Advice from a grumpy old man :)

FIRST General Forum
1

After a few years of competitions there are a few sage words of advice I would like to give about what goes on at regionals and a few things that I dislike.

#1 Carts - Big heavy carts are a major pain in the rear for queuing folks. Please keep your carts light and easy to move. Big carts can cause major headaches for the folks trying to help you play as many matches as possible (and don’t even get me started about music on carts!)

#2 Keep your drivers station simple and plan ahead for where everything plugs in. Also don’t forget that Velcro on the bottom. Controllers taking flight and hitting the floor in autonomous is an ugly sight.

#3 Think now about how you are going to lift up and carry your robots. Our Lunacy robot was quite a pain to lift and carry. One of our mentors hurt his back when he was placed in an awkward situation while moving it at IRI. After that I vowed to never let that happen again. Last year we put simple eye-bolts on out robot and used a nice big soft rope and carabiners, it was a joy to move. I have also seen some sweet built-in handles on robots.

#4 Don’t hang banners on the back of your pit facing the other direction. I have seen this a number of times and it’s just plain rude to you stablemates behind you to have your banner in their pit.

#5 Roofs and canopies make your pit seam small, dark and not very inviting. Leave them at home.

#6 Some pit areas have inadequate lighting. Plan for a simple solution to add light to your pits.

#7 Bring all the parts from the kit you didn’t use. They don’t count against your withholding allowance and that window motor or pneumatic fitting you didn’t use can really help another team out

#8 Rookies have a heck of a time making bumpers that comply with the rules. Bring extra wood, noodles and fabric with you and you will almost be guaranteed to be some teams hero.

#9 If your robot is working fine, seek out the head inspector to find another team that needs help or watch the inspection board for obvious problems. Odds are that team you don’t help will be in your first match of the morning.

#10 Inspectors are a huge resource for helpful advice. Most of them have been around the game for a long time and have seen most everything. If they give you advice to change something because they think it will cause you a problem, change it.

#11 Be kind to your referees, they have a completely thankless, impossible job. Take them a bottle of water and be sure and thank them even if a ruling goes against you.

These are the ramblings of a grumpy old man and don’t represent the thoughts of anyone but me.

Please add your own words of advice.

2

Great post. All good hints.
I would add take extra care this week and get your BOM bill of materials 100% complete. Have a second set of eyes look at it and use the template.

3

Excellent post, Sam.

That gives us a huge hassle every year. Great reminder.

4

Also make sure it is in electronic format . .
and please, make sure the flash drive you bring it on is free of viruses.:mad:

5

Assume the stick you bring it on will be contaminated with a virus after you deliver the BOM.
Isolate it until you have time to run a virus check on it and clean it before plugging it into any other PC.

We don’t want everyone’s Classmate at the competition to spread a “cold” virus like what happened last year.

6

Some flash drives have a read-only switch. If yours does, set it to read-only before you hand it over.

**

7

Mine does :slight_smile:
That’s what I carry all those FIRST Updates on just in case someone needs them. I don’t have to worry about spreading any viruses aquired from a previous machine.

8

Please put extra emphasis on talking to your lead inspector. They are trained to help, dedicated to get you playing, and know most of the teams they can turn to for assistance. Don’t wait! Small problems on Thursday morning become huge problems Thursday night.

9

Thanks you! As a rookie team, this will prove to be very good advice!:smiley:

10

All rookies should know that I heard Lead Inspectors respond well to candy and donuts, too…:slight_smile:

11

All rookies should also remember that “but I heard it on chiefdelphi!” is not an excuse, and although they’ll probably still eat your candy and donuts, if your robot doesn’t follow the rules the Inspectors will not pass you no matter how full they are.

12

But they read this on ChiefDelphi …

13

Touche!

14

That’s funny - I remember running into a bunch of robot inspectors, oh, ok - went looking for them - at the Championship event and they all wanted coffee. I have no.idea.why.

Edit: I should contribute to the thread - please refrain from running at the event, esp. in the pit area. (It will just slow you down.)

Jane

15

So do Lead Inspection Managers…:wink:

Also respond well to “Please” and “Thank You.”

See you in the pits.

16

Keep the pit isles clear and your pits open and inviting. We are all busy but if you have your whole team of 20+ students and adults trying to cram into your pit I can almost guarantee they won’t all fit and they will be spilling out cloging the isles. Sometimes less is more when it comes to the number of people working on something and the amount of work that gets done. Instead, your pit need only a few well trained pit crew while the rest of your team is elsewhere, preferably in the stands chearing for everyone else and, of course, scouting.

Make sure to always keep an eye out for that overwhelmed rookie standing about 5 feet outside your pit with that “deer in the headlight look” who probably needs help or wants to ask a question but is too scared to do so. Be open and inviting. Ask them if they have any questions or would like to get a closer look at something in your pit or on your robot. Drag them into your pit show them what they are wanting to see and spend time with them explaining what they want to know. If they need help and your not the right person for their problem get the right person for them. If you can’t, take them to the lead inspector and help them explain their problem. The lead inspectors will do everthing in their power to get them the help they need.

17

Thanks Indy… Just went out to all my rookie teams.

My word of advice, when the judges visit your pit, be aware that you probably only have 5 minutes with them. Make that 5 minutes count. If you have something they need to know, let them know it (they may not know to ask about it). Be sure to speak loud and clear (pits are noisy). Don’t crowd the judges. Do not stand behind the judges, or let anyone on the team stand behind them.

Thanks all the volunteers at the regional.

18

Make sure that you make the 5 minutes count with students talking and not mentors. Nothing looks more contrived than a mentor trying to explain this doo-dad or cool thing XYZ. If you are a mentor, ask a student to explain. If you are a student and don’t know the answer, get another student that does. If the knowledgeable people are out on the field, let them know that they will be back after the match. Mentors and students alike: Prepare with information. Create a robot spec sheet to hand out, have a scrapbook on hand to show activities. Use your copious witholding allowance to demonstrate assembled mechanisms. Most importantly - Train the students and mentors that will be manning the pits. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way in making a good impression.

This goes for talking to anyone, not just judges.

19

I HATE MOTORIZED CARTS!
They are big, awkward, unecessary and when teams don’t properly stow them away they are a real pain to move because they are so heavy. Every time I see teams make these monstrosities I think “why don’t you put more time into building a better robot instead?”

I’m going to add more from the perspective of queing but let me start by saying that teams should take the time to take care of their carts once they get their robot set up ASAP (it doesn’t take 4 of you to put the robot on the field). They are a hazard to the field personel and to the otehr teams. The sides of the field are reserved for essential volunteers like refereers and field reset amongst others. It is a sign of great disrespect for the time and effort they are sacrificing on your behalf when you leave your cart smack dab in the middle of their work area.

20

Great way to make inspectors happy:

Walk up to the inspection station as soon as it’s open, with your bumpers off the robot, and request the size/weight inspection. If you pass that, get everything else checked while you’re there. No line, one more team has at least a partial, and you never have to take the bumpers off again until your next size/weight check.

The more teams inspected by noon, the happier the inspectors are. Hint: If you’ve already been at another event, inspect right away, unless you’re making modifications.