Hey Everyone!
I was just curious about some important lessons you learned from this season, and any other seasons you’ve participated in, and if you’d be willing to share them with us so we can also learn from them.
Thanks!
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You can CAD and notebook and think about the game all you want, but all the planning and preparing in the world is pretty useless compared to actually physically messing with a robot. Maximize the time you spend working on the robot directly. The team with 20 hours of build and 5 hours of CAD will almost always beat the team with 20 hours of CAD and only 5 of build.
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Sounds like a very useful lesson. Thanks! I’ll be sure to follow this!
I learned not to be too ambitious with your design and not to overcomplicate your robot.
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Gaffers tape > Duct tape
Also just how much tournament manager nopes out sometimes
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I’ve heard that a simple but functional robot always beats a fancy but flimsy one, so I agree!
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I haven’t heard this one. I’ll keep this in mind! Thanks!
dont be scared to rebuild
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Can you please clarify what you mean by using Gaffers tape over Duct tape and what to use it for? Thanks!
Sounds like something to look into! Thanks!
A. The design notebook is important and does not take much time to fill out to document everything.
B. Crowdfunding is very useful.
C. A robot that maxes out autonomous (for example) once every ten times is worse than a consistent robot.
D. Spending 18 hours building, 1 hour on testing autonomous and 1 hour driving practice is not optimal! You can have an amazing robot, but it is nothing without good autonomous and good driving.
E. Set up a system to charge batteries so that you never go into a match with a battery on 15% whilst your sister team may have one fully charged battery in their robot and one fully charged spare. Similarly, charge batteries in any free time.
F. Take the time to practice skills and to do it at competitions.
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CAD (custom parts)
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Building(Build Quality, still not very good but improve a lot)
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Programming(Design pattern, Code structure, lots of control algorithms, and build my own library for the first time)
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Leadership skill(Founded an alliance, mentored sister teams)
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Most importantly, makes many friends. Maybe what’s truly important isn’t the winning comps or qualing worlds, but the friends we made along the way.
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Thanks! These are great tips!
Thanks for the tips!
I know someone brought this up, but really don’t be too scared to rebuild. Our team rebuilt our bot after us open for multiple reasons (cog was too high, intake jamming, build quality, etc). Just be sure not to be over-ambitious. Highlight build quality and robot efficiency. Take lots of time tuning your robot.
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Christmas tree expansion blocker!
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Thanks for this! I will definitely keep this in mind!
Build quality
- Screw joints do wonders to decrease friction.
- Mount things at right angles with holes lined up correctly, it will make your robot a lot less jank.
- At least 3 points of contact (with screws) when mounting something, generally to at least to different structures, this will make your robot a lot stronger.
Also actually do notebook, 30 pages is not enough.
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Yeah, notebooks were definitely my strength! I wrote 4 notebooks this season. Thanks for the rest of the tips!
An Friend of mine learned his lesson. Maybe you have everything before leaving to go to an Tournament, that includes your V5 Controller.
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