As a team that will be working with v5 soon (stuck with the ships in 8 weeks meme) what specific tips or things should we be aware of while working with v5?
Thanks
You have to be plugged in to the cortex by micro usb in order to program, don’t leave batteries unattended.
It’s important to get terminology correct as to not confuse between Cortex and V5. It is a brain, not a Cortex.
The motors are sufficiently larger, and VCS is really buggy. There’s no wireless downloading, so be sure to have easy acces to the port when mounting your brain.
Both my team and another team from our school have an issue with long motor wires. Our claw, at the end of our DR4B, randomly doesn’t work. We troubleshooted and figured out that the section of ports it’s in just refuses to work with that cord so you have to move it to a completely different quadrant. So maybe test motors before each match.
With v5, build quality and structural integrity gain importance, and ultra-low friction mechanisms lose importance. You have enough power that a tiny bit of extra friction won’t hurt you, but a floppy lift or a chassis that bends when your insanely powerful 4 motor drive base hits another insanely powerful 4 motor drive base at full speed will hurt you a lot.
Another big thing is you should keep your COM very low and very centered. I’ve actually seen teams use steel counterweights (successfully) to counterbalance their robot, and of course keeping your large mechanisms centered and keeping your wheels apart is huge. V5 bases accelerate a lot faster than 393 bases, and tipping is bad 
The motors are huge. Make sure you have space for them.
And finally, use PROS. I don’t know a ton about programming, but PROS has functionality built in that VCS doesn’t, such as setting motor voltage directly.