When you say an hour and a half, was that 90 minutes with the inspector in your pit, or 90 minutes from going to the scale to completing inspection? If the former, please feel free to PM me with any details you remember (particularly the inspector’s name or description), because 90 minutes for a relatively problem-free inspection is not OK.
I know we had a crush of teams right at the start, and with a steady stream coming in all morning we didn’t get caught up to the queue until after lunch. With a queue 10-15 teams deep, it could take over an hour before an inspector made it to the pit, and we definitely had teams that were “requeued” because they were out (practice field, practice match, lunch, etc)! We did run some numbers at lunch, and it was clear we had an average of about 20 minutes for each inspector visit, although as I said before, we were aware of an issue with an inspector for one team. While we didn’t have a breakdown available, some of those visits were surely second visits to teams to finish an inspection after one or more issues were found on the first visit, and that would pull the average visit time down.
My advice: Be honest with the team. When you get your first inspection with a new control system, tell them you haven’t inspected one before, and ask them to walk you through it. It manages expectations with the team, gives you a chance to learn while inspecting, and sets the stage for any questions that come up!
As an Inspector at Kettering #1, it seemed to me that things went very well. If anyone here that attended K1 and felt differently, I am certainly open to suggestions and ways to improve! And let me say that the teams at K1 were amazing! Very helpful and outgoing!
Everyone using the analog pressure sensor with the REV PH; I am recommending that the team be the one to use the mode button to test the compressor and pressure relief valve. The inspector doesn’t have three hands and can’t safely perform the test, check the valve and press the button. Thanks for helping.
We got an inspection right away, and the inspector came right away, prob was there by 8:40, I was there for a bit of it, left for drivers meeting which lasted like 30 minutes maybe? Then I came back they were near the end on pneumatics section. We had two pressure releive valves(i think thats what it is i might be wrong) and they were there for maybe 10-20 minutes after that. add it all up and 60-70 minutes? I believe it was only one visit, but I might be wrong as I was at the drivers meeting. They definitely were taking their sweet time with the inspection, and we were all wondering why it was so slow, but it was no problem.
All I remember is it was two younger guys who did the inspection.
Note: I beleive we were the very first team for inspection.
We were at the Lake Superior Regional
The process was flawless, Very nice and helpful inspectors!
Inspection process can cause anxiety and stress for most teams. I felt none of that this year!
@bbonner hit it more specifically. It wasn’t anything too major. Just required one of our mentors to explain & assist which seemed consistent for a few other teams.
Yes, I am one of those. Today, I did a “mock inspection” for a team prior to their week 2 event and learned how much I didn’t know about the new REV components, with the pressure relief valve testing procedure at the top of my “did not know” list.
Fortunately, I won’t be inspecting officially for another few weeks.
From what I’ve heard it went really well, we had an issue with pneumatics being over pressurized which was a quick fix, but besides that it went smoothly.
At FMA Bridgewater, our twin-FRC-teams were both fully inspected before our truck was even completely unloaded. Easy, simple, and buttery-smooth. Thank you, RIs!
I left load in with some anxiety because we did have somebody with an RI badge eyeing our robot and pointing out things he didn’t like that weren’t relevant to legality.
However, the inspector we had was a role model inspector (I forgot his name). It took us about 30 minutes with a clean robot. He admitted it was a little too long but we didn’t really care or notice. He had a first time inspector with him and we took our time working through some of the electrical stuff because it was his first time looking at the REV control system on a real robot.
It was night prior during load in so it is what it is —we were just surprised after the RI drama a few weeks ago. But, the inspector who actually did the inspection the next day was awesome.
I didn’t see if that other person was actually an inspector the next day (we all had to wear badges and his definitely said R) —we didn’t see him at the inspection station and we were the first team up there.
So our experience from Week 1: While sitting in queue for our next match an inspector in a bright yellow cap just casually mentions to my drive team “Might be a good idea to do a wire pull test now that you have had a couple of matches.” So without me hearing this as a Drive Coach what to the students do when this is said from an inspector? They start pulling wires and hence our radio connection was not properly seated again while in queue and what happens in the next match? THIS!
This is terrible. I’m so sorry your team had to go through that headache. As an inspector, I would never say a word to teams in a queue for their match, unless I saw something so flagrant and obvious that the refs/head ref would call them for it. Teams in queue have already been through inspection, have obviously been approved, and unless they altered something that again is blatantly obvious, I would never say a word.
That situation again shows the perceived power the fluorescent green hats have… I was extremely careful this past weekend to NOT come off as “looking for issues”, but I very actively watched matches and walked the pits and teams did ask for help.
I also found that being ringside for a good number of matches, the refs/head ref approached me numerous times about something they saw, which made the conversation with the team that was having the issue much easier and open. If there was a question in my mind, I found the LRI and discussed it with him prior to approaching the team, and there were a couple of times that he opted to talk with the team about what was brought up during the match.
