Chief Delphi - FIRST 101 [Special Edition 3]

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FIRST 101 [Special Edition 3]

Hello again class.

By now you have charged your way through the strategy and design process, and you are elbows deep into the construction phase of the competition. Now it is time to take that next, all important step in building your robot in our next installment of...

HOW TO DO FIRST (VOLUME 3)
Professor Grady's Laws (Finishing Your Robot)

Grady's Law of Finger Crunching

This law states that at the most important time of the build day, at the most key moment, you will always drop the smallest, most important screw, in the most hard to get to spot on your robot. As a result you will often break a knuckle as you reach between that large gear and the Fisher Price motor to grab that little 4-40 bugger!

Grady's Law of De-Caffeination

This law states that in the final two weeks of build season, all effects of caffeine on your body will be null and void due to over supply. In other words...you drank too much Mountain Dew...unless you spike it with a caffeine pill from this point on, it's about as useful to keep you awake as warm milk next to a comfy fireplace.

Grady's Law of Redesign

This law states that with one week to go, you will always have to redesign one major system of your robot. This is usually a result of incorrect manufacturing due to the previous stated law. (De-Caffeination).

Grady's Law of Swiss Cheese

This law states that exactly 24 hours before sending out your robot to its destination, you will need to pull out a drill and manufacture about 600 half inch drill holes in every feasible spot possible on your robot. (Warning: Do not drill holes in your air compressor...while it does eliminate weight, it slightly detracts from the usefulness of said item.

Grady's Law of Oops

This law states that the cracking noise you hear while driving your robot for the first time...is NOT a good thing.

Grady's Law of #$%@ UPS (FedEx, etc...)!

This law states that your shipping company will be at least 15 minutes late to pick up your robot ...usually resulting in you having to get some sort of special waiver from FIRST with a written "doctors note" from your shipping company explaining why they were late.

In closing...its crunch time my friends. I offer this advice to you...

Avoid using 4-40 screws on your robot whenever you can...your hands shake from all the caffeine you consumed during the first four weeks. There is no way on earth you will not drop that sucker.

Class dismissed.

-Professor Grady

Re: FIRST 101 [Special Edition 3]

Hey Grady whats wrong with swiss cheesing a robot
http://firstrobotics.net/00gallery/pages/025-2_jpg.htm

Re: FIRST 101 [Special Edition 3]

Some observations of my own, although Grady's are more robot orientated:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtis's First Law of Weight Reduction

All of the careful, exact measurements you made when constructing your machine are now null, and void. Anything than can be cut will if your situation is desperate, even if it means a reduction of robot capabilites.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtis's Law of Random Comments

Any small mistake, or random tidbit of knowledge, spoken by any member of the team, although new recruits are more prone, will work it's way into team legend, if said tidbit or mistake is made during the final week before ship, when everyone is hyped up on Caffeine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtis's Law of Pizza

You will get sick of pizza by the end of the build season.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Golden Solution: We'll Use it, If you can have it done by Friday

An ingenious solution invented by one of our head mentors. Since Grady's Law of Redesign is always true, many people will think that their solution is the best. You'll inevitably have far too less time to decide, so simply allow them to go their seperate ways on their own time, and if they can have a working prototype within a few days, use it.