[ablatner]

READ THE RULES. All of them. I cannot even begin to describe all the electrical problems teams have had just because they didn't do something in the rules. A couple years ago, a teammate and I helped another troubleshoot why they kept breaking Jaguars. If they had read the rules, it would have been obvious: they were using way too small of wire, and the Jaguar's power wires actually melted together. They ruined at least four of them this way (several hundred dollars’ worth). This same team also used only red wiring, not red and black pairs as the rulebook says.

This year FIRST put together a report detailing all the problems that were had in the championship finals, and many of them were basic electrical issues. One such problem was not having the wireless connected to the regulated power supply. The rules and various diagrams all very clearly state how the wireless should be plugged in. Of course, this shouldn't have made it past the inspection either. My overall point here is that no matter how elite and strong a team is, if they don't go by the electronics rules (or really the rules in general), they will have problems. Just sticking to what the rules say will make your build season go much more smoothly.