pic: Team 1712 First Test

[IraJason]

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[Greg Perkins]

Very impressive 1712!!

Here's some really good advice;

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!! you got ~1 week until ship, go over your strategy, and practice until you can hit your marks with your eyes closed. When your at competition do not get overcome by other teams, do not get nervous, because thats why you practiced so much. Just focus on what you can do, ignore everyone else, because gauranteed if you do what you can do, and do it well the top seeded teams when picking alliances will notice how consistent you were and chances are pretty good you will get picked.

So again, 2 things...

1. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
and
2. Become insanely consistent in what you do

Good luck, and your bot looks like it will do great!

[DjAlamose]

Here is a good idea that I wish we had time for. Run your robot has hard as you can, beat it up, bit not too much. This way you can see what parts break the most so you can get an idea of what parts are more necessary at comps. We try to do this every year so we can get an idea of whats needed. Also check to see how long the battery lasts when you drive the robot with all its functions continuously running. Monitor your robot and after every run, give it a check over to see if you can spot any problem areas. Last year we found out that our robot could only run for about 10 min continuously lifting tetras, not because of the battery, but because the motor would heat up and stall out. Every bit of information you know about your robot will help you when you get to a competition.

You also have a nice design. I see you work with the corner goals and you have a low pvc structure. Could help allot with the CG and that ramp. I like the roller design with the two rollers and your wheels look like they have plenty of grip. I also love that everyone even though they are 20 feet from the robot has safety glasses on! You guys did a great job and I can’t wait to hear what teams like yours have to say about competition.

[IraJason]

Yes, we have been getting quite a bit of practice with it, finding out the strengths and weeknesses and planning strategy around that. I missed a few days, but from what I've heard from tests is that we can successfully get up the ramp, and we are able to shoot the balls into one of the side goals. We've also been testing our autonomus code, so we should have working code for competition.

Thanks for all the complements so far! Hope everybody enjoys crunch week.