[Andy Baker]

My week 1 lessons learned:

(keep in mind that this is the perspective of a Lead Robot Inspector)

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1. Get your robot inspected early. Then, you can get in the bypass line and run many, many practice matches.

2. Weigh and size your robot early on Thursday. At the Alamo Regional, two teams did not bother to come over to weigh until it was too late (8:00pm) on Thursday. One weighed in 20 pounds overweight on Friday and the other was 6 pounds overweight. The 6-pound-heavy robot was also 1/2" too wide.

PARTIAL INSPECTIONS ON THURSDAY MORNING (weigh and size, and a few other things) is a good thing!

3. Check your Driver Station version. It needs to be 02.27.11.00 or even more recent. If you have an older version, then the field will take longer to connect to your robot, or it may not connect at all. Also, your cRIO needs to be version 28.

4. USE the 12/24 V to 5V converter so that you don't blow up your D-Link router. We saw about 5 teams do this in San Antonio. Some teams went out to Best Buy (or wherever) to buy a new one ($100?), while others borrowed loaners from the spare parts booth.

5. If you don't have your bumpers done, bring materials you need to make them with you to the event. They are not that hard to make. Too many teams are not prepared for this. Sure, it is nice for veteran teams to step up and make these bumpers for other teams, but WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? Bumpers are not hard to make. Three things are needed:

5.1. Get some pool noodles (Walmart or save some from summer)
5.2. Go to Home Depot for some wood screws, staples, aluminum angle, mailbox number stickers and some 3/4" plywood.
5.3. Go to JoAnn Fabric (or some other fabric store) and buy some duck cloth (or something similar).
5.4. Get some sharpie markers if the number stickers don't work for you.

I hope this simple things help your team breeze through inspection.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker