What Do You Wish You Would Have Known Your Rookie Year?

FIRST General Forum
#59

Rookie Year? One of the veteren teams in my area (I’m pretty sure it was 192) told me something that has only remained true since.

Get a rolling base before everything else. If you don’t have the resources to run separate projects then make sure a rolling base happens first. Code only works on a moving robot, a driver can only practice on a rolling base…you get the point.

But that is advice after the start of build season. Before build, work with the students that will be the team. Team building is a good idea. Odds are not everyone will like each other and they don’t have to, but they will need to work together.
Simple things
4 Square (you would be surprised)
Pot Lucks
Movie nights with a projector in a garage.
Paint ball.

Find a FRC team nearby, any team worthy of their number will be happy to help

Also raise money, you will need it for next year at least, most likely you’ll need it for tools, or spares or travel to Atlanta.

In Hind site I am really glad I didn’t know how much of my life would become wrapped into FIRST. I may have backed away from it as a cult or something. But I am glad I did.

#60

If any rookie team or any team for the matter needs machining help or need parts made. Email me at rcthekid1323@gmail.com and we can help.

#61

http://www.firstnemo.org/PDF/first_competition_tips.pdf

lots of resources here: http://www.firstnemo.org/resources.htm

#62

I know this thread’s sort of old, but it seems like a good topic with no larger thread like it, so I think it’s ok to bump. Tell me if that’s poor manners.

In no particular order:
Never be afraid to ask questions, even when you think they’re stupid.
The mentors have a lot they can teach, listen!
Make friends!
Find something you love, but still learn a little about everything.
Don’t worry, we all get stressed.
Take initiative and speak up.
Checking CD can save you a lot of time, energy, and money.
Prioritize, school and some sleep come first.
If you have a problem, tell someone.
Have fun!!

Some of this I knew my rookie year, but I think it’s still important.

#63

I think the one thing I wish I did was got in the shop sooner. I was a rookie this year ('08) and I spent the first two or three weeks in the lab. It wasn’t bad, but once they got me in the shop I couldn’t leave. I asked questions about everything. I learned how to use 75% of the tools I would ever need to use in about two-three weeks.

So I guess what I wish I got in the Shop sooner. I feel like I missed out on a lot because I didn’t have that two extra weeks of Q&A.

I also wish I knew how much I loved getting dirty. I liked having to clean grime off my hands, and I loved having to go underneath the robot (propped up on tables) and I loved learning how to use tools.

#64

Learn your stuff. Study the manual, to learn the rules. Then do research about things you’re not quite sure about, or want to know more about.

Also talk to other teams in your area, and build relationships with them. It’s great to have someone to go to when you need some help, or if you just wanna hang out and do some team-building.

Most importantly though, HAVE FUN. Things might get stressful at times, but you gotta get that out of your head, and remember that you’re supposed to be having fun.

:slight_smile:

#65

I wish we had…

  • gotten mentors to stick with the team instead of just helping us get started
  • asked mentors whether certain things were even feasible before starting to build them
  • formed smaller groups to work on things (because when everyone is equal and has an opinion, nothing happens)
  • read the rules thoroughly and checked them before doing things (which is why we had to spend a day replacing the duct tape with bolts)
  • prototyped questionable parts before just assuming we’d be able to do them later
  • thought about the center of gravity and planned accordingly (because we ended up with a robot very good at doing donuts, but not much else)
  • left time to test the robot before shipping it and assuming it would work

…and a lot of other things. Really though, the rookie year is for learning. The key is to take what you learn and not to make the same mistakes the next year.

#66

lol i was talking about this today with a few mentors.

I wish I knew or did…

  1. About ALL the different Drive Trains out there

  2. Different Gearboxes,motors and transmissions out there

  3. Got on Chief Delphi :rolleyes:

  4. Talk to mentors about what i disagree with and not just agree with what they say

the list can go on but i basically wish i knew everything i know now :smiley:

#67

Welcome to my world. Our one and only mentor left at the end of last year. And I am the only returning member (Our two leads graduated). This makes me lead mechanical, driver, programmer, electrical, etc. Oh, did I mention that last year was my rookie year? Luckily, we have a mentor coming from another team that is amazing at CAD. We also have a great new physics teacher that will be our mentor who is willing to learn and do her best to support us. Plus we have a very solid mecanum drive base to work with from previous years, plus some cool prototype wheel designs.

I think we will pull it off…

[EDIT]Oh, right the topic…

My advice would be to get involved in as many things as possible. Learn as much as you can. My summer/fall would have been a lot easier if I had followed that advice.
[/EDIT]

#68

I wish someone had given me these two words of advice:

UNDERSIZE
UNDERWEIGHT

If you design it 1" small on length and width, then when you add those extra bolts and last minute switches to the bot you’ll still be “in the box”

If your goal is 15 lbs underweight and you keep shooting for it and keep it clearly your goal - every week, then when you magically put all those parts together that weighed 105 lbs by themselves and they come up to 119.5 lbs you’ll be a very happy person!

