Does anyone feel that there will be gears that fall off when the pilot is lifting the gear into the airship? This may not be an issue as the game gets into the later weeks of competition, but I think that pilots will need to be careful not to jerk the lift when pulling up the gear.
We started re-designing our gear manipulator this week, to get the gear farther on the lift, after finally receiving our spring. The before designs usually dropped the gear right on the edge.
If you don’t mind sharing, how far onto the spring did you find that the gear needed to be placed? We received our springs from MCM a few days ago although they appear quite a bit less ‘springy’ than those that others have shown.
Yes it will.
… and then the next robot will try and push it away while holding a gear, causing penalties.
They had better stiffen the spring. What’s the point of a barb on the end if the gear falls off anyway?
Why do they need to stiffen the spring.
Nothing has changed since kickoff, if teams do not test against the real field, then they get what they deserve.
The spring that we received from MMC could hold up the gear with it on only a few inches. We have seen images from other teams that show significantly more bending (mostly from this thread: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=153157) so we are unsure if ours matches the ones that will be used on the field. Later today I can take more specific measurements and pictures for how far onto the spring the gear must be placed.
While I agree that the field specs are out there, not all teams have access to an official field, and from the sounds of this season, the springs themselves were a nightmare to get the exact make and model listed.
It’s kind of a harsh penalty to say “You’re absolutely at fault for having limited resources.”
It’s a game feature. 
About 1/2 way. It will work with the gear at the very end, but it could fall off it nudged. Didn’t take much to bend the spring.
We’re considering delivering the gear at around 20-24" off the ground to reduce this. We figure the less time that the gear is on the lift, the better. The only downside I can think of is that pilots will need to be trained/prepped because they won’t always be team members.
Anyone else considering this?
That sounds really hard and like a very tough job for your pilots to gauge such a rough distance. Not saying it won’t work, just it’s pretty tough and probably won’t make too much difference in the end (that’s like half a foot higher, right?). Better to just go with the consistent height imo.
we’re planning on putting the gear firmly onto the spring…but I also expect us to be making some changes on practice day
I’d just like to point out that this is very similar to the Portculis/Sally Port fiasco that happened to us last year. We have the competition spring, and if it is placed just on the end of the peg, it will just slip off. If you put it about half way on with a little bit of a bounce then it will fall off.
Yes. There will be gears that fall off the lift this year, especially those gears that are placed on the very tip of the peg.