We’ve managed to avoid this so far, but now we’re looking at a storm on stop build day. We only had a regular build session (2.5 hours) scheduled for Tuesday, but as the school board has canceled school in expectation of stormy weather, all school-related events are canceled. We are not even allowed to “invite” students to official school functions on days when school is canceled. We normally have a “mentors hands-off” of the competition robot policy, but obviously we’re going to stretch that a bit as we bag and tag tomorrow. Who else is facing this sort of situation, or has in the past?
Our team has had these issues in the past. The past two years to be exact. It didn’t happen on bag day, but lost 4 days in a row one year and 3 the other plus other snow days thrown in on top of it. If memory serves I think it was 8 days last year total. Plus we aren’t allowed to work at the school on Sunday’s. But we were able to get it done.
In prior years there were q&a’s about snowstorms causing closings. I believe you send an email to first explaining the situation, and they give you and email exception. Print it out and put with your bag and tag paperwork for the robot inspectors. Your are expected to not work on the robot, and to bag it as soon as possible.
In 2014 we lost 2 weeks :eek:
I’d get the official answer from FRC team support, but in past years (with all the disclaimers there) the method for being locked out of your school on Stop Build Day was to get in as soon as safely possible and stuff it all directly in the bag without further work. Hopefully you guys were down to piddly things like zip-tying wires!
We aren’t in this situation and I’m only a student, not a mentor with experience. But I’d suggest keeping 30lbs worth of stuff outside the bag and prefabricate that. Or just stuff everything the bag in pieces and finish assembly at your first event. If there are issues with what I said, let me know in the thread. I’m still learning all this stuff.
What are you talking about dude? The question was about bagging the robot later then Stop Build due to not being able to get into the work space. It had nothing to do with your 30 pound allowance.
I would email first and explain the situation. As soon as you get in the space the first thing you should do is Bag it up. As long as you are going with the spirit of the rules you should be ok.
No but according to what other people said, if you get locked out, you are allowed to go into the school and put everything in the bag without working on it. You are allowed to bring 30lbs of prefabricated parts to a competition so if they put 90lbs of their robot in the bag, they can still work on part of their robot legally… either that or I’m confused about the situation.
What you said is kinda correct. But, you are confused.
Everyone gets a 30 pound allowance of fabricated parts meaning anything that is not a COTS part.
However, there is no restriction of weight in robot bag. You can bag a 150 pound robot. It will not pass inspection but that is a different story.
The OP is having issues not being able to get into the workspace on Stop Build. He said nothing about not having a finished robot.
I would guess that FIRST would say that if teachers/mentors can get in the school they should bag and tag the robot. I would not worry excessively about a team hands off policy in this case. It would be like a mentor helping to lift the robot out of a truck as you enter competition. We haven’t had a snow day on “bag and tag” stop build day but we have had one on the Monday before “ship day” stop build day. Which necessitated my being at school for hours finishing getting the crate ready, getting the robot in the crate, sealing it up and getting all the paperwork attached. Not the most fun I have ever had.
Our lead mentors got a text mid-morning that if we needed an extension due to the weather, it could be granted by FIRST LA/MS. However, as the weather was not expected until a bit after noon, we got a skeleton crew together to do some key stuff and bagged at 12:07pm. The rain didn’t get going beyond a spritz until about 12:45, so everyone was back home by then.