Crazy Robot Inspection Stories

[Lil' Lavery]

My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics.

I remember that bot. It's why we started using Mini Andersons for everything. That change has made a world of difference in how easy it is to layout a board, integrate mechanisms, and move an electronic component if necessary. Those have also been huge in easing the pain of quickly wiring pneumatic valves, test motors, etc -- there's never a mix-up of putting two female ends together, red to black, etc.

[rocknthehawk]

Not necesarrily having to do with the robot...

my first and only trip to Atlanta (2005), while having our robot inspected, one of the inspectors had a laugh about my hair (i had my mohawk spiked at the time), with the comment "time for a trim!". He pulled out some small scissors, and we kind of laughed. He then cut part of my hair off.

I don't know if he thought it wasn't real or what, but that was a very big deal. It wasn't a few millimeters like a trim would be, it was an inch or more at the back of my head...when you hold the world record by a few inches, every little bit counts. A few people from FIRST came over to our pit later to apologize, and the inspector did the same later that day.

[FRC4ME]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics.

Would you mind posting a link to that picture (or a similar one)? My team's electronics layout sucked this year - when a relay failed, we simply added a new one because the old one was impossible to access - and I need to show them an example of how to do it right.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by FRC4ME

Would you mind posting a link to that picture (or a similar one)? My team's electronics layout sucked this year - when a relay failed, we simply added a new one because the old one was impossible to access - and I need to show them an example of how to do it right.

I can't find a great picture of the 2007 iteration, but here is a thread about the 2005 version (note this post about the 2007 version). And here you can see it in the 2007 robot, and here you can see it unfolded (before the wires were fully cleaned up).