Driver Station Laptop

[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by euhlmann

I have to disagree. Our drive laptops (old ones fitted with SSDs) are also our primary programming laptops and have been used for other things in the past, including CAD. The point being, they're overloaded with software but we experienced no issues due to startup time or slowness (the SSDs really help)
Anyway there's no point having drive laptops separate from programming laptops - it's easier to have the tools all in one place

I strongly disagree with this statement. It is definitely preferable to have the programming separate from the driverstation. The single most important reason is that I have seen many driverstations take a dive at competition (ie. get knocked off the field shelf or in pit onto the concrete floor). If that is also your programming laptop you are going to be very sad. A second very good reason is that it gives the programmers the opportunity to analyze code assessing issues that have been observed and possibly working to fix them while the drivers are in queue. Of course, we always want the whole team to be watching the matches, but sometimes having the option to be working on a fix or a needed feature is a very good option to have available.** And a third reason is that as you will likely have the driverstation software loaded on the programming laptop, in an emergency it could be used as a backup driverstation (so if my first reason bites you... you will have a backup).

** [Before anyone suggests that the software work can be done on the driverstation in queue if they are loaded on the same computer, I would like to note that although I recognize that many teams do it, I definitely do not condone or encourage the idea of making coding changes in the queue line because you cannot test those changes before going onto the field. A big no-no for reliability.]

[euhlmann]

Originally Posted by MamaSpoldi

The single most important reason is that I have seen many driverstations take a dive at competition (ie. get knocked off the field shelf or in pit onto the concrete floor). If that is also your programming laptop you are going to be very sad.

Nothing some velcro can't fix (That's why there were matching velcro strips on the driver stations).

Originally Posted by MamaSpoldi

And a third reason is that as you will likely have the driverstation software loaded on the programming laptop, in an emergency it could be used as a backup driverstation (so if my first reason bites you... you will have a backup).

We just have 2 laptops, which are both for driving and programming.

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by euhlmann

Nothing some velcro can't fix (That's why there were matching velcro strips on the driver stations).

Not always. One of our matches this year, our driver station was knocked off the shelf even with velcro. The hit was so bad that they apparently moved the alliance wall by like 3 inches. Luckily we caught it, but nothing is a substitute for having spares.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by ASD20

Not always. One of our matches this year, our driver station was knocked off the shelf even with velcro. The hit was so bad that they apparently moved the alliance wall by like 3 inches. Luckily we caught it, but nothing is a substitute for having spares.

What sort of velcro were you using? The white industrial stuff is what we used and I could barely take the laptop off the velcro in the beginning. We took a good amount of nasty hits and never had the laptop even budge.

I also should mention a laptop like a ThinkPad with an ssd in it is fairly resistant to a drop from that height. The big failure mode of a laptop in schock scenarios is a failed hard drive since it's a mechanical part. Because ssds are flash based they can take a hit and function fine.

Regardless a spare laptop for programming is nice but if your on a budget it's not even close to necessary. I always have my laptop at competitions and it has a copy of everything we would ever need but we have never had to use it.

[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

What sort of velcro were you using? The white industrial stuff is what we used and I could barely take the laptop off the velcro in the beginning. We took a good amount of nasty hits and never had the laptop even budge.

I also should mention a laptop like a ThinkPad with an ssd in it is fairly resistant to a drop from that height. The big failure mode of a laptop in schock scenarios is a failed hard drive since it's a mechanical part. Because ssds are flash based they can take a hit and function fine.

Regardless a spare laptop for programming is nice but if your on a budget it's not even close to necessary. I always have my laptop at competitions and it has a copy of everything we would ever need but we have never had to use it.

We also had very secure velcro on our driverstation and it never fell off on the field... but in the queuing area at Champs it was very crowded and our driverstation hit the concrete hard. It survived for those matches, but it does have residual damage and will be replaced. My point it simply that it can happen and you don't want to be without a backup option.