Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

more way to break your robot

weight reduction
rounding off corners with metal file

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

The other coder and I found a great way to break the bot.

For absolutely no reason whatsoever, IFI loader decided to change the file it was downloading to the bot to last years competition code. We didn't figure this out until after our next match. Before that match though, we were really freaking out. The lift wasn't responding at all, when the driving joysticks were pushed the full speed, two of the motors would reverse with for no apparent reason (we never did figure that one out). Luckily, we used mechanum wheels both years, so driving below max speed worked relatively well. No autonomous (thank god they hadnt gotten to that last year by the time they compiled this version). No lift, and no green light underglow either :(


Its all good now ;)

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

- Run hybrid mode with tether or programming cables plugged in (Seriously, I have no idea why, but it screwed up our hybrid every time we did it)

- Try to program with a homemade cable that happened to have one of the wires get yanked from one of the pins (You have never seen the RC flash so many error messages and strange patterns of lights)

- Make your own field, get gripper caught in lane divider (We didn't have any lexan/plexiglass/whatever over the bars) and then turn your robot in an attempt to get it unstuck

- Tweak the values for your hybrid code "Just a little bit"

- Build a cart that doesn't have anything to prevent the robot from just rolling off

- Run your hybrid code without first resetting the gyro

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

ONE OF OUR COACHES TRIPPED ON OUR FTC BOT

THAT'S RIGHT MR. GRIMES, I'M PUTTING YOU OUT THERE

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Forget to secure the battery so it falls out of its holder...and onto the main breaker.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Find a minor problem and say, "I can fix that." It will turn into a major problem.

Alternately, say, "I can make that work better."

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

I think that was the reason why the mentors wouldn't let me make some changes to the robot that would make it work better...

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Say, "we will get it after the next match",

Responding yes to "Is it fixed?"

Any time They call for the Pits to clear

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

-Cross wire the speed controllers. Fortunately we realized what we'd done before we turned the robot on.

-Forget to replace broken fuse.

-Forget to tighten zipties after replacing battery

These are all things we did with a test bot earlier this year.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

-when figuring where to put the battery, remember to drop the uncovered contacts directly on the metal frame. TWICE.

seriously though, kick it away with your RUBBER SOLED SHOE

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Don't loktite the set screw on the CIM shaft.
Go full speed off any kind of ramp.
Not bother making an enable/disable dongle.
Use cheap limit switches to halt your lead screw's travel.
Overconfidence.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

I'll second this, but a little more general.

Design, Wire and Maintain your robot so that shorts are not probable. Electrical layout should be the responsibility of both the mechanical/design teams and the electrical teams. Don't ever get into the us vs. them mentality. If you're mechanical and don't go out of your way to make electrical easier, you can't complain when it fails.

Your wire runs should be clean, organized, labeled and easy to differentiate between wires. If you have a short, or a motor not working somewhere, etc... you want to spend as little time possible finding what wire is hooked to what.

Electrical failures suck, they can cripple a mechanically perfect robot, and can be difficult to fix and diagnose.

Same goes for the relationship between mechanical/design and programmers. Make it as easy as possible for them... You are the SAME team afterall

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Yep. Done that. Leaves a cool battle-scar on the frame though:)

Also, wiring through holes with sharp metal jagged edges.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

- Drive the robot during a match where important school board of directors are watching.

- Deciding during the regional that after your robot can barely drive, you need to have some super-cool autonomous mode programmed before the next match.

- Assign a non-mechanical member a very critical task between regionals

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Find a way to make it to the final match.

This mostly pertains to VEX (first year doing FIRST):

- Have your battery removed by your alliance's robot (with the help of the opposing team's robot) during autonomous mode.
- Get "pinned" by another team from your own school and spark a controversial topic according to the "rulebook"... and lose.
- Be given a faulty frequency crystal and table during the match that shuts off your robot 30 seconds at a time... twice.

We've always never been able to place first cause of stupid things we can't control... curse anyone? haha

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

-Have, a team member screw in the sprockets and then doing it so they are lose, then switching the same sprocket, and trying to get it in the sprocket hole again, but then stripping it, and then not being able to find a replacement in time.
-Tell a incompetent fool to press a trigger that controls the piston that goes up and down for your claws on the bot, and the fool goes trigger happy, leading to the snapping of the robot in two pieces.
-Rebuilding the gear box 18+ times, and then it still doesn't work
-having one wheel with a lot of drag then driving, and try to go full speed and the bot spins in a very quick circle with parts flying everywhere

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Programing you motors for you lift to always to drive it down. (Nothing like the smell of a burning motor)
Finish programing while waiting to get on the field of you second match
Drilling a hole in your gearbox and not getting rid of the shavings
Use loktite to keep your gearboxes from coming apart then realizing you don't have a high enough gear ratio for mecanum wheels
:yikes:

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Another way, is by not ziptieing down your encoder cords, or PWM cords, then running the robot in autonomous, then it spins and all you see is flying cords and pwm cord heads, you stop it and realize the all the cords got caught in the wheels.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

While not technically part of the robot...

