Any funny stories during the season?

[LiPoFreak777]

Well this didn't really happen during the season but it did happen at the Silicon Valley Regional. Because one of our former members of the team always liked to ask the pit announcers for a flux capacitor or something strange like that, we decided to continue his tradition by asking for a "Neumatic Programming Wrench". Not only did the pit announcers allow us to ask this, we were given one early the next morning. Yes, a "Neumatic Programming Wrench". I can't remember which team gave it to us, but it was basically a wrench with neumatic tubing taped to it along with a computer cable. I couldn't stop laughing at the time.

[yarden.saa]

when our kicker was tested the drivers kicked the ball when i was doing the bill of materials on the computer and the ball touched the turn off button of the computer and all the bill of materials was no longer existing. it was funny

[pSYeNCe]

At the Buckeye Regional we asked Pit Admin to send out a request for a flux capacitor, and when they did we had someone bring us a piece of spongy foam. We then wrote on it and christened it the "Fluff Capacitor." We also got some candy, which we said would provide 1.21 gigawatts worth of caffeine.

[kwotremb]

Originally Posted by ALTrammell818

Twisting a garage door spring was a genius idea. Sadly I am not sure who actually came up with the idea. The electromagnet is pretty cool too. So much more fun than pneumatics!

It was one of Al's few simple designs. He came up with many other designs and we kept telling him, thats a nice design, but way to complex. He shows us this idea and all we could say was brilliant! I am jacking the robot this summer to learn to program and lets just say the length of kick migh be tested.

I remember when we were prototyping the design and kicking some balls. One of the kicks we tried sent the ball about 20 feet in the air, and that was about 5 to maybe 10 feet out from where the ball left the ground. To bad we were inside so we dont know exactly how far that could have gone. There were many of blasts that would go 10+ feet above the ground when it would hit the wall 30 feet away. To bad we couldnt have the follow through that the prototype had, stupid bumper rule

[ALTrammell818]

Originally Posted by The Cyborg

Another fun story I would like to share didn't really happen this year, but I was told about it this year (by a couple of volunteer buddies I used to work with). Back at a regional when FIRST didn't really have as high of a safety standard as they do now, a couple of volunteers were on the field doing some field maintenance.

Well, the match happened to start,

while they were still on the field.

Needless to say, they both learned about their hidden track and field talents that day and got out of there faster than a renegade ball kicked by 818 ( ). Thankfully, nobody got hurt, and I am very doubtful something like this would happen nowadays because of better safety practices. I'm very sure everyone involved learned their lesson about paying attention.

Imposhibibble!

[kjolana1124]

At regionals where we stay overnight, there have been reports of ice wars.

Not that I would take part in waking up at 5 AM to throw ice into the driver's room because their room had a doorbell. That would be crazy... *innocent*

[Thing2_1723]

On the way back from the Dallas regional, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for dinner and they served shrimp with the eyes still on there. So one girl at my table goes to the bathroom and we put a shrimp head in her rice and she comes back and doesn't see it until her fork hits it. Then someone puts the head in her drink and we fish it out in front of her. Later someone taps her on the shoulder and she turns around to have a shrimp head shoved in her mouth. And the waitress was in on everything with us.

Last year, some people were in the metals shop using a drill press. Two people who know what they're doing and a newbie (me). So one of the kids is getting mad at the castor that he's drilling axle holes into and he playfully bangs his head on the wall. Less than a minute later some clear-yellowish fluid starts leaking out his nose. It wasn't a drip, but like a faucet on full bast. So it leaks for about a minute and the three of us stand there until I ask if he's been sniffing the cutting oil or it was his brain. And then we all burst into laughter wondering what the heck has happened to the sanity of our team.

[ALTrammell818]

Originally Posted by LiPoFreak777

Well this didn't really happen during the season but it did happen at the Silicon Valley Regional. Because one of our former members of the team always liked to ask the pit announcers for a flux capacitor or something strange like that, we decided to continue his tradition by asking for a "Neumatic Programming Wrench". Not only did the pit announcers allow us to ask this, we were given one early the next morning. Yes, a "Neumatic Programming Wrench". I can't remember which team gave it to us, but it was basically a wrench with neumatic tubing taped to it along with a computer cable. I couldn't stop laughing at the time.

That is beautiful.

This isn't related to robotics but there is a computer and network administrator class at my high school with only a few kids in each hour. During each of these hours there is also a large class of students learning programming of different sorts and there is a single class for accounting. Every time there is a substitute teacher, one of the students in the first hour class asks the sub to remind my friends and I who show up later in the day to swap out the "Hydrogen Moleculizers" in all of the computers. When one of us is notified of this important task we all become extremely serious about getting it done. This has been going on all year and yet not a single substitute has noticed we were joking.

[Mr. Pockets]

A quick background info thing: our new shop has two cages detached from a large central open area. One of these cages is for storage, the other for machining. Also, due to a recent move to our current location and the onset of build season our work space is an organizational disaster (AKA, it looks like the inside of my locker =P).

