Competing in a Regional Soon ? - Watch out

[AlexanderTheOK]

I find it strange that no one has mentioned the obvious engineering oversight here:

Why is the table that holds expensive electronics connected rigidly to something that will take massive impacts? I feel you could easily design the field so that the driver stations are independent of the wall.

[Jaci]

To reply to both pilleya and Pretzel:

Due to funding constraints (everything purchased has to go through multiple channels of approval), we've opted to use my personal laptop as the Driver Station console. Our only other option is the Classmates provided in the KOP of our Rookie year, and on our DS console, I'd like more than 2 pixels on the screen to work with. If at all possible, I'd prefer to avoid attaching velcro to my personal computer, but I guess that's just me being anal.

Custom driver station consoles are a solution, yes, but for many teams, they are time crunched enough just getting the robot finished before competition, let alone extra parts like a driver station console.

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by Jaci

Custom driver station consoles are a solution, yes, but for many teams, they are time crunched enough just getting the robot finished before competition, let alone extra parts like a driver station console.

An operator console, can be as simple as a piece of plywood, 1 foot wide and 3 feet long it can be purple to go with your teams colours. An operator console can be re-used season after season, and does not have to be built during build. Once you have this, there are ways of attaching the laptop which do not require adhesives.

[Jaci]

Originally Posted by pilleya

An operator console, can be as simple as a piece of plywood, 1 foot wide and 3 feet long it can be purple to go with your teams colours. An operator console can be re-used season after season, and does not have to be built during build. Once you have this, there are ways of attaching the laptop which do not require adhesives.

Any suggestions for attachment? We don't have access to workshops currently, but if we can find a way to transport it, we may be able to come up with something

[pilleya]

The lip idea that you mentioned, could be applied to this, a box with no lid sort of thing could be made on the driver station, into which the laptop could simply sit( with holes for USB, charging etc.)

Another alternative non-adhesive method, would be to use a piece of cordage, which would go around the hinges( the things with join the screen and the non-important bit with the keyboard ). Two brackets could be used which fit over the front corners of the laptop( but this is really dangerous, because if you close your screen it might crack)

Also this sort of breaks the non-adhesive rule, but you could attach little squares of the double sided tape included in the KOP to each of the little rubber feet on your laptop( if it has them) and then mount it the the console that way( that stuff is strong)

You guys have probably already crated and sent your Robot for the Australia Regional, so you'd have to make something which you could take with you on the plane

[Jaci]

Originally Posted by pilleya

You guys have probably already crated and sent your Robot for the Australia Regional, so you'd have to make something which you could take with you on the plane

Yea, crates are somewhere in the outback currently. I'll see if I can hack something up during the practice day, as we can't carry much more on the plane. Either way, see you guys in about 1.5 weeks, everyone over here is on the edge of their seats waiting for competition

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by Jaci

Yea, crates are somewhere in the outback currently. I'll see if I can hack something up during the practice day, as we can't carry much more on the plane. Either way, see you guys in about 1.5 weeks, everyone over here is on the edge of their seats waiting for competition

We'll happily help you in that regard, PM me the size requirements and we should be able to make something to give to you at the event.

[de_]

Originally Posted by de_

Make sure you have read and understood team update 14.

Today our robot was dead during part or all of 6 out of 8 matches even though it was completely mechanically functional. Twice it was caused by opponent teams robot smashing into the our wall in autonomous causing our laptop to blue screen and reboot and the second time crash on the floor and even after a reboot of the laptop, the robot autostart failed. Another team I am told had one or both of a laptop and tablet destroyed in a similar situation today. No penalty or consequences what so ever to the robots that caused it.

I think FIRST needs to immediately implement one or more of the following:

1) If a robot in autonomous crashes so out of control hard into the wall causing a driver station of the teams behind wall are immediately effected (ie their robot goes dead. a) the offending team should get no score for the match and or b) better still the match is immediately restarted.

2) Teams should be allowed to hold their laptop during autonomous so as to protect them.

All laptops are expensive fragile electronics. Velcroing them so they can be smashed about without consequence is ridiculous.

Dave Edwards
Mentor - Runnymede Robotics
Team 1310

Update: Apparently the mentor provided laptop requires replacing. It was his personal very high end business laptop and it was used because 1) we have a rich smart dashboard environment and 2) our $1500 Dell I7 Windows 10 team laptop would not reliably connect to the field.

Clearly FIRST NEEDS to provide an updated more protection environment next year. This problem is not going to go away. For this year, they need to do everything possible to allow the drivers to protect this very expensive very fragile, very low G force rated piece of essential equipment from robots. As a professional engineer, velcroing a spinning hard drive with microscope clearances and a fragile lcd screen on plastic hinges to a high G force impact table is not a solution, its an expensive failure waiting to happen. I don't know what fund raising environments other teams are in but in our environment, raising funds for $10s of dollars is incredibly tough, never mind $2500 for laptop replacements.

All teams I highly recommend you follow every single recommendation in Team update 14. Do bring a BRAND NEW network cable for between your bridge and roborio and replace the existing one with the first sign of trouble.
Do review your Drive Station log after every match and practice. Bring a can of compressed air to blow out any fillings, cover up every unused port on your roborio. And train your drivers to be smart and minimize the impacts to your robot when at all possible. Foot high jumps over the Rock Wall or Cheval looks cool but could cost you matches. Lastly be prepared to protect your laptop and hopefully have a backup.

[Doug Frisk]

Originally Posted by de_

Update: Apparently the mentor provided laptop requires replacing. It was his personal very high end business laptop and it was used because 1) we have a rich smart dashboard environment and 2) our $1500 Dell I7 Windows 10 team laptop would not reliably connect to the field.

My homeowner's insurance would cover that damage. Check into if that's a viable option for the mentor who's laptop is damaged.

Robots slamming into the drivers station wall has been a problem every single year I've been working matches. I'm sorry for your loss, but it isn't an unpredictable outcome given the dynamics of the games played.

Potential damage from robots is not limited to the field. Arial Assault's exercise balls were pretty damaging to me personally. I had a Microsoft Surface smashed and broken as well as a ThinkPad (luckily it was a ThinkPad and the floor was only concrete) knocked off the scorekeeper table by teams shooting them off the field.