2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by Oblarg

Remove "AM" from that statement, and I agree completely.

We (4464) had some bad experiences with AndyMark hardware this year...

Did you let them know? I know the customer service at AndyMark is very nice and will try their hardest to make the customer happy.

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Tubatroopa

Did you let them know? I know the customer service at AndyMark is very nice and will try their hardest to make the customer happy.

Oh, their customer service was great, and had they not been we probably would not have fielded a functioning robot. But, that said, about half of the hardware we purchased from them this year, from gearboxes to shaft collars (which we should have purchased from McMaster, yes, we know) to wheels, was defective.

[thefro526]

The 2013 Season has been the best one in a LONG time...

- The Game. Ultimate Ascent ranks high up on the 'best' games of all time list, and would more than likely have been the 'best' game of the Three Team Alliance era had the climbing rules been a tad less restrictive. The deceptive ease of scoring frisbees is exactly what we needed after the last few games. Just about any team could build an upper middle tier robot in terms of disc scoring with parts bought from Home Depot/Lowes/Etc (#BucketAlliance) and some smart thinking.

- The Rules. They're definitely getting better at making the games easier to follow and call. Now if only we could have a game where 'intent' wasn't a factor....

- Motor Allowances. I'm a fan of 6 CIM's, 4 Mini-Cims/BAGs, 4 550's, 4 9015's and the rest. We should do this again.

- Starting Volume. The Perimeter method is definitely the way to go, makes inspection so much faster and easier.

- Versa Wheels. Cheap, Light and Grippy - can't ask for more in a wheel. The piloting may have been a tad overhyped (or they didn't plan on someone piloting 4 parts together) but it works well for doing sprocket to wheel connections.

I'll probably have more stuff eventually.

Originally Posted by Oblarg

Oh, their customer service was great, and had they not been we probably would not have fielded a functioning robot. But, that said, about half of the hardware we purchased from them this year, from gearboxes to shaft collars (which we should have purchased from McMaster, yes, we know) to wheels, was defective.

I believe this topic would be better discussed in the '2013 Lessons Learned: The Negative' thread...

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by thefro526

- Motor Allowances. I'm a fan of 6 CIM's, 4 Mini-Cims/BAGs, 4 550's, 4 9015's and the rest. We should do this again.

Definitely agree here. Having this much power available was fantastic.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by thefro526

- Motor Allowances. I'm a fan of 6 CIM's, 4 Mini-Cims/BAGs, 4 550's, 4 9015's and the rest. We should do this again.

Only change I would like to see is 4 Mini-Cims and 4 BAG motors be allowed. They are so useful and don't really need to be combined.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by thefro526

- Motor Allowances. I'm a fan of 6 CIM's, 4 Mini-Cims/BAGs, 4 550's, 4 9015's and the rest. We should do this again.

- Starting Volume. The Perimeter method is definitely the way to go, makes inspection so much faster and easier.

I knew I forgot a few things. To add on to what Dustin said, the motor allowances were great this year, and I think had a lot to do with the increased competitiveness of teams, since a lot more teams were able to build fast/accurate mechanisms without a lot of advanced planning.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY liked the perimeter specification rather than maximum cardinal dimensions, I think it contributed heavily to the large variety of robot designs this year, and made things seem less "cookie cutter". It also makes it easy to adjust in future years to adapt the exact size to the field and game challenge without being a "major" rules change.