Gear Peg Issues

Competition Rules/Strategy
1

In our teams first match, 2 of our alliances gear pegs fell off when we tried to place gears. A robot died in front of our last peg, so we were unable to score for gears for the match. One of the opposing alliances pegs also fell off. After the match, we were told it wasn’t a field fault and just “tough luck.” Has any other events had issues of gear pegs falling off and were those called as field faults?

Update: apparently they forgot to attach the collars for the gear pegs, but they still are not calling a field fault.

2

We had a match today in which the handles for the left and right side of the airship fell out the side and the center lift pulled out of the slot.

3

In our first match today, the rope for the peg lift actually broke.

4

Was this called as a field fault?

5

Yes

6

We had a rope come off also - not a field fault - just a shrug from the ref.

I would say maybe half of the matches had at least one spring that was unusable. We had one match that had two unusable springs.

7

Team supplied or field supplied rope? How did it come off?

8

This was the rope for the gear lift. The pilot tried to lift a gear and the rope came right off in is hand.

9

Woops. Duh. That was my fault for thinking you meant a rope for climbing.

10

We completed week 1 and have learned to have your pilot check all pegs and lifts prior to each match. The pegs will get angled downward from ramming and have to be fixed or adjusted and the lifts will need some oil after wear to maintain their slide. Also check the lift ropes for fraying as robots may rub on them as gears are getting pulled out. Have your pilot talk directly to the field crew ASAP about any issues.

Prior to eliminations push for all lift springs to be replaced. They gain flexibility over time from robots ramming. This can be frustrating in qualifications but should be changed before eliminations. At the FiM Lakeview event the red alliance side was more flexible than the blue alliance side due to ramming. The added flex cause gears at the end of the peg (near the spear tip) to fall off much easier during the lift (and in some cases fall into robots). Thankfully we pushed to have springs changed before eliminations.

11

Since I’m a pilot I got to experience the complications firsthand. Twice, I had difficulty lifting the gear off of the structure connected to the peg, as it would not let me bring it onto the airship. I foolishly and almost naturally just sticked my hand out to grab the gear which gave my team a foul.

Additionally, the following was not a structural issue, rather just a funny occurence. But for my team’s first match, our robot put the center of the gear STRAIGHT into the rubber portion of the peg and when I went to remove it, I had to ask the other pilot for help as it was so difficult to remove :joy:

12

Many pegs had the barb dislodge and rotate, so the barb was facing down or sideways. The field staff was happy to correct it but we had to look at all three before each match.