Rookie team in need of scaling advice

[asid61]

To be fair, many of the 3rd picks at competitions may want to scale for the extra points (the first 2 robots will be scoring the most anyway), and if you've already finished your main goals, why not start prototyping now? There are plenty of ways to start on a climber while the drivers get practice, and you can always add it at your competition (providing you stay under the withholding allowance).

For our team at least, if it came down to a 3rd robot breaker and a 3rd robot that breaks a little slower but climbs, I would take the second option. Because the first 2 robots may be making cycles to shoot, they will naturally break several of the defenses anyway, leaving only one or two tricky defenses like the drawbridge to deal with. A 3rd bot can break those quickly before moving to play defense (or just play defense until the endgame).

Ultimately it depends on what you think others' strategies will be.

[Dr. Robot]

Thank you for the responses.



We are slowing our roll with regards to climbing right now due to just how hard all of this is, but haven't ruled out a "moonshot" attempt to get something together under 30lbs. after the bag date that we can add on later.



Speaking of difficult, my goodness are the Dart actuators difficult to get working properly. Missing magnets for the Hall sensors, no instructions for the Hall effect, weak collars, bad fit for the leads/shaft, weird software interactions, and one of the adult mentors taking apart the best one we'd already assembled to see how it worked so he could build another (not easy) have all led to a cornucopia of frustration with the Darts.



It is truly a shame that the Firgelli actuators (assembled, half the price, much lighter & smaller, just as much strength) are illegal.

[EricH]

Firgellis aren't illegal. However, their MOTORS are. So if you can retrofit an FRC-legal motor to one, go for it.