#69
  1. 10 amp fuses don’t exist.
  2. “Finding the aluminum stretcher” is a clever way of saying “You messed up, kid.”
    (Yeah, the amount of cynicism on the team my rookie year was startling.)
  3. FIRST is more about people than robots. Incidentally, people still call it “Robot Club.”
  4. Don’t be afraid to talk to the mentors, no matter how intimidating they may be.
#70

We are getting ready to start our second season. I am so excited.

I am the Teacher/Adviser at the school.

Most importantly: Find a mentor from another team. My mentor was Richard McClellan from Team 2158. He is a college student. I am teaching my 22 year of school. The age of your mentor is not important.

Read the manual.

Ask questions.

Join CD, read and ask questions.

Delegate responsibilities. You cannot do it all and cannot know all the answers.

But most imporantly: HAVE FUN.

#71

Take every advantage to learn anything about any department that you are ever given, especially if you are taking a break or have nothing to do. This helps a ton later when you becomming a major leader on the team and have to interact with the other departments on an intricate level and don’t have the time to learn how to do this.

#72

my first year we had a bunch of seniors that could drive well, and keep everybody on task.

My second year was the hardest, because everyone kept getting off task during build, and we did not have any good drivers during competition.

Practice driving!!!

#73

I wish I had known:

what a quarter-20 screw was

righty tighty, lefty loosey

What the difference between a spike and relay was :yikes:

How to configure MPLab to program the Vex Controller

#74

-Never assume that because you’ve demonstrated something to someone they know how to do it. Watch them and help them the first several times. That way you don’t end up with magic wires or round squares.

-Reverse engineer every problem. If you hear, “That won’t work because ___”, figure out what to do about ___ and try to figure out a solution to that. Nothing is impossible, it’s just impossible to do without thinking about it.

-Make a separate team not just for the major parts of the robot (arm, drive train, electrical, and programming), but also for Chaiman’s/Rookie All-Star, Woodie Flowers, Engineering Notebook, and any other separate concept. It will keep you from forgetting some of those things.

-Have all the teams REPORT to the president/leader/sponsor/mentor about their progress and what they’re all trying to do, every day. If something doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t, and you need to check on it.

-If “close enough” can be avoided, it had better be. It will usually come back to bite you, generally during competition.

-Analyze the reason you’re doing EVERYTHING. If you don’t need a 2-speed drive train, don’t build one. If it’s faster to get points one way than another, optimize the robot for that way.

-I know you don’t believe it, but yes, simpler IS always better.

-Worm gears are meant to resist back driving. As it turns out, it’s not a good thing to test that theory.

-The KILL SWITCH needs to be put in BEFORE the robot is built. A mentor almost lost a finger because we didn’t have a disable switch.

-Don’t stand between the robot and a wall. Ever. Especially during autonomous.

-Check everything, every night. You won’t notice that minor part slowly breaking until the night before ship day when it incapacitates your robot.

-Cold pizza and a heat gun beats a meal at home any day.

#75

You likely have heard it before, but I’ll say it again. It’s not about the robot.

There are three things that, in my opion, makes FIRST so great. 1) it’s not about the robot 2) the people in FIRST are awesome 3) GP should always be the focus of the team.

Without those three things FIRST wouldn’t be so great today.

#76

I hear and understand everything you are saying and support a great deal of it. If I could talk a little bit about #1 for a minute though - I’d like to open that statement up a bit. (Kind of like cracking through the shell to get to the meat of the nut.) I hear that statement a lot: ‘it’s not about the robot.’

I think it is. In this way: the robot provides the interest/the draw for the engineers/mentors. They bring their knowledge, experience, and education to the table. The design table, the discussion table, the mathematical table, the table strewn with cables, chain, tools, rough sketches on wood or torn bits of cardboard. They bring their humor and their passion. It is where the students are offered healthy servings of science, technology, and inspiration. I understand when people say, ‘it is not about the robot’, but it is. It is about the robot building teams/people as much as it is about the teams/people building the robot. That’s where you get #2 and #3. And all of those together bring/create opportunities for vendors and sponsors to participate, helping to strengthen the program.:slight_smile:

Sorry to sidetrack.
Jane

#77

Would another way of saying this be that the robot serves as the catalyst to bring mentors and students together?

Some other things I wish I had known my rookie year:

FRC is not about education. Too many times I have seen people on these boards claim the FRC is about teaching students and that teams that have mentors doing everything are not GP and should be penalized for it. These people are working off of incorrect facts, they seem to think that the goal of this program was to replace educational institutions. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. (Emphasis mine) Nowhere in there is the word education mentioned.

On a related note, I have always felt the best way of inspiring was to push the students, show them what they are capable of doing. I would also suggest that you NEVER doubt that the kids you have can, and often do, think of more creative ideas than you. I am always in awe of what my students can do. Don’t be afraid to tell them to do something on their own, support them of course but make sure they feel a sense of accomplishment, make sure they realize THEY built that robot out there.

#78

I wish that I had known that everything can be temporary and always will be.