Mistakes

[Bomberofdoom]

The most wonderful mistake of all:

We were in the eliminations this year (2008), and in the first round of the sem-finals, our robot just stopped moving.
I perosnally checked all electronics were ok, robot powered on, radio connected and everything, but the robot won't move.
So, I presumed that it was a radio connection problem, sinc USUALLY robots don't move when there is no radio connection.

So, I go on to check with the FMS guys, check what's up with thier systems, and they say it's all good. I tell them, "Our robot was OK!" and start arguing with him.

Later on, before the seconed round of the semi-final (oh, yeah, we lost the first round by 6 points) we got a timeout.
We used this time to check all robot systems.
I checked the power distribution, the gold thingy where power is given to the CIM victors (40 Amp) (I wasn't in the electrical team, but I'm familiar with how it works). I looked at the victors for a seconed before I touched some wires over there and I noticed the lights of the victor going on and off, and then soudnly it was solid orange, so everything was fine.

Seconed round starts, autonmous start.
A few seconeds of tention, and the robot soars to the first line. Me and the rest of the drivers cheer.

Teleop, 15 seconds to end.
Robot was working flawlessly with no problems, I was turning around the opposite side towards the opposing alliance's overhead to take out the ball they placed.
I stop the robot right underneath the ball so we can pop it out.

To my manipulator driver: "Ok, raise the arm!"
him: "I'm trying!!!"
announcer: "5,4,3,2,1 and times up!".

All the electrical wires going through the gold thingy got loose just as I stopped the robot, so all mechanisims (the arm and the drivetrain) didn't responed at all.
I only realised it wasn't the radio after the end of the day.

Moral:
Keep rolling (atleast in the game of Overdrive).

Oh, yeah, we lost by 2 points. Soo....yeah....major bum.