Where to start:
1. Hit the team captain, who decided on several failed aspects:
a. We had an infrared sensor on the front to detect when a ball comes and automatically kick, however, once it was on we no longer could cross the hump, and when asking the captain to test it prior to shipping, he said, "It goes over."
b. the captain put a pall on our winch system, so if we overshot (which we did every time it didn't jam) we could back up and get on the bar. (One note, our winch system in practice was exceptionally fast, so overshooting was a major issue that should have been fixed, I am a major proponent of never doing this again since I was the person who controlled the kick power and winching)
2. Focused more on driving and kicking then the hang
3. Eliminated one setting on our multi-powered kicker (it was three pneumatic pistions, with settings for one piston, two pistons, and all pistons to fire, with springs aiding the pistons). The lower power didn't work, and we should have made medium and high powered kicks better.
4. Brought spare omni wheels and wheel brackets, as ours got damaged in shipping and from out team captain doing serious damage to the frame by driving into the tower
5. Had all Craftsmen brand tools, for our mentors bought the cheap Walmart tool set. We mostly used one frosh's Craftsmen ratchet set, but in competition, we shattered and screwdriver (sending pieces into other pits) trying to bend out chassis back in shape (in hind sight, we probably should have used something different, but it was hilarious, and still is funny to reminisce about.)
All in all, we had a bad year, but hopefully 1178 will do better in 2011.