Our first shooter mechanism didn't work right (we launched 1/4-20 fasteners across the room hard enough to chip a plate glass window - thank goodness for safety glasses!). We managed to work in a completely different launch system, but forgot some basic laws of physics regarding speed and torque. Once we dealth with the facepalm we sorted it out. Our hanging mechanism has ended up being benched and will be part of the 65 pounds we carry in - we have portions of it but don't have time to debug before ship.
Just today we made a couple "minor" changes to the shooter that were major breakthroughs as far as consistency and durability. Now we're focussing on the ball magnet. We have a system but we're not happy with it. It works - but not to the specs we want. We'll keep tweaking and trying other ways of doing things - that 65 pounds is pretty big this year.
All in all, it's a pretty normal year. It wouldn't be normal if we DIDN'T see the big-name teams carrying in huge chunks of their robot to refit prior to the first match being played at their first regional. Don't let anyone fool you:
Very few teams are anywhere NEAR done at ship - and many of the top teams will end up completely rebuilding their bot once they see what's working in competition, especially if any one feature or trick is giving a large advantage.
Heck, we've seen some large well-funded teams choose to sit out a huge portion of their regional while they rebuild their bot, then show up big in the last few matches and get chosen and do well in the elims.
Like I said - it's a pretty normal year
