Last night(4-29-04) team 861’s (Venice High School’s) 2004 Operator Interface was stolen from our team’s crate. It was mounted on a wooden board with two of the black 2003 joysticks attached. If anyone approaches any team with an Operator Interface of unknown origin please contact a representative of Team 861 immediately.
Thank you for your support,
The Venice High Gondobots
Noah Silas: [email protected]
AIM: k1ngnoah
CD PM: Noah
Venice High School: 310) 306 - 7981
keep an eye on ebay
but unless you have a serial number or something, I think you are out of luck
A suggestion I have, although a little late in your case, is engrave your team number on them. Dremel makes one and it’s only $20-$25 at Home Depot and other similar stores. You can also use it on team tools and such. Engraving is in most cases irreversible. Marking stuff with magic marker or even paint sticks isn’t as effective. Marker and paint can be wiped off with solvents and some cleaners.
Where was the crate where the OI could have been stolen? Was it stolen at nats, an offseason event, from your shop, or somewhere else?
The crate was sitting inside the Autoshop Enclosure at Venice High. It was within the autoshop fence, in turn within the Venice High compound. The crate was broken into with a crowbar. We didn’t find anything missing except our control panel. We suspect currently that it is the work of a group of vandals who, earlier this season, broke into a storage bin in the same autoshop yard.
There is no reason to believe that this group has any affiliation in any way with any team or the competition, however since the Operator Interface is most valued among robotics teams, our team felt that it would be wise to post it’s loss here.
In the future we will make sure to make permanent identifying marks on all our important equipment, thank you for the suggestion Jay.
Thank you everyone.
Noah Silas
We use the autoshop area to store our bot/crate as well. Luckily, the only problems that we’ve had we a slightly marked/banged up crate. I believe we had some missing JB Weld or something, but nothing serious, and certainly nothing as bad as a stolen OI. My sincerest condolences.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m blaming someone on your team but:
If only the OI was stolen, that makes me think that whoever took it knew what they were going after. Perhaps the perp. knew the basics of the controls, but that could be anyone who asked at competitions, or demos which could be alot of people. Perhaps a former team member?
</playing dectective>
Just trying to help.
Yeah, but I would have got the RC too. I don’t know. Good luck on your search.
nah…a lot of teams embedded their RC deep in the robot, making it a pain in the booty to yank and dash.
The only exception I know of is 1293–ours was (save for a piece of plexiglass) floating freely. Four screws and some wire disconnects, and you’d have it.
Good luck finding it, though–those things are massive ka-ching. And it’d stink to have to wait until 2k5 to get a new one.
I personally suspect that this is a group of vandals who had no idea what was in the crate when they broke in. They probably saw our control panel as the only thing light enough to carry away easily, plus there’s the 'Hey, cool! Joysticks! " factor. I doubt they know the value of the OI.
umm jsut stumbled on this thread noah and that really sucks for you and your team your welcomed to our controller any day tho you just cant carry it away with ya lol:D
Never had that kinda thing happen in our team since we have the greatest Security material ever invented, Velcro!!!(controller s attached that way to board):rolleyes: oh and having a rooom that cant be open and that only one person in all the world has the key too helps also
I really woulda like you guys to join us for the San Diego Sectional. and i thought our R/C breaking was the worse thing that could happen.
Offer still stands:)
What if that person looses the key? That would be bad.
That’s what locksmiths are for! 
-dave
lol yeahs we had issues with that once and well the room is district property so we went to the district and they provided a new key… as far as we know more than the ones the team has dont exist but appearently the district can produce keys out of thin air… wish theyd do the same thing about our funding :rolleyes:
but the one key system works great as long u got a person that trust no one for more then 5 minutes with it (except me of course) :eek:
…and Howstuffworks.com (I read the article on picking locks and later saved the day at high school when our technician lost the key to a cabinent full of ipaqs. Not to mention, its an awesome overview of how the key/tumblers/etc. work).
You could always get out the old bolt cutters and take a bit of time and chop that padlock off…it may take some time and effort, but it will do the job. 
It is really a shame that your OI was taken. It was most likely just some kids who, as you said, thought oh look, joysticks! and took off with it. I couldn’t imagine somoene on your team ripping you off, because they have just as much pride in a working robot as does you and the rest of your team.
The auto shop, fenced area, and anything stored there are the school’s responsibility. If the school district doesn’t carry theft insurance, then replacement should come out of the general fund. Either way, the district should replace the OI.
intruiging … but thats saying its the schools fault… i thought we were all in agreement that it was those wipper snappers fault :rolleyes:
Ours was generally in the school’s shop. The guy with the key is helping us, and janitors are helpful. Currently, stuff’s with mentors.
Did you tell the school? Do you know of anyone who might do that? was anything else broken/damaged/etc? Were the doors locked? What else was in the crate?
if the school did know would they do anything? id really like to know this 