What's the sketchiest way your team has had to fix somthing at a regional?

OH, THIS WILL BE GOOD! :smirk:

Welcome to fixing robots with questionable solutions that almost always involve duct tape and zip-ties!

So, here’s the million-dollar question! What’s the sketchiest way you have had to fix your robot at a regional?

13 Likes

Ever poured an entire bottle of superglue onto broken Plaction wheels and held it together until your hands coudn’t move, then filed the glue off your hands during the match?

30 Likes

Hot glue. Excessive amounts of hot glue.

Hotglue was the only reason Airtight held together.

8 Likes

I’ve filed epoxy off my hands. I don’t have fingerprints anymore.

17 Likes

What about districts… :fearful: :fearful:

6 Likes

We sheared a bolt that was holding a chain down last year and had no replacements. Someone was holding the chain down with an Allen key and we ran out of time, so we just left the Allen key in the robot for the rest of competition. Worked great.

13 Likes

We zip tied our bumpers on since those quick-release latches don’t like a lot of upward forces and our bumpers fell off twice in a row

2 Likes

Unfortunately, my team does not have a district yet. We go to a regional then worlds. But I suppose anything that happens at a district can happen at regional too, even sketchy fixes.

Not a regional, but at an off season comp we forgot our blue bumpers so covered our red ones in blue gaffers tape for a couple matches

10 Likes

We broke our 3d printed limelight mount. Becgause of the geometry, zip ties duct tape were not sufficient. We ened up using several hair ties to hold it place.

3 Likes

We’re in a district form, but I remember my freshman year (2017) we ran into 948 and bent our front kitbot frame … the only way to fix it was to stomp and mallet it back to being straight.

Fast forward a couple min after, judges are talking to our business lead, our driver/mech lead is in the back of the pit pounding the front frame to make it work before our next match … hastily impact drove it back on … judges ask our business lead how we manage stress and he turns around, turns back to the judges, holds a thumbs up and says “great!”

25 Likes

Cutting the power wire for a swerve motor between finals matches 2012 as there was no time to diagnose. We let it caster free and won the next match with 3 wheel swerve.

17 Likes

I still have fingerprints but I have also had to file epoxy off my hands

1 Like

We needed an e-clip and didn’t have one, so we just put a zip tie around the axle to hold the wheel on. It held for 1 match.

2 Likes

We used electrical tape to repair ours and made a few numbers out of white duct tape. at worlds.

1 Like

Haha yes, this what my team does. Screw duct tape, Electrical tape is the way to go. XD

1 Like

In 2012 our wedge for lowering the teeter-totter didn’t always deploy - it was balanced upright for starting configuration, and we wrongly assumed it would always fall as soon as the robot started moving around. So we tied a piece of string to the top of the wedge and taped the other end of the string to the front wheel of the drivetrain. When the wheel turned, it would pull the string, pulling the wedge down. Worked like a charm and the judges loved it

3 Likes

I won’t say what we patched, but we couldn’t find electrical tape so we used a Band-Aid…

5 Likes

We joined a broken chain on our 2015 robot with a zip tie while in queue for a playoffs match. Ended up working out fine!

4 Likes

I just instinctively use duct tape as a band aid most times. Holds better, and helps close a wound faster.

3 Likes