What is the most ghetto thing you've seen on a robot?

[Pretzel]

I still have the crescent end of a combo ratchet/crescent wrench that we used to make a gearbox addition in order to prevent backdriving of a motor at all times. The funny part was that at first we installed the wrench the wrong way, meaning that it had to be taken completely apart (a not so kind procedure) before being reinstalled.

There was a part last year on our robot, which held the end of a Dart actuator in place, that was meant to be CNC milled. It was a small part that was to be made from box tubing with precision, not thinking about the small surface area of the part, I attempted to run it on a CNC mill with a tape plate (3 of the 4 sides had to be cut, hence the tape plate). One loudly thrown part later, I decided that manual machining would be precise enough since we did not have enough time to machine a fixture for the part at that point in the build season. Thus was born the "TNC" (Tyler Non-numerically Controlled) bracket, a part which could only be described as "passable" after using a belt sander to attempt to shape the part from a rectangular piece of box tubing down to the teardrop shape specified in the CAD model. It was eventually replaced after two regional events worth of abuse caused it to begin to buckle (I later postulated that techniques used such as "using a vice to mash it back to square" and "beating on it with a hammer" did not result in it having the highest measure of structural integrity), but while it was on the robot it fairly evident that it did not belong despite the fact that it worked.

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by Aura_

Come on dude everyone knows what he means with ghetto do be so critical about it.

Maybe something like "improvised" could be more suitable to discuss a topic like this.

Yes, we know what he means. But it is time that society breaks away from these traditional and disrespectful terms and descriptions. We are well into the 21st century, lets not condone these sort of descriptions any where, let alone in the FIRST community.

Also many teams struggle with limited resources, let's not take away the pride that they feel when they have finished building their robot, even though it may not live up to some peoples standards. While you may see it as okay, to be submitting photos of parts on your own robots, teams which may be proud of their ability to utilise that tool or part in that way also look at CD

[ratdude747]

The most (insert non-racist word here) hack I've seen was 1646 in 2008 at Great Lakes regional. They built a ball herding lap runner and a fast one at that... and during eliminations their mechanism broke to the point of requiring removal, and that caused all sorts of weight distribution issues. OK, what to do? Add weight, obviously... but what to add? Obviously they couldn't add extra CIMs or batteries (the latter was more obvious then than in 2014), so they had to go for the next heaviest thing in the pits, tools! Wrenches, a drill press vice, you name it, they added it to the front of the robot to get the weight back. They didn't advance to finals, but it was still funny to look at.

[Whippet]

Our 2013 robot, designed to be a 30-point climber, never worked due to poor engineering and a lack of any tangible top-level design. We missed our first couple of qualifications matches just trying to get the thing to pass inspection, and the climbing mechanism was destroyed a couple matches later in a collision with another robot. We ended up building a simple 10-point climber that was held together entirely by zip ties that we broke at the beginning of the match, allowing the robot to climb at the be beginning of the match and literally nothing else. If we tried to do defense, the zip ties would fail prematurely and remove any ability for is to score points. (Un)fortunately,I am not aware of any existing photographs or videos of said robot.

Our 2014 entry was far more effective, but looked even more poorly constructed:
https://youtu.be/QDLsJxaACUA

[GeeTwo]

Ignoring the possible offense of the term used (and noting in passing that I have heard far more offensive terms that mean the same thing), here are a few examples of creative use of products:

There was a rookie robot at Bayou in 2014 (Aerial Assist) which was largely constructed of scrap metal, such as old road signs. The goalie riser was particularly shocking, but up close, all the rough edges were knocked down and it was a slick piece of work on an extreme budget.

The second iteration of our boulder pickup this year used a Home Depot "Homer Bucket" cut off to about 12" tall and "dissected like a frog" to both help bring the boulder to the centerline of the robot and ensure a clean pour into the launcher. Iterations 3, 4, and 5 have returned to all aluminum and/or polycarb construction, but none have centered the ball as cleanly as #2.

Our 2013 Ultimate Ascent climbing slide was rather curious. A CIM was mounted in a piece of angle which was mounted to a T-hinge, and drove a timing belt sheave directly. The other end of the timing belt drove a "lead screw" composed of threaded rod and a coupling nut. The gh interesting bit was how the belt was tensioned by a turnbuckle hooked into the last hole on the t-hinge. The carriage that this lead screw drove rode on flanged bearings against an inverted rail of aluminum angle. It looked like junk, but it was one of the few mechanical systems of our 2013 robot that did not fail at Bayou.

