[DougHogg]

In my opinion, Team 173's robot was ... dynamite! Our robot is also a ball handler, so we were happy to see another ball handler among the Championship winners.

I was particularly impressed with your driving skill. You guys zoomed around the field. Also your ball mechanism was inspired. We used pneumatics to dump our basket. I was impressed with the fact that you were able to handle your basket using only motors, especially since you put your basket through some elaborate motions.

I came over to check out your robot after the whole event. I liked your gear shift mechanism, particularly the use of latex tube as a tensioning device in your shifters.

We had a gear shift also, but we changed gears on both motors with one servo. Even though I did see your mechanism at the event, I would love to see a picture of your gear shifter as I don't remember the details.

We are rookies and pretty much stayed in low gear. In high gear, we tended to blow fuses if we turned suddenly. Also we had had some gear grinding on a few occasions so we were a bit nervous about shifting. Did you have any such problems? If not, what was the solution?

One other question: Did your driver use one joystick or two for steering?

Anyway, congratuations. You made us ball handlers proud. After all, if there were no ball handlers on the winning alliance, that would have made it look like all the ball handlers made poor choices in their overall design strategy.