Tell Me About Your Pit

[CMBrandon]

What are the top 5 most important things in the pit? Not counting your robot, of course. I'm thinking things like battery charger, band saw, tool storage, laptop/desktop, etc.

[tjf]

Well, first and foremost a pit has to be clean. Without a clean and orderly pit, having one is functionally useless. Every tool has a place, and is kept in it obsessively.

Secondly is the layout. The robot needs to be somewhere when it's in the pit when we're working on it such that we can have 3 or 4 people on it at once (depending.) As a result it's almost always dead center.

Thirdly is our tool location. Keeping them at the back wall worked for 1257 in 2016, with a shelf off to the side for the sake of storage of things we don't need frequently.

On that note are the 4th and 5th items being laptop charger & battery charger. Without either of these, the DS can't work and the robot won't move. IIRC we purchased a spare charger just in-case the main charger for our DS breaks, and we have a backup battery charger (4 at once vs 1 at once) just in case.

Overall, a pit just has to be clean, orderly, and functional. Anything else is supplementary. Though a mess in this photo, it does show 1257's 2016 pit all-right. (It was during finals at MAR DCMP, so it was clearly deserted. I should have watched that match is something I've said far too much...) The photo goes against everything I said, but there are toolboxes that were dragged to right beside the field.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEWBmF6sOFe/

[Chief Hedgehog]

I will be following this thread closely as we are in the middle of a complete PIT redesign. Top 5 needs for us in no particular order (and will most likely change a few times over the coming weeks):

1. Battery charging station w/read outs
2. Programmers area
3. Tool chests/Work stations
4. Lighting that doesn't overheat the work area
5. Media/Marketing area

[NShep98]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

1. Battery charging station w/read outs
2. Programmers area
3. Tool chests/Work stations
4. Lighting that doesn't overheat the work area
5. Media/Marketing area

6. Dragon

...right?

[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by NShep98

6. Dragon

...right?

Dragon? Not following... Please elaborate.

[Cothron Theiss]

1. Safety equipment
2. Battery charger
3. Whiteboard with schedule and battery list
4. Tools/parts storage
5. Talking materials (basically some printoffs we can show to Amy judges or teams that come up when the people in the pit don't know the answer to something)
6. Foam flooring

One thing I would suggest if you have the space is to set up your pit in your shop permanently. We started doing this because we share an old band room with a regular class for our work shop. We initially set up our pit so we would have very clear boundaries as to where the classroom's property ended and our team's property started. However, we figured out pretty quickly it made our team members much more efficient at competition because we were so used to working out of the pit. Knowing where all of the tools go is a wonderful thing, and you can figure out what does and doesn't work for your pit before you get to competition.

Another thing I'll add is that having your team number displayed prominently on all sides of your pit makes everyone else's lives easier.

[NShep98]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

Dragon? Not following... Please elaborate.

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/s...t=10th+defense

We kept him in our pit after that.

[nickbrickmaster]

Our pit has a mobile island made out of two toolchests, and a spot for the robot on top. We also have a back area made of shelves. This is (along with our battery cart) all we have in our pit, which gives us a place to store tools (toolchest), robot (top of carts), storage for hardware (shelves), a place for immobile tools (shelf), extra workspace (shelf), and a place to store coats, etc (top of shelf). On top of these shelves, we have a bank of TVs that display a powerpoint.

This design is very clean, and gives us enough room to work and room to store all our stuff without feeling cramped. I can't really stress how good this feels - you have space to move around people without it becoming awkward! It's also quick to set up and easy to transport.

For five most important things, I would put toolchest-island first. It's nice to have a work surface that also stores your tools.
Second, our bandsaw. We had tons of people use it during 10,000 Lakes (we joked about setting up a fundraiser by charging 1$ for using the bandsaw), and we couldn't have fixed a few essential parts without it.
Third, our powerpoint TVs. TBH, it looks nice. We had a good number of compliments on these last season.
Fourth, (though this is kind of cheating) the shelving. Work surface and storage.
Fifth, our battery cart. It's essential for a robotics team (so I would put it higher), but ours is up for a bit of a redesign, as it's a bit clunky and space-inefficient.

Here are some pics. In the second one you can see some coats up top.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Chief Hedgehog

I will be following this thread closely as we are in the middle of a complete PIT redesign. Top 5 needs for us in no particular order (and will most likely change a few times over the coming weeks):

1. Battery charging station w/read outs
2. Programmers area
3. Tool chests/Work stations
4. Lighting that doesn't overheat the work area
5. Media/Marketing area

4 is largely optional unless your local events provide really insufficient house lighting, and 2 can be accomplished outside of your pit.