We were testing one day when our battery ran out. We pulled it out of the robot and asked one of the new kids to go back to our the room and get us a new one. He only saw one other battery, and it was half-charged.

I believe his thought process was "I can transfer the power from one half-charged battery into another half-charged battery to make a fully-charged battery! Hey, these connectors look like they can be plugged into each other..."

(Someone noticed just before he tried this and yelled. We all still have our limbs attached:) )

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

What? That sounds like a complete disaster!

Another way is building your robot completely, then in a practice match, run the autonomous code, that you have never tested (enough said) [our team did this, and our robot ran into the center divider, and the battery plug came undone, and we didn't know why our robot wasn't working until after the match.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

hmm...

blame it on the programmer until the point where he needs an extensive break half way through the qualifying matches. Only to realize it was the mechanical peoples fault who needed to shave down some metal to fit within the size limits, while the piece is in the up position which is strategically located right over the electronics panel... which makes the autonomous go insane which causes the robot to suffer extensive mechanical damage from a run in with a wall in the middle of the playing field....

or short and sweet: BLAME IT ON THE PROGRAMMER SINCE HE DID NOT WRITE CODE THAT FIXED MECHANICAL PROBLEMS!!!:rolleyes:

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

1.) Just program the robot to drive backwards without notifying the drivers.
2.) Unplug the battery chargers the night before the competition.
3.) Sabotage another teams robot and your robot is definitely broken then.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Drive into a local reporter (true story).

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Driving it repeatedly into a wall will usually do it.

Given the wall, you might have the added bonus of that breaking, too.

And hey, if you're really lucky, you might knock down another team's OI, or just knock down the whole receiver tower.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

..hmm. we had an orientation switch to switch between the directions.... of course i was the only one who ended up using it at competition:rolleyes: For some reason it confused all the other drivers:rolleyes: lol

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Let Rees touch it.

Haha

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Tell the programmers to build anything. ANYTHING.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

1) Let it sit for almost 6 months and then take it to an off-season because someone said it "looks ok".

2) Tell a judge your robot has been designed not to break.

3) Deprive your driver of their sleep or morning coffee, they may just break the robot out of spite.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

-Put your OI on top of the robot on the practice field to test autonomous.
-Assume that since you've shown someone how to make a part, that they've made it correctly.
-Let the robot exist the night before ship day.
-Host a major demo.

The first one was how Tom almost got flatter. The second is how we ended up with magic wires. The third is how I found out heat guns are really good for use on cold pizza at 3 in the morning. The forth is what Murphy was trying to say.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

1. Drive robot down stairs when practicing driving threw hallways in school

2. Let aaron make a unnecisary "improvement" (lmao inside joke)

3. spill slushee on the controls.

5. pour thermite over robot, then pour lighter fluid in mouth. Take a match or lighter, put it up to mouth and blow fluid out over robot. :ahh:

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

...Get picked by the number one alliance. Scream and cry because the alliance is awesome and there is no way you won't go to Atlanta. Scream and cry as the alliance's robots' motors burn out and arms get bent. Lather. Rise. Repeat.


EDIT: I'd also like to add that you guys are abusing the crap out of the programmers. (Although I'm not any better...)

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Tell Renee to tighten the electrical block. (She then loosens the electrical block >_>)

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

A good way to break your bot is 1) accidentally set your joysticks up backward, 2) make your programmer write autonomous at the last minute, 3) don't read the instructions while setting up your gearboxes and 4) don't tighten the wires in the power distribution block enough. Nothing quite like running into a wall and knocking the wires out of the PDB... and even if that doesn't happen, the wheels aren't running at the same speed anyway so it's all good. :yikes:

And blaming the programmer is a good way to ensure that nothing gets fixed. I remember some "code errors" last year that were caused by plugging our left wheel PWM into the port for our piston, the piston into the port for our compressor, etc. Gotta love rookie year.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

You could always fix something on the robot, then order pizza for the whole team. When the pizza arrives, the team will drop everything and go eat, feeling satisfied that whatever was wrong is now fixed. According to our good friend Murphy, by the time the pizza is eaten, the robot will no longer function.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

However when we did plug everything into the wrong ports I remember very clearly that Hima said that it worked for that round, don't ask how, I'm still trying to figure that out.

