Most Unfortunate Incidents

[BornaE]

What was the worst thing that happened to you that you cannot believe that it happened?

ours:
2006, quarter final 3 in AZ(not 100% sure)
during autonomous, another robot hits us, our radio drops down on the main breaker and turns the robot off, and we lose !!!!!

[Bcliff358]

2006 finals match 2 Connecticut regional. With five seconds to go our robot flipped over and our turret went flying. We joked that our robot knew that it was done.

[Joe J.]

862 is 0-14-0 combined from the 2006 and 2007 Championships.

One time back in 2005 we forgot flip the switch to engage our robots arm, before a match.

Our 2003 robot in its entirety, typically moved about 2-5 feet before blowing apart one or both of its gearboxes.

[Qbranch]

2005:

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

2006:

Rear right drive sprocket cracked in the eliminations. We subsequently lost Buckeye.

But I guess we made good on it this year. The way I figure, we've won zero regionals my sophomore/junior years (my first two years) and we've won three this year. So, I figure that's one regional per year.

-q

[Meredith Novak]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

2005:

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

We were talking about this very robot last night with our team. We were alliance partners in Atlanta (after you beat us at Boilermaker). The "llama" is one of my favorite of all time robots - I was very sad when it did that lemming thing and died I hope the great Chicago fire of 2008 is your only unfortunate incident of this year...

[Qbranch]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

We were talking about this very robot last night with our team. We were alliance partners in Atlanta (after you beat us at Boilermaker). The "llama" is one of my favorite of all time robots - I was very sad when it did that lemming thing and died I hope the great Chicago fire of 2008 is your only unfortunate incident of this year...

Great Chicago Fire... love it... i think.

Well, don't feel too bad about the '05 bot. Our operator (taylor) this year and I resurrected it about a year ago... and added limit switchest this time. It was so easy!

...But... unfortunately, it was REALLY late when we finally got the arm all running again... and unfortunately a tetra we picked up got hooked on a rollie chair... taylor looked at me, I looked at him... we were both thinking... YEAH! Pick up the rollie chair!... and so i pushed the control stick forward...

And the motors ran... and ran... and ran... and suddenly my tired brain and his, at the same time, realized: If the chair isn't moving, and the motors are running... something's getting a lot of energy stored in it....

Shorly after that, the sprocket on the output shaft of the transmission resolutely said "No." and EXPLODED!!! leaving several large dents in the robot's monocoque skin... and more startlingly, a 1/4"x1/4"x1/2" chip out of a cinderblock wall about 15' behind the robot.

I didn't say that one at first because it wasn't an on-season thing... but everyone... there are lessons to be learned:

1) don't work on robots that late at night that have that high of a gear reduction in them
2) wear safety glasses
3) sprockets can explode
4) AndyMark gear reductions are probably NOT the thing in your drivetrain that's going to fail.

Well, thats it, and it's nice to know you all are thinking about us BombSquad, because we think about you too... well, that and your floppy accumulator...

-q

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

We were talking about this very robot last night with our team. We were alliance partners in Atlanta (after you beat us at Boilermaker). The "llama" is one of my favorite of all time robots - I was very sad when it did that lemming thing and died I hope the great Chicago fire of 2008 is your only unfortunate incident of this year...

So this brings back from memories. This was my senior year on 234, or as I like to call it, 'the year that we went against the most intimidating alliances and almost won.'

In the semi-finals at BMR in 2005, it was Teams 16, 234, and 393 vs. Teams 71, 269, and 1024. Really. That's a super alliance right there. Anyway, I won't go into all the logistics of the game that year, but essentially, our alliance lost by a couple of inches. In that year's game, the tetra that counted was the tetra that was higher. A tetra ended up being thrown under a goal and was propped against the floor and the field, giving it a couple inches on the one that had been dropped to the floor in autonomous. It was the deciding factor of the match. You want to talk about a hard loss, that was the hardest I think.

Tomorrow's story: how we took it to three matches in the QF's in Atlanta against 118, 229, and 312 What a year that was.

[Josh Drake]

: )

[Meredith Novak]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

So this brings back from memories. This was my senior year on 234, or as I like to call it, 'the year that we went against the most intimidating alliances and almost won.'

In the semi-finals at BMR in 2005, it was Teams 16, 234, and 393 vs. Teams 71, 269, and 1024. Really. That's a super alliance right there. Anyway, I won't go into all the logistics of the game that year, but essentially, our alliance lost by a couple of inches. In that year's game, the tetra that counted was the tetra that was higher. A tetra ended up being thrown under a goal and was propped against the floor and the field, giving it a couple inches on the one that had been dropped to the floor in autonomous. It was the deciding factor of the match. You want to talk about a hard loss, that was the hardest I think.

I was actually thinking of that match as one of our most painful losses - I just didn't have the strength to put it into words. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[Pjohn1959]

In 2006 at Lone Star during a quarterfinal match, we turned our robot right, and our battery went left. Needless to say that was the end of the match for us.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

2005:

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

2006:

Rear right drive sprocket cracked in the eliminations. We subsequently lost Buckeye.

