Quote:
Originally Posted by de_
Make sure you have read and understood team update 14.
Today our robot was dead during part or all of 6 out of 8 matches even though it was completely mechanically functional. Twice it was caused by opponent teams robot smashing into the our wall in autonomous causing our laptop to blue screen and reboot and the second time crash on the floor and even after a reboot of the laptop, the robot autostart failed...
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The advice to secure the driver station is good, and echoes the team update information from FIRST. It means more, however, coming from a team that has experienced the unfortunate consequences, perhaps.
I feel the frustration in having robot malfunctions... been there, done that, not fun.
I note that you were able to link two of the six malfunctions to wall impact, did you figure out what caused the other four?
It would be interesting to see if other teams are experiencing similar problems with their computer hardware... perhaps some laptops are more resistant to impact than others. It may also make sense to design driver stations to provide cushioning for the laptop as well as velcro for securing it. I don't think, however, that FIRST is likely to create a rule preventing wall impacts in auto considering that they have already specifically advised teams to be prepared for heavy wall impacts.
Thank you for warning teams, and I hope you are able to solve the impact issue and figure out whatever problem was causing the majority of your breakdowns. Good luck on Saturday!
Jason