So Close!!!!

[Marygrace]

We are so close, our team doesn't have anymore meetings until kick off, and the anticipation is driving me crazy. Now I know everyone has talked about what they think the game will be, but i have a question for ya'll.

What mistakes did your team make last year that you will correct this year?

Ok, for our team, a couple things. First of all, NO CASTORS!!! That hurt us pretty bad, oh, and starting out with simple ideas. We tend to dream up all of these complicated unrealistic ideas in the beggining and then ending up with a basic robot that does ok.(Which I am sure a lot of teams do)

We had to remake the frame four times and each time it got simpler and simpler. If we started out with a simple concept, we would have had a lot more time to work out the kinks.

*Sigh*

But, I guess it is all apart of the learning experience, how about you?

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Marygrace

First of all, NO CASTORS!!!

Where's the spotlight feature when you need it? That kind of thinking is a good way to start building a successful robot. Next year, we will spend less time talking and more time doing. After the SCRRF Scrimmage, we are going to have a party because our robot will be underweight. Our mteacher advisor will not allow us to drill and cut holes after the scrimmage. It is a rule. Everything that can be lightened, will be lightened from the start. No exceptions. Everything will be designed in Inventor before anything gets built. Period. Last, there will be no adjustments anywhere in the robot. This is what hurt us a bit last year (drivetrain out of alignment, binding). Everything will fit precisely at the begining, and remain that way until the end.

Those are the changes my team will be making.

A change I proposed is that appearance is just as good as performance. Our robot shall look as if it came off a store shelf. Everything that can be polished, powder coated, anodized, or properly painted will be.

Although I am a Ford lover, I like GM's slogan: We are professional grade.

[DanL]

The one thing our team did wrong last year is we didn't analyze the game enough. We came up with this overly complicated stacking solution that didn't even work well. As a result, we spent all of our time trying to get it to work, and when the competitions rolled around, our robot didn't even move well.

This year we're going to spend a lot more time analyzing the game. Had we done that, we could have realized that it requires far more time to stack bins than to merely knock a stack down or get a lot of bins to your side. Very few teams developed a robot that worked well enough to stack efficiently and accurately. This year, we're going to try and see game flaws like this and design appropriately.

[Arefin Bari]

make sure that all the calculations are right that the gears in the tranny wont lose the teeth in every single match... and that we dont have to take the tranny apart 26 times during one regional!!!

[Blacknight]

K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple stupid
deff that for my team
we tried to have a stacking pushing bot last year, stacking didn't work and the robot was never fully completed due to complex design.

[sillywilly547]

yes, simple is the way too go. as I was not on our team last year, I don't know much about it, so I couldn't tell you if it was simple or not.

[Cory]

Simple isnt always the solution. However, when that 3 speed, shift on the fly crab transmission doesnt work, make sure you have a fall back option. We are going to try and do some stuff we havent tried before, but if we mess it up, we know we have the same standard drive system that weve used for the last four years that we can slap together in a day.

Cory

Make sure shipping is taken care of so we don't show up at a Regional with our robot half way across the country...

[Matt Attallah]

Originally Posted by D.J. Fluck

Make sure shipping is taken care of so we don't show up at a Regional with our robot half way across the country...

Haha - yea. That is probally the most important note so far.

O - btw - don't over-analyze the game. Just take it what it is for!

[Mike Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Marygrace

Ok, for our team, a couple things. First of all, NO CASTORS!!!

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Where's the spotlight feature when you need it? That kind of thinking is a good way to start building a successful robot.

Acctually to the defense of those that used castors, there were quite a few successful robots that had castors, for example, Team 222 the Tigertrons, they used castors, and were finalists at 2 regionals
Team 103 also used castors and if memory serves did quite well this season(besides the chairmens) Team 303, used a castor to turn easier, it raised and lowered as needed, a very unique feature IMHO

[thoughtful]

Hmm...well basically time..as always will be a problem. I would also like to see some driver practice last year we got none. And yea people who are not commited should be kicked out

[Pat Fairbank]

Last year we couldn't decide between a stacker and a robot that could fit beneath the bar, so we got the bright idea to do both and have modules that we could swap in or out. It took forever to figure these out, and in the end it was our drivetrain that broke down, and we never used the stacker. Don't ever build a robot that converts between two different functions, because it takes twice as long, and chances are you will never use one of the functions.

We too plan to design our robot fully before building it; last year construction advanced slowly due to lack of communication of the design.

[wayne 05]

The one thing our team needs to do is minimize human error.Last year we lost the match becuse some body for got to tightnen the set scew for the potentiometer and the robot jumped out of the field. Another is dont depend on one person to come up with the design.

[KenWittlief]

we busted gears or shafts in almost every match last year

so this year we are involking the one-inch rule:

NOTHING in the drivetrain can be smaller than one inch!

One inch shafts
one inch wide gears
one inch teeth on the gears
one inch pins (if used)
one inch nuts and bolts

:^)

our transmission might end up being big and heavy
but on the plus side, we will only need one size wrench for everything!