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

[EricH]

There's a running joke that a peg leg is better than a caster on an FRC robot. It's... not a joke anymore.

There was a team at Beach Blitz that lost a wheel from their (long-suffering) swerve modules. They came out for their next match or two with that module wrapped in tape--looked like gaff tape, maybe duct tape or gorilla tape.

The kicker is that their robot still drove OK with that "peg leg", continuing to play defense.

[Eric Scheuing]

Ok, this wasn't on our robot per-se, but I think it still applies. At out week 1 Stronghold competition this year, we had a camera with live feedback mounted to the top of our shooter. Instead of applying crosshairs to the driver station video feed, we duct taped two pieces of string to the laptop in a "calibrated" position so our driver could make high goal shots. We had 100% accuracy at the high goal that week... 1 for 1!

[Hitchhiker 42]

Originally Posted by Eric Scheuing

Ok, this wasn't on our robot per-se, but I think it still applies. At out week 1 Stronghold competition this year, we had a camera with live feedback mounted to the top of our shooter. Instead of applying crosshairs to the driver station video feed, we duct taped two pieces of string to the laptop in a "calibrated" position so our driver could make high goal shots. We had 100% accuracy at the high goal that week... 1 for 1!

We did something similar, but with clear packing tape on the screen and dry-erase markers.

[Pooja Anil]

Originally Posted by logank013

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.


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 )

Sorry we haven't responded to this, but thank you!! You guys were one of the best teams we have ever worked with, and you definitely made that competition awesome! You really should come back to NC next year, we would love to see you all again!

Our shooter mechanism wasn't the greatest. Taping it seemed like the smartest thing to do at that time

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by EricH

There's a running joke that a peg leg is better than a caster on an FRC robot. It's... not a joke anymore.

There was a team at Beach Blitz that lost a wheel from their (long-suffering) swerve modules. They came out for their next match or two with that module wrapped in tape--looked like gaff tape, maybe duct tape or gorilla tape.

The kicker is that their robot still drove OK with that "peg leg", continuing to play defense.

I've heard rumors that 1717 made LA finals in 2012 with 3 swerve modules operational(they didn't have time to replace the module until the break between SF and F).

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by MichaelBick

I've heard rumors that 1717 made LA finals in 2012 with 3 swerve modules operational(they didn't have time to replace the module until the break between SF and F).

CVR I believe.

[pjt0620]

In 2013 on team 308 we realized that we needed a way to block shots from the corner so we used "locally sourced materials" left over from lunch (otherwise known as a pizza box) and a bit of duct tape and that worked ok. Later in the season we replaced it with a fiberglass driveway marker "borrowed" from the parking lot of the event and that stayed the rest of the season due to how well it worked.
Pizza Box Frisbee Blocker

[346CADmen]

Originally Posted by pjt0620

In 2013 on team 308 we realized that we needed a way to block shots from the corner so we used "locally sourced materials" left over from lunch (otherwise known as a pizza box) and a bit of duct tape and that worked ok. Later in the season we replaced it with a fiberglass driveway marker "borrowed" from the parking lot of the event and that stayed the rest of the season due to how well it worked.
Pizza Box Frisbee Blocker

Why to think outside the box, as it were. Hope your upgrade was more effective.
Is it my imagination or does one of the robots in the video still have power on at the end of the match? I see a green light on when the field assist open the net.

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

Why to think outside the box, as it were. Hope your upgrade was more effective.
Is it my imagination or does one of the robots in the video still have power on at the end of the match? I see a green light on when the field assist open the net.

It looks like a vision targeting light to me. I think they stay on as long as the robot is turned on, similarly to the safety light.

[346CADmen]

Originally Posted by ctt956

It looks like a vision targeting light to me. I think they stay on as long as the robot is turned on, similarly to the safety light.

Exactly, and at the end of a match all power should be off. The safety light goes off to assure all robots are powered down. So this was interesting to me. Did they not power down at termination of the match?

[Lireal]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

Exactly, and at the end of a match all power should be off. The safety light goes off to assure all robots are powered down. So this was interesting to me. Did they not power down at termination of the match?

They probably connected the light directly to the PDP, and not the cRio, so the cRio wouldn't be able to shut it off.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

Exactly, and at the end of a match all power should be off. The safety light goes off to assure all robots are powered down. So this was interesting to me. Did they not power down at termination of the match?

Power to the robots does not shut off until someone hits the robot main breakers; however, all robots are disabled after the match. Disabled means that all the outputs controlled by the RoboRIO (AKA, all the outputs!) are shut off. There are no particular rules stating that stuff not controlled by the RIO has to shut off when the robot is disabled; after all, those items have no way of knowing that the robot is disabled. You'll typically see that on LED strips or targeting flashlights/ring lights that are "constant on", or on lights that are controlled by a Spike relay that is set to stay/go on when disabled. Not uncommon to see some lights on until main breakers are hit.

The "Safety" light is actually the RSL, Robot Signal Light. Its primary function is to display what the robot status is, not to be a safety light per se. As I recall, it goes solid (NOT off) at the end of the match, or when the robot is disabled, but it has several possible states that help field staff troubleshoot problems.

[Ben Wolsieffer]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

Exactly, and at the end of a match all power should be off. The safety light goes off to assure all robots are powered down. So this was interesting to me. Did they not power down at termination of the match?

Power does not get turned off at the end of the match (though you are supposed to turn it off before moving your robot off the field). It is perfectly legal to wire a light straight into the PDP (this could obviously change in future years, but I see no reason why it would). All moving parts have to be controlled by the roboRIO, and software running on the roboRIO prevents control signals from being sent to any actuator when the robot is disabled. At the end of a match, all motor controllers are still powered, they are just being sent a signal that tells them not to move.

[Trevor1523]

Today, at Mission Mayhem, was full of plenty of ghetto moments I thought I'd share.

1: we have wedges on the front of our robot that we put down to let us get over the Cheval de Frise, and a 3/4 inch aluminum Stock connecting that to a cylinder. We sheared the 3/4 in half and I was running around trying to find a pencil or something to fix it with; 179 luckily gave us a pencil, it worked for a little bit but broke the next match. We ended up taking apart our standard and ziptying the rod to the 3/4 to keep it straight. It worked very well

2: both 1523 and 1524 were having drive train issues all day, at the end we realized 1523 was missing a spacer in the gearbox. We ended up using a zip tie to keep the gears in place. It worked very well until .6 seconds into our first Quarterfinal match when the other gear box blew apart.

We feel really bad about choosing 1251 and 59 and then dying, but they were really good sports about it, and we actually won our second quarterfinal match (without 1523) against 2383 and 3653 by 2 points.

And our intake fell apart, but we didn't bother to botch it because it broke in our first quarterfinal match.

[Ari423]

It's definitely not the MOST ghetto thing I've ever seen on a robot, but it's probably the most ghetto thing that I have personally done.

Once when I was putting the robot on the field, I noticed one of the battery terminals had come unscrewed. We didn't have any extra batteries on the cart, and there wasn't enough time to run back to the pit to get a new battery. Luckily, I had a small zip-tie in my pocket, which I used to hold the Anderson connector onto the battery terminal. I wasn't really expecting it to work, but it did for one match until we could get back to the pit and replace it.