Engineering slogans

Originally Posted by Ben Mitchell

Ok...I just thought this up:

On my team, we have the saying "righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" to teach the kiddies which way to turn the screwdriver. (if only they'd remember )


Does your team have any funny/useful slogans for remembering technical/engineering things?

ASAP! As slow as possible? As Simple As possible?

[James1902]

"George don't touch the tools we can't afford to buy new ones."

"Crap we're in the finals and our rollers bent, Robbie, get the hammer."

[wendymom]

And if that doesn't fix it.....get a bigger hammer

[M4 Sherman]

"If it doesnt fit, force it, and if it brakes, it needed to be replaced anyways"

"Close enough for government work."

[RoboMadi]

"To do is to be, and to be is to do............Do Be Do Be Do"

(on the matter of members coming in and doing nothing)

All you need to do is get another persuadenator. If that doesn't work, bring out the persuadenatorenator.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

All you need to do is get another persuadenator. If that doesn't work, bring out the persuadenatorenator.

Thread Revival Level: SuperNerd256

[CalTran]

I'd like to know how he found this thread...

Originally Posted by CalTran

I'd like to know how he found this thread...

One of the spotlight phrases at the top led me here.


And thanks for giving me my own level of thread revival Akash!

[snowmobiler9]

Three key quotes from my team this year:

"I don't always build robots, but when I do they have unneeded strands of LED's"

In response to faulty code, our programmer tends to say "Operator Error" a lot.

Spammed by most of our members- "What's a robot?"

And to all 4 people who made a comment to me about my age at the start of this thread: I was 5.

[DampRobot]

Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk and cut it with an axe.

The most important tools in the shop are a hammer and a paintbrush. Cut it to fit and paint it to match.

Garbage in, garbage out.

"That is the sound of a Cross-Part Association failing."

[roystur44]

Here's a good one:

Don't forget to initialize the Semaphore or the CRIO will crash.

[Retired Starman]

I haven't read all 22 pages of this thread, so I apologize if I'm repeating anything but here are my contributions:

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, all the world looks like a nail."

Dr. Bob's Law of Universal Gravitation--"Nothing ever falls off the floor."

Dr. Bob

Chairman's Award is not about building the robot. Every team builds a robot.

[kmcclary]

One of my personal quotes to my teams, that I have to chant every year:
"[Remember that] Gravity Is Your FRIEND!" (or on occasion: "Make Gravity Your Friend!")
First time added phrase for just the gravity quote:
"That downward force is always present for FREE to everyone, everywhere on the field, and adds no device weight to your robot."

It's companion:
"If Gravity fails you, next look to see if you can use a SPRING, before resorting to Cylinders or Motors..."

Once the spring quote is introduced, I often change the chant to:
"Remember: Gravity and Springs are your Friends!"

IOW, whenever possible, try to let gravity (or springs) do a lot of your work for you, instead of immediately jumping to the big active devices.

It still amazes me every year just how many robots show up with motors and cylinders, and consume lots of their limited (precious) pneumatic air and battery power JUST to drive devices and game objects toward the FLOOR. IMO, it is always better to only drive things upward, and whenever possible let springs, bungee cords, surgical tubing and gravity do as much of your downward work for you. It saves energy, and device weight on the robot.

(Of course, if your robot spends a lot of its time tipped or flipped over so that Gravity is pointing the wrong way, that's a whole 'nuther problem... )

BTW... The same thing applies to one-shot release widgets (like an end-of-round deployment device). Instead of using a honking motor, that work can often be done with a spring and simple catch, and an itty bitty cylinder, servo, or now even a solenoid as a release device.

There's more savings: Those "little force" widgets can often be driven from the already present cRio bricks (the solenoid driver for a valve or solenoid, or a pwm output for a servo), instead of requiring additional space and weight allowance for another Spike, Victor, or Jaguar, and its associated wiring and breaker.

Even if you have no other pneumatics, one tiny release catch cylinder can easily be driven with stored air, and no compressor is required on the robot. (The "infrastructure overhead" isn't as bad as many fear - a spike by the power distribution panel to operate the off board compressor with a connector, a valve, and one manifold with everything else stuck on it stuffed in some corner of the bot.)

HOWEVER, now that solenoids are allowed, IMO that's even easier than one lone cylinder, as many can be driven from the cRio with no overhead. (Hooray! It's about time solenoids entered the contest! )

And lastly:
"When designing, it is always best to save the biggest power motors for the drivetrain, or your highest energy need payload link(s)."

Slowly accumulating energy winding up a spring with a small motor for an occasional big force release often saves you lots of space and weight over its big brothers and their huge, heavy gearboxes. It is also a lot easier on your battery than trying to pulse a bigger load, ...and... it saves the big guns for other uses.

Of them all, I think the first one ("Remember: Gravity is your Friend!") is heard chanted by me several times every build season.

- Keith