Competition Equipment

[maclaren]

Another sucessful year of competition over and now one to start preparing for.

Regionals went fine but there was some turmoil that I feel lead to inefficencies and lost time. Our work area was cluttered and disorganized, it was very hard to find tools when you needed them and once used they disappeared.

So this brings me to my question, which is:

-First what is your team #, name, years of participation, and what regionals did you attend?

Team#: 997
Team name: Zipties and Electrical tape
Years of participation: 2
Regionals event: Seattle, WA.

-What tools other than the items on the prescribed list did your team bring to your regionals?

Our team brought a small drill press, equiped with a cross slide table, a good vise, a sawzall, a close quarters drill, and a vise brake for bending sheet metal.

-What computer did your team bring for programming, if any?

We brought a desktop and a laptop. The desktops power kept getting unplugged which made the programmers very angry.

-What organization system did your team employ to keep clutter to a minimum?

We brought the plastic totes that were generically labeled only on the lid, which is a problem when you don’t know where the fasteners tote is and you have to lift all the tote in the stack to find it. We also brought a couple of small tool boxes which tools were simply thrown into.

-What did your team use to transport your robot to the playing field? and how effective was it?

We brought a metal cart with three shelves. The robot sat on top and assorted tools, odds and ends, nuts and bolts, and raw materials were strewn on them. The cart also had a power strip bolted to one end. It was wholely inadaqute. the power strip kept getting unplugged, tools were lost on the cart, it was a mess.

-What goodies did you bring to pass out to other teams?

We prodced plastic injection molded keychains with our team # and school name on them.

-What are you hope to do next year to make your pit area and regionals experience better?

Next year I hope to bring a minature band saw, a better vise, and cordless drills and a cordless sawzall. Better organization is a must including part bins, tool belts, and colorcoded and clearly labeled bins. For programmers a dedicated laptop, an UPS for the desktop, and a stool for the desktop user. Possibly tool belts for the mechanical team so that tools are at hand and not lost.

[Ian_W]

Team 810
Team Name: The Mechanical Bulls
Years of Participation: 2
Regionals: Annapolis, SBPLI

-What tools other than the items on the prescribed list did your team bring to your regionals?

Not much at all, nothing I can think of at least.

-What computer did your team bring for programming, if any?

Two laptops, one for PBASIC / Dashboard Backend, one for Dashboard Frontend / picture storage / Pit Timer.

-What organization system did your team employ to keep clutter to a minimum?

Organization system…? Well, we had a toolbox and bins, but um, well, yeah, the tools wound up all over. Pockets are considered organized, right…?

-What did your team use to transport your robot to the playing field? And how effective was it?

We made a quick and dirty dolly in our woodshop. It was crap, but it worked. We are rebuilding another one for next year though.

-What goodies did you pass out to other teams?

Mostly pins and such, nothing special this year.

-What are you hoping to do next year to make your pit area and regionals experience better?

Hopefully actually organizing stuff, creating a “pit crew” of essential memebers, kicking all others out of the pit, creating a designated computer area (the laptops were constantly moved around, which caused some problems when I tried to program, like, laptops hidden under jackets), and mostly just putting everything back where you found it, or being removed from the “pit crew” so the rest of the team can function easier.

I don’t think you can ever have a perfect work area. If you do, please, bring me over, I’ll point out at least one flaw (I can be like that :p). You can come close, but you can always improve. I mean, we’re in FIRST, we’re constantly improving something, no?

[Cory]

Team #: 100
Years of Participation: 9
Team Name: Wildcats
Regionals: Sacramento, Silicon Valley

We brought a: Drill Press, Mini-mill, a few vises, jigsaw, a few drills, probably some other stuff Im forgetting too.

We brought two laptops.

We had an effective organization system that turned out to be ineffective, due to the tendency of people to toss tools everywhere instead of putting them where they belong. Anyways, we made this tool carrier out of some pegboard and 2x4’s. It folded open to be about the length of a table, and had hooks for every tool in it. It worked very well in theory, but obviously not in competition. It didnt help that when we transported it EVERY tool fell off its hook and into a pile in the bottom.

