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Re: Practice Robot?
We are no longer a small team (>50 students) but for many years were were <15 students working out of a mentors garage. Starting in 2009 and since we have always built some form of practice bot. Not all had all of the subsystems. I certainly agree with last post- if you can make them the same - different motor controllers mean a different code - which leads to issues (more work when you get to your first competition).
However if you can't build it all the same, there is still value in having a practice robot. At least it should result in having some autonomous program (I hate watching auto when robots just sit there!) and some feel for the driving and handling of the robot. If you have a second Roborio, at least put it on a drivable chassis.
Agree also you should have a plan for the build season - Some sort of Gantt chart (I like Excel for simplicity) at the start - that is updated as change happens (it will, let it change when it should, but keep a plan that gets you to the end you want). It keeps you focused on getting things done, making decisions when you need to, ordering parts on time, etc. Include the practice robot in the plan. We used to build the gamer, then cobble together a practice robot, we shifted to building the practice robot first, then incorporating lessons learned in the build of it for the gamer second. The practice robot will go to a week 0 event (FIRST please bring back real field elements to Suffield!) while much of the team is back refining the game robot.
Then after Bag day the team still has much to continue to do - programming, drive practice, and with-holding upgrades. (as the stop the bag day folks have pointed out - the 6 week build season is not reality for teams that build a practice robot)
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