FRC Pit size 2015

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by Addison4300

You could make a pit that is 8x8 and is able to scale to be 10x10. Even if the competition you are going to is only 10x10 or 8x8, you could have both in case you decide to do other competitions.

We're doing something like this...our pit has a pipe frame...we'll cut the pipe to the smallest size we need to accommodate - and use couplers to adapt it to the bigger sizes.

This is a bit off topic - but I really wish FIRST would give teams an hour on Wednesday night to set up their pit - then Thursday morning would start off with immediate attention to the bot.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by Qbot2640

This is a bit off topic - but I really wish FIRST would give teams an hour on Wednesday night to set up their pit - then Thursday morning would start off with immediate attention to the bot.

While that would be very nice, I can see their reasoning for not wanting to do so. (They wan't everyone out on time, so the volunteers can get a good sleep!)

The strategic thing to do, is when the 5 team reps load in on that night: Carry everything in, in a certain order...

Person 1 carries this box, which just so happens to go in the farthest corner, followed by person 2, which puts their box next to person 1, etc...

You can drop everything off and have your boxes/toolchest/carts already arranged, within 5 minutes.

Of course, if you have big pit displays/tents, etc, that doesn't really work. But for the basics, it will.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Qbot2640

This is a bit off topic - but I really wish FIRST would give teams an hour on Wednesday night to set up their pit - then Thursday morning would start off with immediate attention to the bot.

You know good and well that there are teams who will take the opportunity to work on the robot when no one is looking.

My big pet peeve is when team put together their elaborate pits in the middle of the aisle. I even had a team assembling their pit in the que line at Midwest one year.

[Alex2614]

Definitely do adaptable. Never count on an event giving you the full 10x10, even if it is in a huge event center. There's nothing more annoying than a team that encroaches into your pit because they couldn't adapt to 8x8, thus making your put 7x7 or less.

Ours is pretty easy to set up, just four independent towers that stand up on their own. If we are less than 10ft, we don't put the bars connecting the towers. At first we were going to have the bars modifiable but that didn't happen. If you want technical details, I'd be happy to share.

Attached is a picture of the back our pit set up at our state FLL tournament. the front actually has a monitor built in and some open shelves for displaying items.