Next year my driver and builder is planning on making a new team when the game is revealed he said might not but i just want to prepare by knowing how to get good at building and driving any tips?
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The easiest way to get good at doing these things is just doing them. Try to build a robot from scratch and then try driving it. There are lots of useful tools of information on how to build, but driving is really straightforward. The one thing I would say is try to stick to one drive mode (tank, split arcade, left stick, right stick) and get really good at it.
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Practice, practice, practice. It can always make you better, with pretty much any sort of application in life. If you have any drivetrains left over from last year or even from years past, drive them around, giving yourself various challenges. Try and build something new and creative, such as a robot made out of a trophy.
Knowledge-wise, learning building tips from other competitors you know is something my team finds very helpful. You can watch YouTube videos to gain a better grasp on certain concepts or simply find inspiration.
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the thing that helped me the most was asking questions in robotics discord servers and watching tons and tons of past and current vex robot reveals and explanations. the videos really dive deep into the new metas and building tips, and that’s how i kinda knew a bunch of tips and different tricks.
take the drivetrain for example:
my drive sophomore year was a crappy 4 motor 4 wheel direct drive, but after asking on vex forum, discord, and watching new uploads from 606x, 80001B, and 2775v, i found out geared drives, boxing, squaring, ptos, stacked motors, hotswaps, etc.
the point is to just go on youtube and vex forum and surround yourself with robotics. ask specific questions and look closely at all the details. you could start by looking at recent explanation videos and pits and parts videos that show you close up all the little parts that make the robot work so well.
: )
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Proper practice… random/wrong practice just makes you good to driving poorly.
Learn to drive figure 8’s. Then learn to drive them backwards.
Setup an obstacle course that requires all type driving: nose out, nose in, sideways, reversing, etc.
Quickest thing is to learn that the sticks have 0-100 speeds, not just wide open. Learn to drive perfectly slowly. Then increase speed.
Learn to fly a quadcopter. When you can nose in hover and fly backwards… these skills will translate very well to vex driving. They will also train you to drive mecanum wheels.
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driving figure 8s with tank vs arcade is a big difference, tank is way harder I would learn both but it might not be the best practice for arcade
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I would learn both. Arcade is a simplified version of quadcopter/mecanum.
Quadcopter flying will make you a strong driver. The best drivers I have ever seen are also quad pilots.
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Watch videos, learn from more experienced teams, and, as said before, practice. The more you practice, the more you learn how to build a robot. Watch what other teams are doing and try to replicate it (don’t hole count). This will help you to understand the building process.
I personally drive tank (2x state champs since I swapped), and it allows for faster turns and more complex movements at higher speeds. with arcade, if you try to turn whilst driving forward it slows down and can feel blocky/slow.
I know plenty of teams that are very good with arcade though, so it is mostly just driver preference.
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