[HurdFIRST]

I just had to address a student about this exact issue in the pits at Kettering last week. She was addressing a cable ran to the second floor via a ladder with caution tape wrapped around it. My exact words to her were "unless there's 7 hungry families living in that ladder, you need to find a different word to describe it."

It's not about being politically correct, it's about being inclusive and approachable. (I hope) you wouldn't call someone acting in an undesirable manner gay for the same reason that you shouldn't call the crap you put on your robot ghetto. In doing so you let those who are gay and those who actually live in the ghetto know that they are undesirable and that they are crap respectively.

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by HurdFIRST

It's not about being politically correct, it's about being inclusive and approachable. (I hope) you wouldn't call someone acting in an undesirable manner gay for the same reason that you shouldn't call the crap you put on your robot ghetto. In doing so you let those who are gay and those who actually live in the ghetto know that they are undesirable and that they are crap respectively.

A counter argument to this is that most of what is actually being described and discussed on topic in this thread has a prominent emphasis of fond feelings for said robot components, how they came to be, and what made them special to us. There are plenty of negative terms that exist that are used in a positive context, as I feel was the intent of the OP. My personal example was that even if its built like crap from a rough build season that makes no difference on its final performance, what you do with it is the part that matters.

Such as building an Einstein field worthy robot out of a leaky shipping container with a 3 phase wiring job that would make any licensed electrician scream in horror. Yes our build practices were sub-par, but that did nothing to deter us from rebuilding practically our whole robot and practicing like mad to be on even footing with the best and the greatest.

Edit: I feel that the term "Janky" has the closest feel and meaning to what OP was going for, let's all just agree to use that and carry on with this thread as intended before it gets any further derailed. Let's just use this as a learning experience.

[Monochron]

To be honest, a lot of your examples look really professionally put together compared to a lot of robots I have seen, and quite a few that I have been a part of making.
Last minute fixes and adjustments are always a great experience.

[Maximillian]

Last year one of the gussets on our elevator broke a day before we left for IRI. We somehow didn't have a replacement so we made up a janky solution to hold on one of the bearings using another VEX gusset bolted on. We ended up leaving it like that for our two other off seasons after IRI...

[Moonsault]

How about a riveted seat belt to secure a battery in its holder ?

[droopy]

I remember seeing a team that duck taped a cim on their robot. When I asked them why they did that they responded with "we ran out of gaff tape"

[GreyingJay]

We brought our practice robot in pieces (drive base and ball manipulator) to the local library for drive practice (yes, our city library lets us drive the robot around! They're awesome!) and realized that we forgot the 3/8" spacer block for where the mechanism bolts onto the frame. The only tools we had brought were the basic ones we knew we needed to bolt the frame on, including an ample set of wrenches. Wrenches that were approximately 3/8" thick...

Fast-forward to a week or two later, and to this conversation:

Me: "I need a 3/8" wrench."
Other team member: "Uh..."
Me: *searching toolbox* "I know we have one. More than one. Where are they?"
Other team member: "Uh..."
Me: "... they're all on the robot, aren't they."
Other team member: "Yup."

That same day I also found all of our small allen keys substituting for hitch pins, holding our bumpers in place.

[Trevor1523]

YES! This thread was made for 1523

My favourite ghetto part on one of our robots was our chain tensioner from last year. We used a PVC block which was circular (referred to by team members as a urinal cake), which was wedged between the chain and the trolley that lifted the tote to keep the chain tought.

We've used tables to bend metal, wrong tools for the right jobs etc etc.

There's probably other things that we've done, but I can't remember.

[GeeTwo]

It may not be the most ghetto thing I ever saw, but we definitely made a data point last night. After three weeks of completely rebuilding the air cannon (which we traditionally do every 18 months or so, but this one made it simpler rather than more complex, yeah!), something in the arduino code just did not work. This code was finally available and tested to a fail at about 1700 (5pm), and the game started at 1900 (7pm). I took to the streets to buy starter switches, horn switches, and wire. After visiting three different auto parts shops, we got down to a wonderful fast build - everyone was out of the comfort zone, myself included. While we did not make the 1900 start of game, the robot rolled out before halftime with a 12 foot (3.6m) tether consisting of 8 12 ga wires (4 red, 2 green, 2 blue) to switch the four motors on starter switches and a four-conductor set of trailer wires to switch the two solenoid valve launchers, all in a wire handler bundle, coming up into a too-small radio shack project box (the only one in the shop, can you believe it?) with the switches. We could only drive forward, with slight turns by pushing only on one side, but we helped keep the home crowd entertained as our football team lost 21-3 to Covington. Official tryouts start a week after next, but a handful of our new recruits made the cut in my mind last night.

[Jonah Sachs]

This: