[ngreen]

It's not so much as being a secret as not being well known or known at all. Yeah...there are lots of cool little neat things people do on their robots that if someone looks and ask questions they will figure it out..

But that doesn't mean everyone will no about it...that's why I always would analyze as many robots as possible and continue to look at pictures of new...and especially old...robots. Many well known teams get their robots ripped apart by people trying to figure out their mechanism so they are well known...and many of them deserve this recognition...but there can also be some unknown or rookie teams doing neat stuff that unless you look for it you may never see and be secret...

As I see it, it is hard to hide secrets in mechanical devices or other things very simple to figure out based on pictures...but secrets can hide very well in how you control something..look at other robots and see how not only the mechanical mechanism of it works but how it is controlled...

Last year I built a pneumatic control system that stopped the cyclinders mid-stroke to control the arms...We completed all last season with it...told many judges at both times at Houston...used it a couple times to stack...had visible pictures of it stopped at mid-stroke on the web including CD but I don't think anyone from other teams particular asked or figured out how it worked. They saw the piston made the arm go up and down but they never looked to see how can they stop it half-way like that....

I prefer to keep one secret per season so when someone finally asked about stopping the cyclinder mid-stroke, I release my plans from last year. I know I wasn't the only person to use the cyclinder like this but very few people knew you could with what we can use. I had people flat out tell me that was impossible...even after using it and explaining it to so many people.

So go try to figure out others "secrets". If you ask they might give you the details on it....But then again its sometime fun to keep a great idea in your head no one will use...maybe I'll reveal it next year...or hopefully it will make it on our robot and someone will come up and ask about it....or maybe I could release it so everyone has access to it (I really would if it was so easy for some and has a small amount of controversy involved in it)...so i'll wait...

Keep a secret, at least until someone ask.

PS YAY!! 100 post!!