Here are lessons learned from our first competition this season. Some of these are easily preventable. Some of these require more thought next year.

  • Securely mount battery (lying flat is best). In one match the battery came out of the robot and in another it hit the breaker. Currently we are 3D printing a breaker cover to prevent the latter from happening next time.
  • Charge driverstation laptop! A very dumb mistake, yet very preventable.
  • Mount radio with ports facing up so gravity is on your side. Also hot glue ethernet connections because we’re paranoid. Let’s not embarass ourselves to the FTA’s.
  • Ferrule everything possible. Tug test all main power connections every few matches - cost us a match when the VRM power wire came loose.
  • Buy good quality batteries. Look at the internal resistance (lower the better) and difference in voltage from 0A and 18A load using the Battery Beak. There’s also been some talk on Chief Delphi on our Interstate Batteries from Andymark being bad. Next year, we should buy batteries from MK Battery.
  • Easily accessible manifold and roborio. We should decide on electronics placement last, after all the mechanisms are set in place. It makes fixing pneumatic leaks so much harder when you can’t access the central hub of the entire system.
  • Plan out holes for wiring/tubing in aluminum frame. Another thing to consider in CAD next season. Use gaskets to make it safe.
  • Plan out camera placement well beforehand. #sidewayselevatorgang is arguably not worth it when there’s literally no good place to mount the vision camera center on the robot…
View from the technician's box before the start of Finals.