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.