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

[GeeTwo]

It may not be the most ghetto thing I ever saw, but we definitely made a data point last night. After three weeks of completely rebuilding the air cannon (which we traditionally do every 18 months or so, but this one made it simpler rather than more complex, yeah!), something in the arduino code just did not work. This code was finally available and tested to a fail at about 1700 (5pm), and the game started at 1900 (7pm). I took to the streets to buy starter switches, horn switches, and wire. After visiting three different auto parts shops, we got down to a wonderful fast build - everyone was out of the comfort zone, myself included. While we did not make the 1900 start of game, the robot rolled out before halftime with a 12 foot (3.6m) tether consisting of 8 12 ga wires (4 red, 2 green, 2 blue) to switch the four motors on starter switches and a four-conductor set of trailer wires to switch the two solenoid valve launchers, all in a wire handler bundle, coming up into a too-small radio shack project box (the only one in the shop, can you believe it?) with the switches. We could only drive forward, with slight turns by pushing only on one side, but we helped keep the home crowd entertained as our football team lost 21-3 to Covington. Official tryouts start a week after next, but a handful of our new recruits made the cut in my mind last night.

[berkleyfanatic]

In 2015 our winch for lowering and raising our arms broke either before or during semi finals so we had to use duct tape to fix it

[Billfred]

I'm sure I've participated in worse and am forgetting, but:

Palmetto 2016. Most of the teething problems on Sandstorm III's drivetrain were sorted out early on, but right as alliance selection starts a message goes out on the Garnet Squadron group chat: Decline any invitation, drivetrain lost a bearing deep inside. I was just across the way as the defense coordinator, so I bolted over to the pit. Sure enough, one of the center inside bearings had popped free into the box tubing. We had the spare, and I had a flash of brilliance. Take the spare bearing, line it up with the hex shaft and hole, whack it with a hammer and wood block, and maybe it'd be enough to buy us some time, right? I took the whack, figuring we'd either be functional or just as hosed...and by some miracle, everything nestled into place and we would be ready for action.

Of course, we didn't get picked anyway...

[euhlmann]

I think our second robot counts

We designed both robots to be modular, so the shooter, intake, and cheval wedges can be swapped as part of withholding allowance. By postseason (we were registered at Beantown Blitz) we really wanted our second robot to be able to compete as well and this was the result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ligerb...7667311431234/
Here you can see:
- stapled bumpers
- ziptie- and duct tape-based intake
- wooden shooter (needless to say it didn't last very long)
- PVC tube boulder blocker complete with transparent packing tape.
Thus the second robot was aptly renamed "Jankosaurus Rex"
Nevertheless our team had a lot of fun putting it together in just a few team meetings before Blitz

[Jonah Sachs]

This:

[Thayer McCollum]

^^
What is that?!?!

I'm an advocate of getting something to work by any means necessary and so I'm usually able to tell what each jury-rigged sketchy piece does, but with that I don't even know... Might I ask what happened that required that... contraption?

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Thayer McCollum

^^
What is that?!?!

I'm an advocate of getting something to work by any means necessary and so I'm usually able to tell what each jury-rigged sketchy piece does, but with that I don't even know... Might I ask what happened that required that... contraption?

That is one of the most unlikely wheels on Einstein: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...d.php?t=150021

[s1900ahon]

For Recycle Rush, one of our students had the idea of using a deformable structure on our 3310-style canburglar to absorb impact energy and reduce bounce. His implementation? He taped an empty soda can to each carbon fiber rod.

[bobbysq]

Team As Sketchy As Possible hasn't shown up in here yet? We need to step up our CD game.

2013: For the most consistent points in every match, Optimus Climb started on the corner of a tower. It then fell over and spent the whole match climbing up it. This was also entirely in teleop.

2015: A milk jug was used to create spacers on our pulley. We also had a slide drive that only worked on our concrete shop floor and never carpet.

2016: At the Iowa scrimmage, we found that our intake was good for firing boulders straight up. Solution: Sherman 1.2: Bagbot. (we later decided to just make a bootleg of another team's intake in the 4 days between CIR and Iowa)

[Ben Wolsieffer]

Originally Posted by bobbysq

2013: For the most consistent points in every match, Optimus Climb started on the corner of a tower. It then fell over and spent the whole match climbing up it. This was also entirely in teleop.

If you think that's bad, you haven't seen our 2013 robot. It was similar to yours, but instead of pulling itself up, it spent the whole match slowly flipping itself end over end up the tower, trying not to rip the tower apart in the process. We usually try to forget that year ever happened.

[NShep98]

Originally Posted by Ben Wolsieffer

If you think that's bad, you haven't seen our 2013 robot. It was similar to yours, but instead of pulling itself up, it spent the whole match slowly flipping itself end over end up the tower, trying not to rip the tower apart in the process. We usually try to forget that year ever happened.

At least you got up the pyramid

Besides that, the awful mess of velcro, tape, and zip ties that struggles to keep our 2016 climber arm just for it to break.

And in 2014...this

[logank013]

In NC this year, our alliance in the playoffs had a very interesting time.

• Our tread fell off both matches

• Team SPORK 3196 had some issues with their high goal shooter breaking. Before the QF matches, they determined it wasn't fixable and went with a low goal shooting mechanism. In order for their auto to work, a switch had to be pressed down so they just duck taped it so the auto would work.

• Our 3rd partner, 3680, got flipped in a match

Feel free to watch some of these matches here.

P.S. Teams in Indiana are very nice and easy to work with. But 3196 and 3680 were definitely some of the nicest people I worked worth over the last 2 years. I hope to come back next year to NC next year (and not decline like in 2016 )

[Jeremy Germita]

On 399's 2013 robot we sheared a 1/4-20 bolt that drove our disc feeder kicker mechanism at a robot demo, so we used velcro to hold zipties to hold a screw driver in its place.

5012's offseason rebuild 2014 - in our first match at Chezy Champs, a collision with a partner shattered our MDF intake jaws. We spent the entire weekend rebuilding the jaw with whatever parts we could scrape together with materials from 399, 1678, 8, and 5136. We arrived in San Jose with this, and left with this monstrosity constructed from 399's spare catapult cradle, fiberglass rod, surgical tubing, and string. For our next offseason events, we rebuilt it out of 1/4" aluminum and lexan.

[Jonny_Jee]

L-bot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4nsFmmZPmo

The most magnificent robot I've had the pleasure of working on BY FAR. The scoring mechanism is a cardboard tube attached to a piston. With a sweet 2 wheel drive and 7 caster wheels, it glides effortlessly across the arena! And how could anyone forget the 60lb steel plates zip tied to a piston on the side of the robot!

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by Jonny_Jee

L-bot!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4nsFmmZPmo



The most magnificent robot I've had the pleasure of working on BY FAR. The scoring mechanism is a cardboard tube attached to a piston. With a sweet 2 wheel drive and 7 caster wheels, it glides effortlessly across the arena! And how could anyone forget the 60lb steel plates zip tied to a piston on the side of the robot!

Oh boy...