Now that we know that duct tape is not explictly prohibited, does anybody plan to use duct tape on the robot?
We are using it as a way to hold, yet easily realign, the acryllic on our conveyor system.
We’re not using it for anything, don’t have a need for it.
Actually Jay. lol
There is one postage stamp sized piece on the robot covering the dip switches on the cRIO.
We are using it as a way to hold, yet easily realign, the acryllic on our conveyor system.
I suppose the tape can help contain the shrapnel when the acrylic shatters. :eek:
And here’s a heck of a thing to be posted the day before ship: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=11992
GDC says: You can use tape. But please don’t use lots of tape, making your robot look ugly, or else we’ll have to make a rule not to use tape next year.
My bet is that the duct tape rule will return next year, so if you want to have duct tape on your robot this year now is your chance. I recommend Duck brand duct tape, http://duckproducts.com/ , also known as “duck tape.” Make sure that you pronounce the name properly!
Eugene
We are using some for some decorations and edge protection nothing functional.
We have a little piece holding a bundle of wires down… sort of in between functional and aesthetic I guess. We did use a lot during helix prototyping, but that construction approach did not make the final cut. 
We are mostly using ours for protecting the edges of some chicken wire.
we would have used som duct tape to protect the edges of some expanded sheet metal, but we had bored team members, and told them to split pneumatic tubing down the middle so we could slip it over the sharp sheet-metal edges.
-Z
Our first camera mount was made entirely out of duct tape, due to the fact that everyone working with the camera was a programmer and trying to build a decent mount was like watching paint dry compared to actually programming the camera. Our mechanical team has since replaced it with something more durable.
from the GDC:
We are anxious to see if tapes can/will be used in an aesthetically and structurally appropriate manner, without having myriad robots “held together with duct tape and baling wire” appear at the competitions.
No mention of bubble gum…
Anyways, we have duct tape on top of our batteries, as labels, with Sharpie markings on the tape. It will probably be considered an illegal battery modification, and will need to be changed.
Kilroy does not keep any duct tape in the lab; seriously. Our head mentor “doesn’t want to keep the temptation around”.
Although we do have a six inch strip of duct tape labled “Kilroy emergency tape”, we (thankfully) did not have to use it this year.
We are using tape for some sharp corners on our robot.
We’ve found that duct tape makes a really good conveyor belt (slight redesign on the bottom intake area of our bot). Just put it between two rollers with the sticky side out. Tons of grip!
However, we recently switched to shelf liner based conveyor that we completely covered in duct tape to hold it together. Less slip on the rollers, more on the balls. All in all, works just as well. It has a tendency to move slightly towards the left side, but because it’s made so easily we can just cut it and put it back where it needs to go.
It also makes some good “slip” points for the orbit balls. Really cheap way of integrating a clutch-like effect into individual rollers.
Elgin Clock wrote: There is one postage stamp sized piece on the robot covering the dip switches on the cRIO.
May I suggest that you replace it with clear tape. Same concept, but easy to see if the switches are in the right position.
We will not be using any out of general principal. We just don’t want it on our bot. Also because we found out about it so late that our bot was already packed up and ready to go. Ohh well. I’m going to laugh if a team that isn’t ready for a practice match shows up with a ball of wires and duct tape and calls it a prototype…
We may have a small piece holding a small piece of PVC in place, but I don’t think so. If I have my way, I, the programmer, will grab a drill, a bolt, and a nut and that sucker will be permanently mounted.
I hope really badly that our team does not use any (and I don’t think we are, but I can’t quite remember) because it does NOT look very professional, and our robot needs all the help it can get. We may end up adding some of the plexiglass holding our electronics together shatters.
Whe use Duct tape for our test robot. But NEVER on the real robot as it really does look unprofesional and redneck.
Most of the “nerds” in our school are part of a duct tape cult. Needless to say, at some points during prototyping, entire designs were held together by duct tape.
We’ve since replaced almost everything with “real fasteners,” but duct tape is still used to hold our foam on our rollers, since we couldn’t find anything that worked quite as well.