(Turret, Elevator etc.) Do you have any ‘golden’ touches that you have made to classical systems or parts in these systems and that you think have contributed a lot? It wouldn’t be bad to get some inspiration before the season 
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We’ve tried almost all the sensors for elevator height and limits and I wouldn’t say any of them were “golden.” Is it time to try THIS new model laser now that it is in stock?
The only thing approaching “golden” that I know is the advice to design room to mount elevator position sensors but which ones are still a bit of a mystery for us.
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This is exactly the kind of “golden” touch I’m talking about. Simple but effective (you can also throw the parts that are designed but not produced, I need all kinds of inspiration 
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The only golden touch I have history with: leaving holes on a 1/2" or 1" pitch, so when you have to scramble an extra addition the week of the tournament you can slap it right on.
(Not that I’ve ever had to do that.)
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I was wondering about this a couple weeks back (we have several LaserCAN’s in inventory). But if I recall when looking at the data sheet, even at its tightest/smallest FOV, 15°, you’d have a sensing area of at least 6" square when the elevator is 24" away from the sensor. (And bigger if the elevator can go even taller)
Assuming a 2x1 profile as the underside of the elevator carriages, that seemed like there might be the possibility of other objects/mechanisms in the robot affecting the reading…
I’d definitely be interested in trying this out IRL though before dismissing the idea. In practice the sensing FOV may be ok for this use.
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Two things general to all mechanisms, stiffness and good controls. A perfectly stiff mechanism will do exactly what you or your software tells it to do, and its not only perfectly reasonable, but should be a high priority. And with a stiff mechanism, the models used to model most common FRC systems become quite accurate, resulting in most forms of advanced controls just working without putting up a fight.
And for elevators in specific, low fleet angle and grooves on spools. Making good spools has appeared to become a lost art, but with grooves and a low fleet angle, spooling just behaves and isn’t the nightmare that is commonly-described.
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Design with bumpers and/or beefiness to allow the programmers to smash the elevator into BOTH ends at top speed. If YOU do this, they maybe possibly won’t do theirs… Naw, they are totally going to smash it!
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I’m pretty sure the belts, cables, or gears are supposed to take up the energy (ours do; they’re consumables, right?) but any of THESE should do the job you suggest.
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Thats a cool widget!
One of the biggest issues with robot reliability isn’t the mechanisms (or classical systems) themselves, it’s the systems integration aspect.
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Design with cable management in mind from the start, this can be as simple as zip tie holes every inch on routed plates, or putting some pass-through holes in plates/tubes before assembly.
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Be ruthless and only have one or maybe two “systems” on the bot outside of the drive-train. Simplicity wins more often than little tricks to make something big work. Less to go wrong = smaller bag of tricks needed = more time for the bot to be handed over from mechanical to programming/drivers. A lot of teams look at top performing bots and think they are complex, often times no… they are just executed well.
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It’s a turret I designed by myself while making cad. Unlike what most teams do, it is far from simplistic, but I think it can inspire some people. There is an x60 motor inside the turret and it is connected to the pulley part by a bearing. Takes up much less space. We can call it a kind of fantasy 
*Neo and mounts at the top are unimportant
my newest trick for basically everything is either adjustable tie rod linkages or tensioned steel cables. makes everything super rigid and very lightweight/low space claim. good example is 3005 2023
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In 2015, our team used greycode on the elevator to sense position (and got the creativity award for it). It might be something to consider if y’all haven’t already.
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