Side Project Ideas?

[Jeremy Germita]

Originally Posted by Billfred

How's your storage situation? If you don't have something for long raw materials, a rack for that would certainly be good training for working from a print and shop safety.

We recycled the team version drawbridge into a material rack back in june. It was a fun 2 day project that has helped us manage our raw materials while also reusing the obscene amount of materials used on practice field elements.

[snoman]

We are going to try this. You know just in case. ..

[marcusbernstein]

Definitely think about making a custom robot cart. It can add a lot of value if you make it right, and can give students more training on whatever machines/design/assembly techniques are used to make it. If you design it to have tool storage, space for batteries/bumpers, and more stuff like that it can be a very efficient use of pit space as well, and it would be a very valuable investment to a team looking for an offseason project that directly realtes to FRC.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by marcusbernstein

Definitely think about making a custom robot cart. It can add a lot of value if you make it right, and can give students more training on whatever machines/design/assembly techniques are used to make it. If you design it to have tool storage, space for batteries/bumpers, and more stuff like that it can be a very efficient use of pit space as well, and it would be a very valuable investment to a team looking for an offseason project that directly realtes to FRC.

And the other part of that is to also design it to be able to adjust to fit future robots. Here's one for you: 330's cart has had the same design since 2002. I want to say it's the same cart, but I remember hearing that they rebuilt it recently. It's pretty bare-bones as far as storage, though: throw everything underneath the robot and hope the mat doesn't tear.

[Lireal]

A t-shirt cannon robot is a great side project. It helps bring a lot of publicity to the team when you shoot of shirts at the football games

[dirtbikerxz]

A t-shirt cannon or a custom driver station

[troy_dietz]

Originally Posted by EricH

And the other part of that is to also design it to be able to adjust to fit future robots. Here's one for you: 330's cart has had the same design since 2002. I want to say it's the same cart, but I remember hearing that they rebuilt it recently. It's pretty bare-bones as far as storage, though: throw everything underneath the robot and hope the mat doesn't tear.

Same Body Glove mat, new chassis. The original handle was sanded down and slots were added for cotter pins. It's bare bones because once you remove the wheel pods, it's only about 2 inches thick. The rails are adjustable in width (perfect for our WCD) and it's more than happy to tote around lunches until we remember to eat them. The only issue is the convex Colson wheels. The back two are stationary, but the front two are casters and wobble like crazy when you try to move at a reasonable speed (at least people can hear us when we're late for a match)

[asid61]

Making a new pit could be helpful depending on what your pit looks like from year to year. Maybe do a small project first like a battery cart, then use that knowledge to plan out and create a nice pit.