We did keep all of the small parts, such as screws, electronics supplies, and other assorted stuff in those little craft trays that have little plastic dividers to organize stuff nicely. We made a wooden carrier for these trays that also helped to keep them all in once place. And then we just tossed everything else in a tote

We decided that after slaving over our 1’tall, falling apart cart last year we needed to make a new one. We used some spare 80/20 that someone had donated to us, along with some pneumatic casters and some sheet metal to make a pretty nice cart. We had a top level for the robot, as well as a lower level for tools and other stuff. We divided the lower portion to have a dedicated battery charging area, which worked very well. Until things started touching and arcing… We had a powerstrip attached to our cart as well, although pretty securely. We had the non-pronged connector for a cord permanently attached to the cart, as well as four outlets, which was REALLY nice. We also used a foot or so of 80/20 and some pivots to have “legs” on top of the cart so that if we need to work on the drive train, or under the robot, or just wanted it higher, we could put the robot on these legs and lift it a foot. If we wanted it lower, they would just pivot down and out of the way. Overall, I would say that our cart was extremely effective.

For giveaways, we made these little “clippies”. They were Clips that had a orange wire cap (I have no clue what all these electronics things are actually referred to as, so bear with me )
striped with black to look like our cat in the hat theme. Then we tied a piece of string with an orange foam triangle that said 100 on it to the whole thing. I personally didnt care for them much, but they seemed to be a great hit. We foudn them everywhere, and many of the judges were seen wearing them too

Hopfeully next year we can just organize stuff better and make sure it stays organized.

Cory

[Adam_Y]

We quite literally brought everything and anything that was in our robotics room and yet… we still needed more.
564
Digital Impact
3
SPBLI
What tools other than the items on the prescribed list did your team bring to your regionals?
Ermm Hacksaws, screwdrivers, wrenches, wire cutters, soldering irons, tap set, Lots and lots of tools and almost the whole kit.
What computer did your team bring for programming, if any?
Laptop
What organization system did your team employ to keep clutter to a minimum?
Someone memorized where all the tools went??? Electronics was separated from mechanics?? All the fasteners were in there own boxes? Ahhh it was not very organized.
What did your team use to transport your robot to the playing field? and how effective was it?
A cart. It was more effective than are our robot:).
What goodies did you bring to pass out to other teams?
Lots and lots and lots and lots of buttons.
What are you hope to do next year to make your pit area and regionals experience better?
Maybee bring a sawsall. That is the only tool we need.

[Jeff_Waegelin]

-First what is your team #, name, years of participation, and what regionals did you attend?

Team#: 201
Team name: The FEDS
Years of participation: 6
Regionals event: Great Lakes, Midwest

-What tools other than the items on the prescribed list did your team bring to your regionals?

We brought a drill press, several hand drills, about 4 soldering irons, and all the usual stuff (screwdrivers, wrenches, etc).

-What computer did your team bring for programming, if any?

We brought 3 laptops- one for programming, one for scouting, and one as a backup for programming.

-What organization system did your team employ to keep clutter to a minimum?

We try to minimize what we bring to competitions. Everything fits in our two crates from the kit. All the small stuff (bolts, electrical connectors, etc.) go in small compartmentalized boxes. The bigger stuff either goes in the Electrical bag or Mechanical bag. All that, plus the drills, go into the crates when we’re not using them.

-What did your team use to transport your robot to the playing field? and how effective was it?

We have an old aluminum cart with a plywood deck that we built back in 2000. It doesn’t fit the robot too well anymore, but we’re always too lazy to build a new one.

-What goodies did you bring to pass out to other teams?

Our PR/Fundraising group was lazy, and didn’t raise enough money for “goodies.” So, we passed out nothing. Blame our PR leader, Tony, for that one.

-What are you hope to do next year to make your pit area and regionals experience better?

Well, we’ve always wanted to have a crate that turns into a workstation. We say we’ll build one every year, but it hasn’t happened in my time on the team.