Pit Management

[Ronald_raygun]

Ok, I have a few querstions for everyone here.

• Generally, what are the dimensions of the pit areas?
• How tall have these PortaPits been?
• How much time to we have to uncrate the robot and set up the pit?
• How strong is the quick frame method from 80/20?

The following is a concept drawing of a PortaPit that I designed.





The pit at its tallest point is approximately 12'
It is 8'x8'
All of it is quick frame by 80/20 unless it's deemed too weak.

The thing on the right is an LCD screen embedded inside the 1010 T-Slot frame.

On the left there is a stand alone banner display.

The green thing is the tool crate/workbench.



Here is a detailed view of the banner stand. Basically a banner is draped over this and secured by velcro, zip ties, etc.




This is a detailed view of the LCD screen and its mount.



This is a detailed view of the tool crate.


So, what do you think?

[Kyle Love]

The Technokats have a pit that I guess qualifies as a porta-pit. It folds down into a rolling cart pretty much. While up, it is around 10-12 feet tall and typical size of FIRST legal pits. We take a work bench, tool carts, robot cart and use the table already there as our work areas. We use a LCD board to display messages to people around our pit.(everything from match times to "Free Segway air fill station" to "EL JORGE WANTS YOU!") We also have a kiosk that we sometimes use outside our pit to display our past movies or demo movies about the current robot. (It also has a pretty good sound system on it.) We found having something like that in the pit to be very annoying. If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

[KyleGilbert45]

I think it looks pretty good. I'd recommend searching through the Regional/Championship picture galleries here on CD to see various forms of pit displays. Here is a pretty decent picture of the Technokats (Team 45) from my last year in 2003.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/...37dscf2079.jpg

[Conor Ryan]

Ok, looks great! I love Pit designs idea, makes them feel a little better. Not to mention gives you something to talk about.

Well anyway, the questions

• Estimated Weight?
• How big is it when all folded down?
• Estimated Cost to build?
• Approxamite Setup time?
• How many banners do you have?

[Cory]

FIRST says the pits should be 10'x10'

Whether or not they actually are at a given event is questionable.

I'd make your "porta-pit" 6"-1' less in all directions to be safe.

You'll have however much time you want to setup your pit, but it'll cut into time you could be using for your robot if it takes more than ~1 hour.

[Adam Richards]

Originally Posted by Ronald_raygun

[*]How strong is the quick frame method from 80/20?

Not exactly sure how strong their product is, but our team's robot used 80/20 extrusion for this past year's competition. The only problem you may have is at the corners, where you may have to add extra support for the wallframe (neither the banner, nor the LCD should need it).

[Ronald_raygun]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

Ok, looks great! I love Pit designs idea, makes them feel a little better. Not to mention gives you something to talk about.

Well anyway, the questions

• Estimated Weight?
• How big is it when all folded down?
• Estimated Cost to build?
• Approxamite Setup time?
• How many banners do you have?

Weight is over 50lbs
Folded down should fit all the pieces into one half of the crate.
Cost is about $1500-$2000
Setup is < 45min (est)
Banners: 10 of varying sizes

[mechanicalbrain]

Looks nice! I was thinking about doing some type of pit setup but wasn't sure if it would cramp the working room. You have to be SUPER carefull with the size. If its too much a inspector WILL ask you to take it down! We had this happen and its a real bummer. Although looking at your design i don't think you will have that problem. Still be carefull though... You might want to think of some type of working frame so you can lift up the robot and do work under it.

[Ronald_raygun]

mechanicalbrain, do you have a picture of the pit area the the inspectors made you take down?

Also, the cart is completely separate from the pit area. I plan to use the cart as the workbench instead of having a completely different unit. This saves space and cost.