[Ken Leung]

Back at 2000, we put the pins back into the drill transmissions for the exact same reason... Our robot slipped down the ramp one match, and we never want that to happen that year again. During that year, those pins never break in the transmission.

However, if the pins do break, they could damage your tranmission so much that the failure will render it useless. So, every time those pins break, you may have to buy a new transmission.

Depending on your system, your pins might or might not break. My advice is, test your drive train hard before you ship the robot. Run it against walls, come to sudden stops, go on the ramp and down again, etc. Do different trails with the pins in, then take them out and see what happens. If the pins are ok even after a lot of testing, then I think it would be ok to keep them in during the competition.

This year is a little different than 2000, because the top of the ramp is flat instead of a peak, and to get the 25 points you got to stay on completely. So, if you are on top completely, you won't have to worry about sliding down. If you are fighting your way onto the top, your motor are moving anyway, so you won't need the pins to keep your robot on the ramp.