your pit area

[zakattacks99]

Hi I was just wondering about what people might be doing to organize their pit. so if your willing to share thanks

[DJStuberLook@ME]

My team advisor told us to draw up a 10x10 diagram of the area, where to place tools/storage, where the robot will be, sponsor names, banners, etc.

We did it on graph paper, and then made a list of what materials we'd need to build it.

Hope it helps!


JS

[DarkFlame145]

our theme this year is from the song "Pinball Wizard". So everything is going to revolve around pinball and late 1960's England.

[Seraph117]

that is so awesome!

i love the who

good choice you guys, i wish my team had good music taste to

[BanksKid]

Originally Posted by Seraph117

that is so awesome!

i love the who

good choice you guys, i wish my team had good music taste to

this has nothing to do with the pit area but dont forget to have speakers on your robot blaring metalica for dave

[Uberbots]

What we do is we go out into our schools main hallway, and we lay down the pit area using duct tape, and then physically fill it with stuff

[Blue_Mist]

We've never drawn out our pit design; that's a good idea.

766's pit has a table in the back with the battery chargers under it along with a bin for personal articles (coats, backpacks, purses, etc.). Commonly used tools are on the table next to the programming laptop and there is a chair for the programmer/s. The sides of the pit are lined with bins of materials/marketing give-aways/posters/banners and of course, our beloved red toolbox, which is a chest of drawers and actually accurately labeled this year. Robot goes in the middle of the pit on a cart. Make sure cart fits in pit with room for people!

An idea for battery chargers: We labeled each of our battery chargers and the ends of their wires with either Fire, Water, or Wind (chosen arbitrarily) so we wouldn't mix up which charger light went to which battery. And we always have a strip of masking tape on the floor labeled Charging...Charging...Charged! We just move the charging batteries along the line to wait for their next 30-second battery change.

And send people out to scout whenever the pit fills up or you're testing. We have a small team, so the problem is more that 766 doesn't have much of a spectator presence in the bleachers.

[Katy]

One mantra of my former mentor that I have come to respect is "No coats! Leave them with the scouting team!"

Coats, backpacks, purses, camera bags, laptop cases, umbrellas, and other personal affects of students on a 20+ person team take up a significant amount of pit space. They also constitute a hassle as team members come into the pit to retrieve various objects and get underfoot. Leave them with your scouting team. Your scouting team should be working in shifts and never leaving the stands anyway so there will always be somebody there to watch the belongings. Be sure to inform your scouting team of their new responsibilities.

[synth3tk]

I'm not sure if they have a good pic of it, but I LOVED the charger made by Team 1001, saw it at Buckeye. Pretty sweet, designed with engineers at Rockwell Automation.

[TNT280Staff]

10' X 10' is a bit large for the normal pit space given at competitions. You should scale down your design to fit into ant 8' X 8' area, because this is the size you will most likely be given at both the regionals and the championship. Hope it helps. Drawing out your design and knowing what you want it to look like and what materials will be a great help.

[zakattacks99]

thanks for the advice

[DJStuberLook@ME]

Our space at the San Diego Arena is 10x10, it must be different elsewhere...

[DarkFlame145]

at the FingerLakes we get 10X10, it says in the rule book that you get 10X10 feet of space for your pit.

[Kat Kononov]

The hardest part is that many people really want to be in the pit and help with whatever, but there is literally no room to stand. Try to designate a pit crew, and ask everyone else to be in the stands or walk around and see other teams. Also make sure to keep your pit organized and clean so that nobody trips or gets hurt.

[wilmo]

Even though it says 10X10 ft, its more like 9x9 ft. at least at the 4 competitions i've been to and been in charge of the pit. Our design is 9'4" and we go over 2 inches on both sides though it states in the book we should be fine.