What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by Scott England

Back on the topic of "least professionally engineered solution deployed on a robot"

a literal lead brick from the small parts catalog, 1997, roughly hewn with a hack saw to get the total robot weight to the exact maximum. You can still find the basic item at small parts (since they were purchased by amazon)

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Parts-Le.../dp/B003SLEVSA


on FRC Team # 122, used to counterbalance a long arm.

I didn't even think that you could buy lead bricks from Amazon...

Anyways, the most sketch thing we've done is the mod to our AM14U2 kitbot for driver training. We attached two 2x4s as forks with this really interesting contraption for mounting the camera, but you still couldn't see the ball you were trying to pick up. We then proceeded to drive it through an obstacle course made out of chairs and other furniture. The best part was fastening the plywood top to the robot and then trying to frantically drill holes above the RoboRio to plug in the camera. Fun times.

http://imgur.com/a/1vw1P

[nedwards28]

2014 rookie year in aerial assist. Robot won't stay in correct configuration at match start. We used zip ties to hold the arm up and then used the autonomous to jerk the robot to a stop hard enough to break said zip ties. We also didn't have enough pneumatic guts to get the ball over the truss without a solid running start.

2015 recycle rush. Needed to spring load some clips that we're supposed to pick up totes by the handles during our second district competition. The only thing we had were hair ties from the girls on the team. Our running joke is that hair ties got us to Worlds.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by RadonH0926

Since I've been on Cyber Blue, the most "ghetto" solution we had was in 2013 when we replaced a floor pickup system with a blue bucket for taking frisbees from from the HP station.

Despite being a somewhat crude fix, you guys (and gals) wrote a nice whitepaper on why you ditched the vending machine coils for a sawed off bucket. Engineering isn't about "what", but "why" and "how".

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

Yeah pretty much all of our questionable "fixes" are belt related. We're getting pretty good at finding out how to connect pulleys without belts.

What is it with 461 and belt incidents... I think the story goes that in 2009 they went with the Archimedes screw because of conveyor belt issues in 2008. At least that's what I heard back then

[dawilliams]

We all have our "offensive" terms. It seems to be the adults who are posting about the offensive terms. Kids may shrug it off if not guided by adult sensibilities. My minority students use the term "n..ga" even though I try to stop them. Terms even mean different things to different people. Lets "chill" (I'm not trying to offend those from northern latitudes) on the whole topic and get back to the real question...

Our first season we used 150 lb zip ties to keep shafts from flexing. It worked great, but I wouldn't brag to my engineer friends... oh wait, yes I would, bc it worked!

We also used a Lowes bucket (not to offend the HD crowd) on our Frizbee collector bin.

[Jay H 237]

I was going to say "What is the most MacGyver'd thing you've seen on a robot?" but I have a feeling most of the posters on here wouldn't know what I was talking about

A lot of stuff gets 'MacGyver'd' the last night of build or between matches when you just need to get something to work in a very short amount of time. Sometimes it works so well it gets left alone

Just remember even people who hold an A&P license now had to get a start somewhere, learning how to work on something when they were younger. When you look back someday at stuff you built in the beginning you'll wonder why you did that (really?! is that what I thought was good?!?! ) but at the time you were just proud you did that AND made it WORK at that time!!!

Knowledge, and refinement, comes with experience

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

I was going to say "What is the most MacGyver'd thing you've seen on a robot?" but I have a feeling most of the posters on here wouldn't know what I was talking about

Hey, give us "Youngsters" a little credit!

The closest thing i think of is our net in 2014. Lack of materials made it hard, so we got some PVC and a net, attached it to some bolted down wood blocks, and Voila! We have a way to catch balls! Surprisingly enough, the net never fell out (it was not secured in any way except for being inside the wood a few inches) and was part of the reason we went to district champs (too bad we couldn't pay for it...)

[JohnSmooth42]

We had to fix our intakes at an off season event one year and we discovered a shaft key had come out. While looking for said shaft key we found a rivet on the floor. I don't think I need to elaborate on this any more...

[GeeTwo]

Sometimes people are just offended too easily. Sometimes offensively so.

For the record, in our neck of the woods we sometimes refer to this as "cajun engineering", in jest but not intended as an offense. Also for the record, the guy whose hands are in the picture that I posted as a "cajun compass" is not in fact a cajun, but I am at least 3/8 cajun myself, and I did not intend to be mean to either the man wielding the crawfish tray as a circle guide or to my own relatives. Nor do I believe any of them took it that way.

Chill!

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by JohnSmooth42

We had to fix our intakes at an off season event one year and we discovered a shaft key had come out. While looking for said shaft key we found a rivet on the floor. I don't think I need to elaborate on this any more...

In the same vain, HSS drill bits make crappy yet expedient dowel pins. Drill the hole and, while still running the drill, angle it to the side with a sharp jerking motion. Instint pinned connection. Back it up with a drop of CA glue if you're the nervous nelly type.

[hwu24110]

I was not able to witness the performance of the robot, but I remember in 2014 Aerial Assist, I looked down the end of the convention center and I saw a robot that featured a folding chair (with arm rests) as the catching mechanism.

[Alex2614]

Okay, okay, can we move past whether or not you think the title of the thread is offensive? We get it. You've all made your point. Now let's focus on the actual INTENT behind the words and what the thread was intended to be about?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by hwu24110

I was not able to witness the performance of the robot, but I remember in 2014 Aerial Assist, I looked down the end of the convention center and I saw a robot that featured a folding chair (with arm rests) as the catching mechanism.

Had one of those at L.A., too.

This year, I've seen a robot that held its intake in starting configuration with... wait for it...

...Painter's tape. Yep, folks, painter's tape, 1" wide and stretched long. I knew they needed a new piece when they were trying to find a spot to stick the two pieces they made every time they went out for a match together...

[araniaraniratul]

Originally Posted by hwu24110

I was not able to witness the performance of the robot, but I remember in 2014 Aerial Assist, I looked down the end of the convention center and I saw a robot that featured a folding chair (with arm rests) as the catching mechanism.

So it was the same robot in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In 2014, we (294) stuck a lawn chair on 687 because they had an awesome drivetrain but their other mechanisms were struggling. It helped them consistently get that first assist. They eventually grew out of the chair by the time eliminations in LV came around. I love bugging one of my co-mentors (687) about it though!

[BeardyMentor]

The following story is not the most kludgey thing we have ever done, but it is one of the most successful kludges we have ever pulled off.

This year at Mount Olive, we took the robot out of the bag and noticed the intake arm was spinning loose on the shaft. We looked a little closer and somewhere between final testing and bagging the robot, the 3/16" key had fallen out of the sprocket. After looking through everything we brought we discovered that the spare key stock had not been packed. After calming down, we cut the heads off of some #10 bolts and shoved them into the empty keyways and re-tightened the retaining set screws with loctite and they held for the entire event.

[Peyton Yeung]

We had an interesting "fix" this past weekend. During a match the sensor for our defense manipulator broke off. This sensor tells the robot where the arm is so we can go under the low bar/portcullis in autonomous mode. With no spare sensor we hot glued a limit switch to the inside of our robot, used the unused wire from the limit switches pwm cable as a string, and fastened the other end to the arm. This depressed the switch when the arm was fully down. The funny thing is that it worked for the rest of the competition.