!!

GO 1403!!!

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

[quote=slickguy2007] This year I am going to be very strict about food in our pit area. Word of advice, if someone is making you nervous near your robot.... say something to them!!!
QUOTE]
Yeah sorry about the misunderstanding, what i was talking about was the rule that food isn't allowed in the bleachers or anywhere else in the venue.

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

Our crate opens like a clam shell and turns into a storage station the width of a pit box. We've been meaning to post the prints for about the years, but after seaon we always for get to draw it up.

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

I am very proud of Team 85's crate. Here is how it works. Take the top off and it makes a table with a shelf. Take the sides off they make a coat rack and a Chairman's display for the pit. Take off the fire resistant plywood battery box and put the wheels on, flip it over and you have the cart to get BOB to competition. The crate w/the robot in it weighed 295# when we shipped.

There are unpainted photo's in the picture galleries here on Chief Delphi.

Just can't wait for the weekend, you can check out our crate at GLR.

Take care,
Mr. Y

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

umm, what about a bed, my feet was killing m standing all day for 3 day.

WE need beds, that's an idea for next year ;)

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

Ours is painted like a solved Rubix Cube, Or a 5 sided Tic-tac-toe game :D

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

making a USEFUL crate....
 

Check out this thread for what teams have done to design/make their crates useful.

As for the coat herding...

We have coat racks that attach to the sides of our crate /pit walls (see link and my post for explanation). (this holds ~10 coats)
The rest of them usually get put into a seat, or at least as few as possible, out in the stands with the parents/teachers/mentors and students (as they are cycled through between 'pit crew' and their scouting duties)

Hope this helps

-Bill

what do yall do with your coats at comp?
 

The NYC regional will have a coat check on the lower level for a nominal fee