Quote:
Originally Posted by wireties
Very frustrating .. most problems were electrical and mechanical. We had a CANbus wiring problem .. just one silly problem after another. Arghhh!
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This sounds a lot like
our Ultimate Ascent experience. That was the last year that we had programming and controls as part of the same department; our controls lieutenant described the wiring situation as being like "4-d TETRIS". We intentionally split programming and controls the next year so wiring and pneumatics routing would have people speaking up for it. We also managed to bring in Isaac, a former-IBEW member as a mentor. This was luck rather than intention; his son Seth was interested in programming. Even after Seth left, Isaac stuck around and has become a key mentor on both the technical and business sides. Check your local IBEW hall for mentors!
In any case, it sounds like a number of your problems this year could have been solved, or at least better managed, with checklists. We have been increasing in our use of checklists each year. As Barry, one of our newest coaches/mentors noted at our first post-CMP meeting - "We've been using the wrong sports model. FRC is more like NASCAR [than it is like football, baseball, basketball, or tennis]. And the guys in the NASCAR pit don't [relieve their bladders] without a checklist."