Robot Quick Build - Veteran Teams

[Monochron]

Though our team isn't really a veteran yet, I consider myself one. For us the Quick Build was a bit of a waste. Instead of getting into brainstorming and rule review while excitement was still high, we were doing grunt work assembling our chassis. We also ended up putting in all this work for a chassis shape that we may have wanted to change later anyway.

The one benefit was that there was a RI onhand to guide us through the software setup. Where on the FIRST site to go when installers failed and the proper order to install things in. As far as we could tell there is no "guide" for the installation of software packages or for initializing everything, and that slowed us down a bit.

[RyanCahoon]

Conor,
I believe FRC 2618 (now FTC 6640) participated in the Pittsburgh kickoff quick build in 2012. IIRC they had graduated most of their experienced students the previous year.

[Richard Wallace]

I am glad our team didn't do a "quick build" this year. The decision to go with an asymmetric square chassis required a few days of thought about gameplay and general robot design. That thought would have been biased to preclude the design that we ultimately chose, if we had "quickly" selected either of the options for which detailed build instructions are provided in the AM14U kit.

Lesson for next year: start building your robot as soon as possible, but not sooner.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Monochron

As far as we could tell there is no "guide" for the installation of software packages or for initializing everything, and that slowed us down a bit.

Did you not know about the http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/ collection of documentation? The "getting started" guides in particular are linked from the http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...twareresources page.

[AllenGregoryIV]

We do our Boot Camp Build days every year and we have both rookie teams and some veteran teams there each year. Often the veteran teams are teams that need a little more help because they are transitioning mentors or just need some time with other teams to learn.

I'm planning to ramp up our support this coming season and have a control system only day some time early in build season.

[Mr. Lim]

610 hosts a Quick Build for the Greater Toronto Area on Kick-Off day. Almost all of the participating teams are rookies, but veteran teams are allowed to participate as well. Rookies will always be given priority, but if there is space, I don't think any veteran team will be turned away. There are usually a handful of veterans every year. In fact, since we've started hosting the Quick Build, 610 has been able to send their grade 9 students to the Quick Build to build the kit drivetrain.