Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

This one makes me laugh in retrospect.

The robot was 80 pounds overweight. Someone hands me a grinder with a cutoff wheel and says "starting trimming.....everything!"

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Use Super Glue on the gears instead of Gear Lube.

Use wood instead of aluminum.

Drill a hole into a motor.

Enter the robot in a Demolition Derby.:P

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Yeah, them prelates can be darn tough on robots. :)

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

who needs to unplug a backup batterie at the connector when you can rip the pins straight out of the robot board?

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

- attempt to drive backwards under the overpass with the arm up (last 15 seconds)

- pay attention to people in the stands

- leave the autonomous switch on while testing

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

use a globe motor to manipulate the part fo the arm which lifts the trackball.
They really arent made for that much force.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Run matches with a small crack/hole in your chassis where your air compressor is? 8D Thank god we found that.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Forget to tighten down all the bolts when replacing parts on the elevator.

http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv...p?matchid=6050

Focus in at about 60 seconds left in the match, our support brace which runs from the elevator to the back of the robot snaps off and the whole elevator dips forward. Lucky for us this was an easy fix, and we got some points for herding the ball across the red finish line :rolleyes:

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

A few things that happened to us:

Driver is egged on by a mentor to spin the robot with a arm holding a trackball straight up...

During the pre-ship scrimmage, my team didn't tell me they were testing automode... which consisted of the robot running full speed down the track and then reversing... sometimes I think 127 and type 0, which is why I tell them to test it on blocks.

On Thursday afternoon, I finally get to download code to test... and the robot inexplicably wouldn't turn on.

Try to add more IR receivers 30 seconds before the match...

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Upon entering FIRST you immediately apply Murphy's Laws.

Re: surefire ways to break your robot
 

Hahahaha
True!

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Let a programmer try to fix a manual problem with the solinoid.

Programmer:"I got it to work"
Me:"How"
Programmer:"This was the problem" Hands me solinoid.


so so true.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

For those old enough, this statement is usually preceded by the words "hold my beer" and then followed by a trip to the hospital.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Spend thirty minutes preparing everything for the practice field - turning on print statements, making a list of what you're going to do, writing test code for different situations...etc.

After we did this at the Chesapeake regional, we went to the practice field and started to test hybrid. The robot would go forward, stop, go forward, stop...etc. We wasted our entire practice field session figuring out that our battery was low.

Re: surefire ways to break you robot
 

Turn on power