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Pearls of Wisdom
Ha Ha . . . Are you serious?
Yes. We are the wise-knowing all. Listen to us.
Helpful TAs: Mario, Knight, Kevin and the JENGA BOT!
1) Don't worry too much about your robot design--odds are, you'll probably end up redesigning it 1-2 days before
competition. Just choose your gear ratio, and build your robot early. Make tweaks as you go along.
2) Make sure your battery charger works. Our first battery charger's LEDs didn't light up, but from the multimeter
it looked like it was charging. DON'T TRUST THAT! Turns out, it didn't work. Finally, after soldering 4 other chargers,
the fifth one worked.
3) BE WARY OF YOUR HAPPYBOARD!! Our team went through three,3 Happyboards. Our first one just never worked.
The second malfunctioned after a week of use--the board heated up ridiculously fast. Luckily, our third board lasted
through competition day. Definitely be wary of your board, and treat it well! After all, for 6.270, it IS your robot's brain.
4) If in need, bug the TA's. After all, that's what they're there for. And most are pretty nice. (Thanks Knight
and Ross for putting up with all our problems--we know we're high maintenance!)
5) Test, test, test! This is SO important. Luckily, our code was really, REALLY simple since we didn't use the
gyro. All we used were the encoders. Still, my one regret is that we did not test our orientation states enough. Make sure
to build your robot early and then TEST IT ON THE GAME BOARD!
6) Finally, make sure to have fun! It is IAP after all . . . don't stress too much. =)
Our experience in 6.270 has been a rollercoaster ride, but it has been really fun. And it's totally worth it to
see your robot compete. We encourage everyone to take this class. It's been great! Thanks everyone!
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