[MikLast]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

Stepping back a bit, the most important things to include in your pit are:

• Your Sponsors' Logos - they made it possible!
• Battery Charging Station
• Your tool chest, including wrenches, screwdrivers, hacksaws, crimps, and a soldering iron.
• Your "Fabricated Parts Withholding Allowance" allowed under R17 (choose wisely!)
• Robot and Driver Station (ok, duh)

The next round of things are:

• A work bench more sturdy than a convention table
• Power strips (to run drill press, soldering iron, and other allowed power tools)
• Programmer Station (this may be as simple as power strips, a table, and a long ethernet cable if your programmers bring laptops or program with the clamshell, or may include a PC and a printer)
• Drill Press
• COTS spares, including stock and miscellaneous hardware
• Broom, dust pan, and trash can
• A sign or banner for your team
• Give-aways and other PR stuff
• Place to post your competition schedule (could be a small bulletin board, or a dry-erase board).
• Dry-erase boards or paper/pen or CAD station for on-the-spot design and upgrades.

When laying out your pit, remember that you need to leave enough room to be able to work on your robot. This has been an issue in recent years, but with this year's rules allowing a very large robot, it could be crucial.

Don't forget that you cannot use wireless in the pits or on the practice fields - you have to have a network tether cable. Bring a spare or two in case it gets run over or otherwise broken.

power strips are very important, as you do only get a couple (or just one) outlet, make sure not to connect a whole bunch of strips onto one though...