Robot Arm C

[jander14indoor]

Not chalker, but know the answer to your question. There are three Chalker brothers and their Mom heavily involved in SO. chalker7 is who you are thinking of with helicopters. chalker (no number) is associated with the physics events as his sig says. I'm not sure if the other two comment much on scioly.

To the specifics of the comments. Chalker certainly has the intent right, the lifting mechanism had to be general enough to score some other point(s). As primary author I tire to capture that with the words in the rules, though with the degree of discussion, perhaps not as clearly as we'd hoped.
There was another intent. Not to give teams the full three minutes to raise the ball while they scored other points. The intent was to set it up so you spent the bulk of your time scoring the 90 odd points for perfect and then differentiate yourself in the short time left with the bonus. Personally I think the wordings pretty clear on that one, but again, maybe not.

Now, opinion. Yes, loopholes are part of SO. BUT, you take a significant risk if your exploitation of the loophole isn't clearly within the rules and expect to be challenged. You might win the challenge, you might not, polite explanation of your view helps. But it is still a risk.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

PS, if my final comment sounds a little obscure, but its too late and not right forum to be specific about which things I'd have problems with. So don't ask. Sorry.

[chalker]

Not chalker, but know the answer to your question. There are three Chalker brothers and their Mom heavily involved in SO. chalker7 is who you are thinking of with helicopters. chalker (no number) is associated with the physics events as his sig says. I'm not sure if the other two comment much on scioly.

And technically there is also our sister and dad, but neither really are involved in SO like the other 4 of us;)

Now, opinion. Yes, loopholes are part of SO. BUT, you take a significant risk if your exploitation of the loophole isn't clearly within the rules and expect to be challenged. You might win the challenge, you might not, polite explanation of your view helps. But it is still a risk.

I'd like to share something I recently sent via PM to someone on this site that expands upon this theme:

You are in a position that I suspect many of the teams going to Nationals are right now. Keep in mind that out of something like 6,400 teams that started the season back in the fall, you are amongst only 120 to make it to Nationals - the best of the best. Naturally each and every one of those teams is operating at the 'edge' of the rules and trying to make judgment calls.

We have a general policy of not pre-judging devices, thus even if you did directly contact the event supervisor you likely wouldn't get more specific guidance that what you've gotten so far. My best advice at this point is to discuss this fact with the team and help them understand that this is a common dilemma when you are amongst the best of the best in an endeavor (for example elite athletes who work to anticipate the start of a race, and occasionally get called for a fault for early starts, or investors weighing the tradeoffs between a moderate or aggressive portfolio). Let them make the decision as to the risk vs. reward and be prepared for the possible outcomes.

[mrsteven]

Interesting view of it, its all part of the game. Keeps things lively, Im sure.
Not really an issue Im running into, my team barely place in the top half of illinois, nationals calls arent in my future just interested in keeping up with it till the end of the season.

Ah, Chalker7, I can't be the only one that mixes you two up on the forums (I hope). I apologize for it (and the likely many times its happened over the last couple years).

[chalker7]

Interesting view of it, its all part of the game. Keeps things lively, Im sure.
Not really an issue Im running into, my team barely place in the top half of illinois, nationals calls arent in my future just interested in keeping up with it till the end of the season.

Ah, Chalker7, I can't be the only one that mixes you two up on the forums (I hope). I apologize for it (and the likely many times its happened over the last couple years).

Nope, it happens all the time. No worries.

[harryk]

I finally got around to taking some photos of my robot. Just uploaded to the gallery, let me know if you have any questions.

[mrsteven]

I always wondered how powerful that spring lynxmotion sold since they didnt give any K value type information about it, did you find that it was strong enough to provide any significant assistance with the shoulder servo?
I used a spring off of a patio-door-pulling-thing I found at True Value that worked splendedly.

I see you too are a fan of redundant power strips! I got made fun of by my tech teacher for not putting all the +/- leads in one terminal.

[harryk]

I always wondered how powerful that spring lynxmotion sold since they didnt give any K value type information about it, did you find that it was strong enough to provide any significant assistance with the shoulder servo?
I used a spring off of a patio-door-pulling-thing I found at True Value that worked splendedly.

I see you too are a fan of redundant power strips! I got made fun of by my tech teacher for not putting all the +/- leads in one terminal.

The springs are decent and they certainly do help when lifting the arm back up, though a stronger spring would be better. The power strips are only slightly necessary(if you note the size of my battery) but they certainly look nice with the wires all arranged.

[jander14indoor]

Don't underestimate the importance of neatness in design execution. While not one to one, it often strongly ties to reliability, a very important aspect of any system. And if something does go wrong, it can be much easier to trouble shoot.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[iwonder]

Don't underestimate the importance of neatness in design execution. While not one to one, it often strongly ties to reliability, a very important aspect of any system. And if something does go wrong, it can be much easier to trouble shoot.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

Thank you. People wonder why I spend so much time labeling all the wires and tying everything up to the arm, planning the layout of my base and making it all fit nicely when the other team just throws everything on a piece of wood and calls it good. Guess who's design failed at every single contest this year(including state).

[mrsteven]

haha mine looks like trash but its actually very organized. it looked better before the height task poles were added, with fishing line wired, from the top it looks like its insanity, but if you look laterally, everything is acting on different heights so nothing crosses into each other.

Before the height stuff was added, it was just the arm, a few wires, the terminal block, and the ethernet port. It was 85% empty space on my base.