Another way is to let someone to touch the controllers, they mess with the trim, and don't tell anybody, then you turn on the robot, do I need to say anything else? lol

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Drive it into a Christmas tree (or into the table that is supposed to be protecting the tree). I managed to loosen one of our robot's fingers by doing this...it didn't break, it just didn't work... :D

...Or you could just let me drive it during a match...I can't drive straight on our mockup of the Overdrive field without any other robots; I could destroy a robot in seconds if you were to put me behind the OI in a competition.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Let the robot be inspected:

An inspector unplugs the gyro that made our robot drive predictably. He plugs it back in backwards. Not only is the robot now confused, but it is very hard to notice that the gyro is plugged in backwards.

Oh, and try everything to make the drive work after that:
1.Turn the tread inside out for smooth side.
2. Add wire rope to wheels for increased traction.
3. Ask ref if you can wrap wheels in duct tape.
4. Notice that the gyro is plugged in backwards.
5. Oh no, we don't have any replacements for these inside out wire rope wheels!

Extra: let team vice president drive. Even only for a second. It will break.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Huh, thanks!
(Post PS) If you didnt figure it out im vice pres! lol...and driver:rolleyes:

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Oh, sorry. I didn't mean all vice presidents, its just that our former vice almost broke the robot on several occasions.;)

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Let someone who's not a programmer program the robot("So 0 is off, right?""NO!")

Set the "acceleration control" knob to the lowest possible setting(although come to think of it this just broke everything around the robot)


Have your lucky potato fall off at the Davis regional

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

That's what zip ties are for! :D

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

How do you keep the freshmen in the lexan box?

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Duct tape:D

Also some Minion (TM) brand tranquilizers :ahh:

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

"Lets take the robot to the party at the Lanctots"

"Who tried to turn the trackball into a hamster ball?"

toolchests at the top of ramps

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Well doesn't break the robot, it just screws up the match.

Don't put a guard around the on/off switch because you assume that there's no way in heck another robot will hit the itty bitty red button during a match.

yes... it did happen

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

1. Take hammer.
2. Slam hammer down on bot.
3. Bot breaks.
4. All FIRST teams are happy...except yourse =PPPPP
-----------
1. Take chainsaw.
2. repeat as same for hammer.
-------------
1. Take flamethrower.
2. Turn on flamethrower and aim at bot.
3. Dispose of destroyed bot.
-----------
1. Take bot to empire state building.
2. Drop bot.
3. walk away whistling.
=]

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Lol, bringing the robot to the noob twins' house is definitely a good choice. :P

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Drive it into a table holding a bowl of salsa. Thank goodness for industrial PCB washing machines!

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Drive headfirst into a table.

Watch as the table falls and SMASHES the motherboards!

So...how much money do we have left?

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Saying "I wish we could take a break now." :p

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

True story:
1. Take your bot to a potential sponsor, who's having an open house for their employee's children
2. Show all the kidlings all about your robot, the operator interface, etc.
3. Have one of the darlings fiddle with the Autonomous Mode switch, without your knowledge.
4. Turn your robot on. It now follows the "Drive Fast" instruction, waiting for the IR "Turn Left" command.
5. Since you weren't prepared for Autonomous, you don't have the IR beacon ready. Robot now drives at full speed into a steel support column.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

While test driving the robot in the cafeteria with a bunch of non-FIRST people watching, try to show off and do doughnuts.

...without the battery securely attatched.


I did this, and the battery went flying off of the robot like I didn't think possible. It was funny in a "oh my God the battery just flew" sort of way.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Driving your 2008 robot around in the gym with a trackball and your arm fully extended to 10+ feet. Then your mentor decides to make a sharp left turn. WHAM! It tips over. Luckily the only thing damaged was the radio antenna, but a less beefy arm would have been destroyed. And right before the ship date.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

let team 1886 run it in competition....
check the thread how fast have you broken stuff? to see what i mean.

trying to lubricate the axles with glue

deciding that your robot needs swiming lessions

trying to push your robot down an up escalator

you try to see if magnets stick to the computer components of the robot

you test your robot in autonomous mode inside your house and watch as it fires forward into a wall

you forget that you left your cup of water inside the robot before the next match

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

When your school building is surrounded by windows (Which we have) and you test autonomous mode in that hallway for the first time without the bumpers on. The robot was not the only thing broken after that.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

.308 rifles work good

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Let the freshman drive!!!!

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

lol here is one leave an electrical student alone in the roopm when mechanical work needs to be done

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Solder the leads onto the KOP accelerometer backwards, connect to NI Analog Module with correct orientation. Turn on robot. Make sure you're wearing safety glasses. Watch accelerometer chip desolder itself from the PCB.

DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

let me drive it.
here let me show u!
100% guarantee of ultimate "breakage."