what do you guys think about using magnets on the wheel to use it as a method to climb the pole? 
I think some high-friction material would work just as well, if not better. I can’t imagine even strong magnets working as well as rubber tires; I don’t think the magnetic wheels would want to turn very well.
I’m sort of confused by your question.
Do you want the Magnets on the outside of the wheel so they are contacting the pole?
or
Are your magnets inside the rim of the wheel so your magnet isn’t contacting the pole but it’s close enough to provide enough traction?
Big difference.
We’ve played a lot with magnets…
Have we confirmed that the pole will be conducive to the use of magnets to provide grip (IE the pole isnt made of plastic or aluminum)
Since the rules say steel … ::rtm::
If you want to use magnets as the only way of sticking the minibot to the pole - say, a drive wheel that’s magnetic - I thought of two problems: First is that you’d need a powerful magnet (not easily done, and may be heavy); and second, all that force pulling the wheel to the pole may add some drag to the wheel (which makes everything slower. I think.). These problems may not really be true, and surely there are solutions to any problem.
If, instead, the magnets are just to ‘help’ the robot stick, then I think I’d prefer to lose the weight of the magnets and just make a better system of holding on to the pole.
So, my personal feeling is that magnets for the steel pole are a sub-optimal solution. But that’s me, maybe I’ve missed something. (I often do).
(D’oh! Don’t you just hate when you mis-spell an ordinary word in the thread title? Eh, it happens to us all.)
The manual section 2.2.5 says they are 1.75" outside diameter steel pipe. So yes, magnets should work.
It is my knowledge that you should be very careful using magnets. Having magnets in close proximity with your electronics (aka the CRIO) will completely wipe the memory and erase any and all stored programming. Our team considered magnets too but quickly chucked the idea after remembering what happens with magnets around electronics. Good Luck with the Minibot everyone!
Experiment time… try putting some useless code on your USB flash drive… put a magnet next to it… take the magnet away… now read the flash drive.
Any damage?
Magnets were the bane of floppy disks as those were a magnetic storage device, but I think you’ll find that they have little effect on electronic memories.
Very powerful magnets can induce current in to electronic circuits but I doubt you are dealing with sufficient magnetic flux in this case to make that an issue, You may have many other reasons for choosing to not use magnets, but if this concern is the only thing holding you back, I’d suggest that you conduct some experiments to see if it is a valid concern or not.
Jason
At this moment, our team is going with a design that uses magnets in close proximity to the pole to attach itself, although I’d like to look into alternate methods. I’ve been thinking about how to possibly attach magnets in the wheel rims, and I can’t decide if it would be more worth it to drill many holes along the rim and attach many small neo-magnets, or, if there is a source of powerful flexible magnet sheets, line the rim with that. I’ve seen them before, but I can’t find any that are particularly powerful. Ideas anyone?
No, it won’t. Solid state electronics are much different from the floppy disks of ancient times. Even finding a powerful enough magnet to affect a modern computer harddrive is difficult, they are magnetically shielded.
Sorry,
This is a myth. Your motors all carry big magnets and teams mount then right next to the Crio all the time. Moving magnets in proximity to wiring can generate currents in the wire.
I have seen at least one design of a robot that could be called a minibot that used magnets to help stabilize it to the surface it was running on.
In one of our discussions on magnets and the electronics one of our mentors asked us if we knew where the biggest magnet was in the normal household, your CD drive which doesn’t affect your computer’s performance.
The magnet used to position the read/write head in your hard drive is pretty strong as well.