[anushad]

2876 is pretty proud of its pit (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgLem7rUUAA5_4E.jpg:large).

The five most important things in the pit are
1. Empty space for the robot and pit crew members
2. Table space for tools, programming etc. (the shop in the box we have has table space and a vice on it)- we also use large boxes for bringing in batteries and materials so that we can use that as table space.
3. Designated areas and enough (but not too much) mechanical, electrical, and programming supplies.
4. Designated areas for safety and strategy equipment that the entire team is aware of and has access to.
5. Banners and displays to make the team visible and exciting (and buttons/giveaways in the front corner so they don't interfere with robot transport and maintenance)

[D.Allred]

Pits only function if they are clean and organized. Here's a slightly different take on the list. (I stretched the top 5 a bit.)

1. Empty space. Git rid of tables unless you plan to do major upgrades or build something. We use our cart as a temporary table if needed. Otherwise, table tops attract junk. We also use the competition machine shop and only bring hand tools.
2. Robot cart. You need a cart anyway, so make it a functional part of your tool storage system.
3. Rolling battery charging station. Make a compact battery charging station for you robot batteries and hand tool batteries. It needs to roll if you plan on going to the playoffs.
4. Rolling tool boxes with a vise. Limit the amount of tools needed by having standard fasteners.
5. Spare parts / raw material system. We have small parts organizer boxes for fasteners and control system spares. Raw stock is in a bin attached to the side of the tool box.
6. Task lighting.
7. Branding system.

David

[lark95]

The pit that we use was built in 2012. we have used it ever since then and it has worked great for us. We have 4 cabinets mounted on the back wall above 4 tool chests that hold all of out tools. On one wall we have rack that holds 6 tool belts that drive team and pit crew members can use for matches in case a quick repair or something is needed. We also have a rolling cabinet we made that has 6 built in chargers and an outlet to plug in two more portable ones. We also have 2 computer monitors mounted to the front of our pit that we can plug a laptop into for things like out match schedule.

edit: We also built in a big power strip so that we have 8 outlets all around the pit. One of the other things about the structure is that the upper halfs of all the walls are pegboard. We use this to store anythings from files to extension cords. Super useful.

[Tal_Esh]

After working on this year's pit I have realized its importance for:
- Charging Batteries
- Robot fixing
- Presentations for judges
- Team morale!

So I would say:
1. Good and reasonable space managment
2. Batteries charging dock and easy-access-but-not-interrupting storage
3. Easy-access-but-not-interrupting storage
4. Team resources for explaining about the team and the robot
5. Safe working space


*looking for a good picture of our pit, will upload soon

[Chief Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

4 is largely optional unless your local events provide really insufficient house lighting, and 2 can be accomplished outside of your pit.

You should tell that to the DECC and UofM

[Drewit]

Ignoring the robot, people, and the driver station, the five things that I believe are necessary for our pit are (in no particular order):

• Toolboxes - All FRC robots require some degree of maintenance, so a toolbox full of tools relevant to the robot and organized for easy retrieval is essential. Having the toolboxes be rolling toolboxes make loading/unloading easy. Ours are currently COTS (and painted to match team colors), but others like Team 1619, Team 365, and Team 973, have custom toolboxes.
  
• Safety Supplies/Strategies - Sometimes overlooked, safety supplies are a necessity to ensure injuries get treated quickly before they worsen, and safety strategies (i.e. making sure nobody is in the robot before enabling, making sure people won't get hit by moving robot parts, securing controllers before enabling, disabling the robot if someone does something unexpected that puts them in harms way, etc.) help to prevent injuries before they happen. A first aid kit, battery spill kit, and some safety strategies are a must at minimum.
  
• Spare Parts - FIRST is a contact sport, and I am a believer in the full version of Murphy's Law: Anything bad that can happen will happen at the worst possible moment. Things are going to break, so it's important to plan ahead and bring any spares you believe will be necessary while respecting the rules for spare parts allowances.
  
• Batteries and Chargers - FRC batteries deplete rather quickly, so having charged batteries on standby helps ensure pits run smoothly. We currently bring our batteries and chargers in totes, but other teams like 1619 (see link above) and 973 (see link above) have dedicated carts for battery and charger storage.
  
• Sponsor Recognition - FRC is not cheap, and it takes a lot of sponsors to fund a FRC team, so thanking them for their support is extremely important! In our pit, we do this in two ways: Having a dedicated sponsor banner in the back of the pit up at the 10ft limit, and/or having a computer and monitor run digital sign software (we use Xibo) that cycles through photo/video libraries with the sponsor library playing multiple times during a cycle.

Note: My comments are my own and may not represent the teams that I am involved with.