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Unread 02-02-2014, 21:51
BrendanB BrendanB is offline
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AKA: Brendan Browne
FRC #1058 (PVC Pirates)
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: Londonderry, NH
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Re: Robot Decoration Ideas/help

Try to find some functional uses for your LEDs. Decorations are great but you can integrate them so they are functional members that make operating the robot easier.

Our team used LEDs in 2011 (blue, red, and white) to signify what tube we wanted our human player to throw us.

Last year we put white LEDs on the back of our robot that turned on when our shooter was on. This was useful for our operator to see when she had the shooter on. It also gave me the ability to let her know to shut it off or turn it on if her focus shifted too quickly. You can achieve the same result with some code on the driverstation but I prefer all members of the drive team have their eyes on the field and the robot is a great place for a heads up display.

We also put yellow LEDs under our shooter plate that were originally purely for decoration but turned out to be very useful. They were plugged in so whenever the robot was on they would light up which was nice because they lit up all of our electronics & dark areas of the robot. Our pit crew really loved this!

Whatever you do, make it functional not just a decoration. We actually were quoted on our lights by the judges when we received two awards (one at the Pine Tree Regional and one at the Championship) so we knew we did something right!
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1519 Mechanical M.A.Y.H.E.M. 2008 - 2010
3467 Windham Windup 2011 - 2015
1058 PVC Pirates 2016 - xxxx

Last edited by BrendanB : 02-02-2014 at 21:59.
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