[mathking]

In 2006 we had a match where our very good battery box had been taken off (to access a ball that had gotten stuck in the robot) and when it was put back on the bolts were just threaded on and not tightened. Which meant that during the match the whole battery box was sliding back and forth about an inch. With about 30 seconds to go it decided "now" and ripped free from its mount.

I will also lay out the caution to make sure that your connections are not in danger of being ripped off during a match. In 2014 at Crossroads we were pursuing a ball (with our grabber extended) when an opposing robot made a deft move in front of our robot, cutting off our robot and drawing a foul (deserved) on us. Unfortunately they had mounted their battery exposed on the outside edge of the robot, above the bumper with the battery cables running straight up from the battery. Our point of contact was the exposed battery cables, which were crushed. We did get a foul but they were powerless for the last minute plus of the match. Afterwards our drive team apologized and shortly after that they came to our pit to give us the destroyed cable "in thanks for pointing out the design flaw in their robot." I believe they then protected it with lexan.