Ok, so one evening I'm using the circular sander to clean up the edge on a few pieces of a peer award. I am not paying enough attention and I try to grind the piece using the far edge of the disc. The little piece of metal in my hand promptly shoots out of my hand. Thankfully no one was hurt...in fact no one even knew where the object had landed. I then spend a good 15 minutes searching the floor for the piece. I end up finding it outside the machining cage about fifteen feet from the sander.

Now as you'd imagine I'd be very wary around the sander that day, making sure to follow all the imaginable precautions, right. Wrong! Something in my exhausted head told me it would be a good idea to try grinding the square face of a 2x2x0.125 aluminum plate. Ten seconds later "CLANG". I had once again lost my grip and the plate was nowhere to be found. The search begins again, and this time I'm thoroughly confused. Not being able to find a tiny peer award piece on the ground is one thing, but a 2x2 plate. That's a bit odd. Finally I was describing what had happened to one of our mentors (college student). We go over and take a side panel off the sander and sure enough the plate is inside the sander. the metal was so thin it got sucked inside the machine.

I laughed...hard.

[ExTexan]

The last couple of years I usually get some of the students who want to learn to use battery powered hand tools, circular saw, drill, jigsaw, etc.. and build the parts of the practice field that we use.

This year we had successfully avoided wood screwing boards into the linoleum school floor or sawing off parts of the drafting tables we use instead of the sawhorses.

However I walked in the room a bit late one evening and 4 or 5 of the students were just finishing drilling the 4th of 4 1"+ holes in the 4X4's of the tower for the pipes. I knew they had been working on them a while. As I walked toward them I smelled hot wood and noticed that big wood bit turning in reverse. They had drilled the first 3 and most of the 4th with the drill running backwards. Quite amusing! In addition, these were the 4X4's that were cut 6" short and we had to add 6".

I love to laugh and learn at the same time! That's why I work on wood and leave the robot to others! Measure twice and cut once!

[FRC4ME]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets

Ok, so one evening I'm using the circular sander to clean up the edge on a few pieces of a peer award. I am not paying enough attention and I try to grind the piece using the far edge of the disc. The little piece of metal in my hand promptly shoots out of my hand. Thankfully no one was hurt...in fact no one even knew where the object had landed. I then spend a good 15 minutes searching the floor for the piece. I end up finding it outside the machining cage about fifteen feet from the sander.

I had once made a funny-looking assembly consisting of a rolling car attached to a rod of slotted aluminum chassis by a spring. I then tried to drill a hole in the car without clamping anything down. After I inevitably lost my grip, the part climbed up the drill press, spun around a few times, then was ejected forcefully into the floor, compressing the spring and causing it to hop 12' across the shop. Fortunately no one was in the area when this occurred - both for their safety, and for my dignity.

Originally Posted by ExTexan

However I walked in the room a bit late one evening and 4 or 5 of the students were just finishing drilling the 4th of 4 1"+ holes in the 4X4's of the tower for the pipes. I knew they had been working on them a while. As I walked toward them I smelled hot wood and noticed that big wood bit turning in reverse. They had drilled the first 3 and most of the 4th with the drill running backwards. Quite amusing! In addition, these were the 4X4's that were cut 6" short and we had to add 6".

The first time I drilled a hole in the piece of polycarbonate, I had the drill running backwards. It took about sixty seconds to get through 1/8" of plastic. I remember thinking out loud, "man this stuff is tough!," when in reality I wasn't drilling through the material: I was melting through it.

[Hastypickle]

This year we were teaching a sophomore how to drill through a piece of lexan polycarbonate sheet that we were using for our electronics board. We had the spot where we were drilling just off of the table so the drill bit wouldn't damage the table (we had done this countless times and nothing ever happened). What we hadn't realized was that the lexan sheet was really an acrylic sheet (20 times weaker than the lexan that we used in years past) and the piece cracked completely off. We were shocked that the piece cracked off like it did. We now tease him about the piece that broke off.

[The Cyborg]

Today at Troy, one of the referees was so fed up with getting hit by balls that he taped a sign on his back that said "I am not a goal!"

Looks like getting hit by balls is more common that I thought

[blayde5]

In San Diego, our pits were horrible. Junk and tools were lying around everywhere, trip hazards were a must, and our power tools were plugged in and exposed. Furthermore, our safety captain and our coach on the drive team had tripped over our robot cart... 2 minutes later, a safety advisor gave us safety tokens for "plugging in our batteries correctly"

While testing different geometries for our kicker plater, our mentor happened to be watching. We pulled the kicker back, put a ball in place, and let it go... It hit him straight in the face at which point he said "it looks like we're using THAT one"

[Grim Tuesday]

At Philly, during a qualification match, a robot began smoking. And by smoking, I dont mean a trickle of smoke, I mean a serious amount billowing out. The team refused to E-Stop their robot in autonomous, due to the penalty, so it continued smoking. The robot was also in their offensive zone, so they could hardly see it. When Tele-Op starts, they run to the controls, and try to drive it. When they realize that it is smoking, they start jamming their E-Stop button. Nothing happens. They are all like WTF!!!!! Our team and other members other people on the stands start yelling, and finally the refs E-Stop the robot, and end the game. A volunteer runs onto the field with a fire extinguisher looking dangerously ready to pull the trigger. The smoke soon stops coming out, and then the team runs on to the field to see what the issue was. They fixed it, and they won the match.