Crazy Robot Inspection Stories

[sashboy226]

Originally Posted by EricH

There were a number of teams at Arizona that could have passed weight with both battery and bumpers aboard.

I'm pretty sure we can this year. Our robot only weighs about 83 pounds without them.

[McVey]

Originally Posted by FRC4ME

At the same regional, I watched 339 and the inspectors argue for about 30 minutes over whether the red light proximity sensors from previous years were legal. The inspectors didn't think they were because they required a 12V supply but didn't have the necessary gauge wire for a 20 amp breaker. The problem is, there smallest 12V supply on the robot is a 20 amp breaker. Eventually, the inspectors found a clause in the manual that permitted the use of any wiring provided it came already attached to the device.

While walking through the pits talking to teams I happened to see 339's (our) driver and asked what all of the yelling was about. What started as "your wires are the wrong color" turned into a mess about voltage, gauge, and some obscure rule. In short, I ran away from that conversation.

Most of my inspection woes come from FTC (also 339) though. Here's a few:

- Our team number was just shy of being thick enough, they actually came out with a ruler and checked. We then were forced to outline the letters in ballpoint pen to get inspected.
- An inspector didn't believe we fit in the box, I got up and shook the box proving that the robot had not only fit, but had room on all sides. We ended up having to make it shorter anyway.
- At the FTC Virginia State Championship, one inspector was laughing and carrying on with me after we passed inspection and asked if I wouldn't mind giving one more demonstration of the shooter for a friend of his. It then fired outside of the allowed range and we had to get re-inspected.

[ChrisH]

One year we were weighing in and the scale was bouncing between 120.0 and 120.1. After waiting about 30 seconds for the scale to "settle" and the behavior continuing the inspector just looked at us and said "The rules don't say how LONG it has to be at 120"

Once at San Jose the scale was on a basket ball floor. We put our robot on the scale and it was a couple of tenths over weight. The inspector pointed to a spot on the floor next to the scale and said "somebody stand right there". Viola! we dropped half a pound. Interestingly that robot dropped about 2.5 lbs between SanJose and Epcot. That crate sure must have been hot!

As a result I always make sure the scales are on concrete and calibrated.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by JimWright949

In Seattle last year, a team brought, what I thought at the time, their rolling tool box to the scale. They then put the tool box on the scale and I discovered that the 180 pound item on the scale, was, actually their robot.

I called a few other veteran mentors over and told the team. 'These people are here to help you loose 60 pounds of robot.'

-Jim

Whatever happened to it?

[JimWright949]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Whatever happened to it?

People from team 360, 1983, 2046, and 488, all brought sawzalls to the robot teams pits and basically cut the thing in half.

The starting robot was steal plate on a tall wooden frame. The ending robot was lexan on a short wooden frame.

-Jim

[ratdude747]

at Boilermaker last year, i remember a rookie bot with bumpers held together with zip ties. i have NO clue how they passed inspection.

[Hastypickle]

In 2007 we built our robot for the 60 inch tall, 110 lb class. We were a dedicated ramp-bot with plywood ramps. We uncrated our robot and once we could start inspection we went to get it sized and weighed. We were just under 60 inches, but we were about 30 lbs overweight. We had to cut a foot off of our robot and cheese-hole the plywood ramps. We barely made inspection, but we didn't trust the ramps for any high-speed climbing.

[AdamHeard]

Not a bid deal, but a scary one....

971 was next to us at SVR this year, and their inspector was pretty sure two regulators were illegal.

Also, one of our inspectors seemed fond of saying, "I don't know what this is, but did you guys do it right?"

[Engineer]

My first year mentoring was for the 2008 Overdrive competition. Reading the rules (after the robot was finished) we discover the rules that state the light from the IFI controller must be visible from three free in front of the robot. The robot had an extremely low center of gravity and the IFI controller was on the bottom of the robot about 3/8” off the ground. The robot looked great and we didn’t want to cut it up to make the IFI visible. The rules stated that the “light” from the IFI board must be visible. We made a placard with the same wording as the on the IFI controller with a 3D printer and piped the “light” up with fiber optics to the placard. Al Skeirkiewicz probably remembers this one. The inspection judges said the IFI controller was not visible and said it did not pass. We argued that the rules state that the “light” must be visible and the “light” is visible. It was the actual light from the LEDs. In the end the judges said it was very clever idea and let us compete but told us that if we went to the national competition, we may not pass inspection. BTW we also won the GM Industrial Design award with that robot.

[GLDomination]

Originally Posted by JimWright949

In Seattle last year, a team brought, what I thought at the time, their rolling tool box to the scale. They then put the tool box on the scale and I discovered that the 180 pound item on the scale, was, actually their robot.

I called a few other veteran mentors over and told the team. 'These people are here to help you loose 60 pounds of robot.'

-Jim

I was there for that. There robot looked like a mini-fridge. We felt so bad when they saw what there weight was.

[Lee Reid 3136]

We passed inspection on the first try of our rookie year.

Not to incredibly crazy but its a story.

[Lil' Lavery]

My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics.

I remember that bot. It's why we started using Mini Andersons for everything. That change has made a world of difference in how easy it is to layout a board, integrate mechanisms, and move an electronic component if necessary. Those have also been huge in easing the pain of quickly wiring pneumatic valves, test motors, etc -- there's never a mix-up of putting two female ends together, red to black, etc.

[rocknthehawk]

Not necesarrily having to do with the robot...

my first and only trip to Atlanta (2005), while having our robot inspected, one of the inspectors had a laugh about my hair (i had my mohawk spiked at the time), with the comment "time for a trim!". He pulled out some small scissors, and we kind of laughed. He then cut part of my hair off.

I don't know if he thought it wasn't real or what, but that was a very big deal. It wasn't a few millimeters like a trim would be, it was an inch or more at the back of my head...when you hold the world record by a few inches, every little bit counts. A few people from FIRST came over to our pit later to apologize, and the inspector did the same later that day.

[FRC4ME]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

My story is a little, actually quite, different than most of these. I've probably mentioned it once or twice in a couple different threads, so please bare with me (or just stop reading) if I'm repeating myself.

My senior year with 116, we were well on our way to passing inspection (on our first try, no less). Our inspector was talking to another inspector, who specialized in electronics. They asked us politely if we could take a short break in the inspection...
...so they could photograph our electronics layout.

It was, without a doubt, the single moment that has made me the most proud of any robot I've built in FIRST. More proud than when we won the FIRST Vex Challenge pilot in 2005. More proud than when the robot they pictured went further in Atlanta than we've ever gone before. Even more proud than when a rookie team came up to our bot to admire the engineering.

...and I didn't even work on the electronics.

Would you mind posting a link to that picture (or a similar one)? My team's electronics layout sucked this year - when a relay failed, we simply added a new one because the old one was impossible to access - and I need to show them an example of how to do it right.