Just A Small Reminder...

[synth3tk]

It's awesome to see teams finally getting a rolling chassis completed! Very inspiring to those of us who are still putting a few nuts and bolts together. As I see YouTube or other streaming videos popping up every which way, I notice many are driving on tiles, or a similar type of flooring. While watching it roll that fast is great, don't be fooled. I understand some of you may already befriended this nice tidbit of advice, but...

[MAKE SURE YOU TEST ON CARPET!!!]

You may be thinking, "dave, u r krazzy!! ever1 tsets on carpet!!!1!" Take it from someone with a little bad experience, we made that mistake last year. Arrived at regionals only to find that it wouldn't even budge a foot on carpet. Thanks to Delphi Elite (I think it was, one of the Delphi's) the zip tie solution came to play. Point is, find a nice carpeted room that is roughly the same make as an arena floor. If not, you can buy a nice sized chunk of it from the official supplier.

So now you're pondering how to obtain some of this "über-1337" material.

Originally Posted by GDC

FIRST gets the carpet used at the competitions from a company called S+S Mills. To order carpet from them, call 800-241-4013 and ask for Debbie Collins. Please mention "Gary Ulbin" when you call so that she can associate you with FIRST.

Happy building, and good luck to all teams.


David Thomas,
Bedford Robotics