Inspection process

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by ttedrow

The inspectors will do everything within the rules to get a team inspected before a team's first match. At least that is what is in the manual.

Tim Tedrow

I was an inspector last year at two competitions. As far as I know, nobody missed any matches. For some teams it got pretty close though! When it got down to only 3 or 4 that hadn't passed, we started stationing inspectors in the team's pit. That way they got stuff checked of as soon as it was completed.

We can't do the work for you, and we may find stuff you didn't think about. But the inspectors will work with you to get you cleared to compete as soon as humanly possible. Even if that is Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Of course, taking so long may be detrimental to your standings.

[ttedrow]

Are there any more STUDENT comments from the three regionals on the inspection process? This information will be helpful for the weekly lead inspector teleconference on Tue.

Tim Tedrow

[jacob_dilles]

yea our inspection went fairly well, it took about 45 minutes... they made us cover all of our electronics with tape. but there were other robots that had passed that had no tape coverd victors! but what can you do? i had ( by the 3rd try in 2 weeks ) gotten the electronics up to speck, so he had nothing to gripe on there, we spent about a half an hour filling afterwords because he said that some aluminum was "a little sharp".

the one electrical thing that we got caught up in is that i had used some red MTW for the globe motors, and coded it black with a sharpie and some tape. that wasnt good enugh for him. he wanted BLACK wire. so we got in a little augument, and at the end of the day i was taping up red wires...

also we have a little springie hose that provides air to the pnumatics on top of the arm, he said that it could get tangled in another robot; he called over 2 more inspectors and they "rulled" that it was contained in our envelope and so it was okay.

lessons learned: get black MTW

[Ted Boucher]

Bascily the inspection progress begins when you bring the robot over to the inspection pit box. The robot then gets weighed and put into a transpartent box to see if it fits inside the size guidelines. Once it passes the judge comes over to your pit and goes through the inspection list that is posted on the first website. The judge then takes a person from your mechanical, electrical and puematic team to ask questions about the robot. Ex. Are you using Victor 884 speed controlers? Once you pass you are given a sticker that is placed a visable place on the robot. We got caught on things like the size of our team numbers ont the four sides of the robot. As long as you follow the rules and have electrical, mechanical, and puematic team member that know what they are talking about, then you will be fine. We did not have to stand in line at all, the insection flowed, and there was enough space for inspection.

[Bluesky55J]

well the wait time was not bad at all. we actually made it threw then had to go back after cutting down peices to make weight, it only took like 20minutes for the whole thing. thats with the cutting lol. our robot JUST fit in the box. i mean just made it in.

[Jones571]

Everything went well over all for our inspection. but getting the robot into the dimension box was a much harder task for this year they took out the sliding platform which made things a little harder then they should be.