Inspection Stories

[Peyton Yeung]

In 2013 our robot had guards in front of the wheels about a 1/2" off the ground to prevent us from driving over frisbees. An inspector tried to tell us no part of the robot could be that low to the ground. My response was to ask if that included the wheels or if we were gonna have to figure out how to fly. The LRI came over and just laughed.

[jgerstein]

Originally Posted by Zack-5421

Was the 2015 story team from 5421?

Not 5421. You must have had some other group of people helping you out.

[Ed Sparks]

I'll leave the event name and team number out but .......

I was having a number of typical issues with a team at an event (they were new to FIRST) and was working with them to get through those issues.

One of the issues was bumpers. They worked all day on practice day with some help from other teams to make a set of legal bumpers but had not yet put their team number on them. I told them to take them "home" overnight and paint their team number on on each bumper. Unfortunately they painted the wrong team number on them.

[Ed Sparks]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

They really need to stop hassling 15+ year veteran teams who know what they are doing, and focus on the rookies who need the help.

I've seen my share of very experienced teams (15+) that do things they should know not to do.

[NShep98]

Last year, we spent all of Friday night going through inspection, missing the practice matched at both events. Both times were for bumpers.

The first time, two of the bumpers arrived late, and we couldn't finish weighing without the complete bumper set. I was told that they were having sponsor logos put on them, to which I replied "Isn't that illegal?". They were, thus requiring us to use a heat gun to unstick the 4 or 5 stickers on each bumper to get them off before finally finishing inspection.

The second time we had all our bumpers. When the inspector came over we had them off, and were asked to put them on. Someone asked which ones were which, since the front and back were similar. The reply was "the back bumper is the one with the hole cut in it". The inspector obviously heard and turned the bumper segment over. We had cut a rectangular hole in the plywood backing, which was not legal, but had gone unnoticed at the first event. On top of that, the reason for the hole was to allow for movement of a part that stuck partially out of the back of the robot that did not qualify as a minor protrusion from the frame perimeter. We had to redo the whole bumper piece, but the only plywood at the event was the floor of our battery carrier. Since it would be stationary at the event, we took it off, used half to extend our frame perimeter past the part, and the other half to make a new bumper.

[BigJ]

Last year at one of our inspections the inspector was adamant that because our robot's arm laid above some electronics, the electronics below were unsafe to get to, and therefore "not easily visible" (and the starting configuration of the arm was up out of the way, even). My kids argued the point with him for a few minutes to no avail, until one of the mentors suggested he ask the LRI.

The LRI came back with the inspector, lifted the arm up to it's resting position, and walked away without saying a word.

Most of our inspection experiences are great, and I even enjoy some of the lighthearted ribbing, or the ol' foot-on-the-scale scare, but sometimes it does feel like inspectors are out to find things to fix no matter what.

[jvriezen]

2011 Minibot story:

My LRI suspected there were some teams that had mini-bots but had not yet brought them to inspection, either because they were not complete or they didn't know they had to have them inspected. I was assigned the task to visit all teams that had not presented a mini-bot to inspection to ask what their intentions were.

One team told me they were working on it, but having problems because the fuse kept blowing each time they fired it up. I was directed to a student working on it on a concession table near their pit. He was busy adding a Jaguar motor controller to the mini-bot to try to resolve the problem because someone had told him it might be needed. Motor controllers of any type were not allowed-- the only electrical components allowed (IIRC) were light switches (don't get me started on the definition of 'light switch'!) tetrix motors, a fuse, wires, connectors, one type of battery and a LEGO Mindstorm controller (rarely used by anyone)

Turns out that the solder joints to the motor terminals were big blobs, both of which extended past the terminals, past the non conductive base around the terminal and on to the metal motor housing, providing an obvious short every time power was applied. I don't think the Jaguar was going to solve their problem, even if it was allowed.

At the same regional, a minibot made entirely out of LEGO was presented for inspection.

[pmattin5459]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

At the same regional, a minibot made entirely out of LEGO was presented for inspection.

Please tell me it didn't use the Mindstorms motors.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by pmattin5459

Please tell me it didn't use the Mindstorms motors.

I honestly can't remember. Once I saw the LEGO construction, that was enough to make it illegal, as LEGO building pieces were not permitted.