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Re: Inspection Stories
2011 Minibot story:
My LRI suspected there were some teams that had mini-bots but had not yet brought them to inspection, either because they were not complete or they didn't know they had to have them inspected. I was assigned the task to visit all teams that had not presented a mini-bot to inspection to ask what their intentions were.
One team told me they were working on it, but having problems because the fuse kept blowing each time they fired it up. I was directed to a student working on it on a concession table near their pit. He was busy adding a Jaguar motor controller to the mini-bot to try to resolve the problem because someone had told him it might be needed. Motor controllers of any type were not allowed-- the only electrical components allowed (IIRC) were light switches (don't get me started on the definition of 'light switch'!) tetrix motors, a fuse, wires, connectors, one type of battery and a LEGO Mindstorm controller (rarely used by anyone)
Turns out that the solder joints to the motor terminals were big blobs, both of which extended past the terminals, past the non conductive base around the terminal and on to the metal motor housing, providing an obvious short every time power was applied. I don't think the Jaguar was going to solve their problem, even if it was allowed.
At the same regional, a minibot made entirely out of LEGO was presented for inspection.
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John Vriezen
FRC, Mentor, Inspector #3184 2016- #4859 2015, #2530 2010-2014 FTC Mentor, Inspector #7152 2013-14
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