What connection method is the most vital to the success of your robot?
pick one
Edit: fixed
This question probably needs a little (or a lot) of clarification before you’ll get the answers you want.
EDIT: Okay now that this is fixed I can provide a better answer. In my opinion none of these are “better” or “more vital to the success of a robot” than any other, there are correct applications for each of these types of fastening and using each fastner appropriately is the real key. Zip-tying the entire robot is impractical as is welding on your flag holder, for each spot you need to connect two items assess the situation and choose the best method that fits within team capabilities (welding may be out for example)
“What connection is the most vital to the success of your robot?”
There are two: the one between the drivers brain and hands, and the one between the coaches brain and mouth. None of the other ones matter if those two don’t work.
-dave
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well with autonomous wouldn’t drivers and coaches not matter??
What about the batteries terminals connections? You can’t move without power.
In that case, it’s between the programmer’s brain and hands.
I would consider that more of a kind of connection not a meathod
It all really depends…
I’m not going to vote because of this.
How would I attach metal to metal: Weld
How would I attach wood to metal: Bolt & Loctite
How would I attach wires to something: Ziptie
I would obviously not say:
How would I attach wires to something: very flammable epoxy and weld it
How would I attach the wheels to the frame: zipties
How would I attach the bumpers: small pop rivets
See, this question still very vague. Please fix it.
which one of these is most important as in ziptieing wires is not really as important as welding your frame so welding would be above that and so on and so on
…
Its hard to repsond to your post without being unGP. Sooooooooo thank you for your input.
Not true, wires that are not secured properly can be as devastating if not more so then a frame that is bolted, riveted or even glued as opposed to welded. If wires come loose your robot will be lucky to run at all, if your frame starts to fall apart you may still move, although likely not very well.
cough Hybrid cough 
Welds by far.
I think you’d be amazed at the number of robots and variety of things on them held together by zip-ties. Without zip-ties, our robot last year would have had a completely non-functional arm… zip ties tensioned all of our arm chains, which sorely needed it, and served their usual purpose - keeping wires out of where they shouldn’t be (like crushed between a sprocket and its chain, which happened once). Our electronics cover was also zip tied on. This year, our electronics will be zip-tied on. I have even seen zip ties used as linear bearings (which was a pretty creative use, in my opinion) on an arm. Sure, I wouldn’t design to hold my chassis together with them, but I much prefer working with zip ties to drilling out rivets, worrying about messing up the aluminum’s heat-treatment, finding nuts dropped on the floor/magnetically stuck to the side of a motor casing, realizing that you epoxied the part in the wrong place (<–happened this week), and whatever annoyances are associated with other fastening methods.
Our aim high robot was held together with at least 5 pounds worth of zip ties, so I vote for them.
I vote for Dave’s answer. Is that in the poll?
I was just messing around… the topic was so vague to me, I thought I’d make it funny.
For the frame, I would definitely weld it and I would never look back.
If a part could possibly break, I would bolt it on.
Lexan I would rivet and save a few ounces on weight.
Wires, zip ties all the way. The tighter you have your wires, the less of a chance of them coming loose or getting snagged in another robot.
We use epoxy for our carbon fiber and fiberglass components.
For Victors and stuff, we bolted them on this year, but we usually just use some wood screws that screw into our fiberglass-balsa wood composite board.
It all depends on what you are attaching and the possibility you having to remove it. Frames, for the most part, are solid and never get severe damage, so we normally weld them. We bolt on the gear boxes and the wheels. Electrical, you would use bolts and zip ties. Lexan, fiberglass, carbon fiber, you would use epoxy, rivets, and bolts.
Team 1501 = Rivets :ahh:
So how many are going on this year’s bot?
using epoxy is great, cause you can use it for almost everything. Need a light weight frame, but can’t weld it. Slap on some Aircraft epoxy. Want to make it so your flag holder will never fall off, glue it to the bot.