Hazard on Dome Floor

[TravisCarpenter]

As those of you who were often on the dome floor may have noticed, the plastic tiling creating a considerable amount of static electricity. I didnt notice it until quarterfinals started in my division. I had heard a rumor that a team had completely erased all of their programming when they touched their robot. I had my Ipaq sitting in our tool box on the dome floor and I walked over to open up the tool box. I touched a drawer, and felt some static jump between my finger and the toolbox. I opened up the drawer to check on my ipaq, and it turns out that the shock had completely wiped everything from my PDA. It was as if it had performed a hard reset on its own. I put it down, and came back about 10 minutes later. I touched the tool box and got another shock. I opened up my ipaq and once again it was going through its initial start up and configuration procedures as if I had performed a hard reset or it had just come out of the box. Did anyone else have any similar problems. If there were enough accidents, I think that this is an issue that should be presented to FIRST so that they can try and make sure that next year a different type of floor can be used in order to prevent some of the high priced electronics that are included on the robots.

[Greg McCoy]

We didn't have any trouble with our electronic devices (and we had plenty), but I did notice that there was a lot of static buildup. I shocked AmyPrib about 20 times

[The First Lady]

I was queuing at the dome entrance and it seemed like I was shocking everyone I touched. I was shocked alot also but I thought it was my magnetic personality. I didn't have any trouble with electrical devices.

[dddriveman]

That probably explains the problum that we had with our rc. During the time that my fellow team mates picked up the robot they turned off the power. To completely shutdown the power they then pushed the reset button. While doing that it must have fried it.

[Adam Y.]

You might want to use something like this. It will keep you grounded to any metal and will prevent static discharge.http://www.electronicusmaximus.com/0...kin%20Ant.html

As those of you who were often on the dome floor may have noticed, the plastic tiling creating a considerable amount of static electricity. I didnt notice it until quarterfinals started in my division.

Yeah. I noticed that it was really bad when I was in my hotel room. I was walking around with rubber soled shoes on carpet and it created a nasty shock. I think it was also due to the fact that it was dry.

[Zzyzx]

While I was on the floor, I did notice an increased amount of static buildup from the rest of the stadium. While no electronics were damaged, my keycard from the Super 8 Hotel was demagnitized. I'm not sure if this was from the floor or some other sorce, but it is interesting.

[Ryan Albright]

O i felt it increase so much and i loved to shock the other drivers but i made sure i touched the cart first before i touched the robot

[Brandon Holley]

as soon as u stepped onto that floor u could feel the static all around you... our team had no problems with the robot, but like everyone else, shocking people became a pasttime

[Rob Colatutto]

I did notice giving everyone shocks when you would shake hands down on the arena floor. Out hotel cards for the Omni did not work thursday afternoon when we got back to the hotel either. I didnt think of that as being a possible cause but its very likey that could have been the reason. If I were working on a robot down there I'd of probably went and gotten a nice little static band like you wear when working on a computer in a carpeted area.

[Swan217]

And I thought it was just the poly-blend Referee Shirts...

[Bcahn836]

Every time we picked the robot off the cart we got shocked. At first it was fun shocking people, but after awhile everything you touched you shocked.

[Billfred]

I felt a few shocks over the time--many from my mother.

But I was real-time scoring, which involves touching ipaqs all day long--and no problems. (Given that they're government property, I really wanted it to be problem-less. Those things have got to be expensive.)

[Bridgette]

I was wondering why I kept shocking the human player. I thought it was just me.

[Bharat Nain]

The static was nasty. I hit atleast 5 people down there. Our driver almost fainted once. No problems with electrical devices though. Thank God.

[Solace]

this is why you build your robot out of plywood