But I guess we made good on it this year. The way I figure, we've won zero regionals my sophomore/junior years (my first two years) and we've won three this year. So, I figure that's one regional per year.

-q

At the cost of a burned sensor this year...

I think the worst one any of my teams has had was when 330 (2004), not fell off the bar onto the floor (which it did), but ran the lift with the lock engaged the next match. Some cleanup needed to be made afterwards--lift channels bent, and I think a cable or two broke.

[Rick TYler]

Semifinals of Washington FTC regional. Exothermic teams 575 and 417 are teamed with a third robot in the semifinals. 575 and 417 won easily in the first match. In the second match, 575 and the third 'bot lost a very close match. We now come up to the third and final match, with Plan B and Captain Hook once again paired up to take on the same robots as in match 1. The winner of this match goes to the finals.

Due to a field error, the teams wait until the last possible moment to turn on their computers, because some robots (especially our 418 for some reason) have had their computers time out before the end of a match. In the excitement, the drive team from 417 forgets to turn their robot on, and as the announcer says "begin" the teams turn on their remotes, starting their robots (remember that the field software is down, so all day the matches are started by the drivers). The coach for 417 looks down and sees no lights and then bends over an flips the "on" switch. The referees rule that touching the robot is a violation of the rule against touching a field object during a match and disqualify them. They are out. When the match is restarted, 575 has to play one-on-two and loses.

In an incredibly gracious discussion later, a mentor for one of the teams on the other alliance said that all three other drivers should have touched their robots -- causing the referees to face the possibility of DQing all four robots. Didn't happen, though, so the #1 alliance did not go into the finals. Bitterly disappointing, especially as it was our only regional: the Oregon regional gives preference to Oregon teams and wouldn't accept our registration, and we missed the Vancouver, BC, event due to mentor failure.

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

2005:

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

2006:

Rear right drive sprocket cracked in the eliminations. We subsequently lost Buckeye.

But I guess we made good on it this year. The way I figure, we've won zero regionals my sophomore/junior years (my first two years) and we've won three this year. So, I figure that's one regional per year.

-q

I remember that. That was scary. (We were alliance partners at BMR, good job btw, haha).

As a 269 member, the worst thing that happened was in second to last match of qualifiers at Toronto last year, we blew out a speed controller. We thought it was a motor and spent our time swapping it out and our elevator ended up not working in our last match. Collectively, it is a large reason we didn't see the finals. Had I been a member this year, I would have considered their first missed match in who knows how long. Should be a fun team to watch in Archimedes though.

As a 171 member for this season only, I think the worst thing that happened was during practice, we had a motor rattle loose out of our toughbox and spin around wildly (the shaft didnt spin, the rest of the motor did, and tangle a bunch of wires. A little bit of loctite fixed the issue but it was a scary moment. If you look at the motor today, you'll notice the nice spiraling shape of its wires.

[Dreadfrost]

In 2007 we faced 1114 and 2056 twice in the finals at both Waterloo and GTR with team 854. In Waterloo we won the first match, but then at the end of the second match 1006 Fast Eddie lost a CIM i think, and got stuck in red's home zone which racked up 30 points in penalties. Because they were damaged the final match didn't go to well and we lost. Afterwards 1114's driver told our driver that we gave him the best defense he had seen, which really made us believe we had a chance.

Then in the GTR finals our team consisted of 854 (again) and 1241. Both robots did excellent but two bad things happened. In the second match 854 dropped their ramp (Loved your robot last year guys) and we drove up it but a ringer got caught on top and we couldn't drive forward enough for 1241 to drive up, so we lost. Then in the last match 2056 hit 854 hard and it damaged their ramp, so when they went to deploy it...well it just didn't deploy right away and time ran out.

At first i was very frustrated with the results of both regionals but hey we were still finalist and that was the year we finally won Chairmans at waterloo.

[Billfred]

Palmetto Regional 2007, QF1-2. 1251/1626/1758 vs. 1618/1102/801. The former had stomped the latter in the first match to the tune of 264-0. (And, in the final qualification match, 1251/804/1436 had done the same thing to a lesser extent to 1618/1293/34 to the tune of 140-0.)

We just now made the brilliant realization that our opponents lacked a ramp on their alliance. We came up with a new plan: 1102 and 801 would get one tube each on the rack, then all three of us would give the fiercest defense we could supply. Throw in the ramp points, and we'd have to hope that they couldn't get a row of six.

Somehow, nobody on our team noticed that our tower, which contained our electronics, came loose in the back. (Come to think of it, we're still fighting that issue at demos.) The result can be seen in this video, ending where our main battery cable pulled out of the distribution block. We lost the second round 48-19, making me think we might've pulled it off if that wire had held. Unfortunate, but it led us to step our wiring game up for 2008.