1. Our number 1 suggestion is to WEAR safety glasses. Make sure they are clean ones with no scratches that fit your head, are not tinted and are not worn over your viewing area.
2. Build a "robot stand" to take the weight off the wheels during development and testing. Use this in the pits and whenever new code is downloaded to the robot. This will prevent unintended motion when the software and/or operators have a brain cramp.
3. Whenever operating the robot with weight on wheels, a "safety operator" should be parked on the STOP button and be watching the robot at all times.
4. Read the FIRST safety manual. Lots of good safety information there.
5. Batteries are heavy. NEVER carry or lift a battery by its wiring leads, and always use two hands.
6. Batteries are heavy - part II. Be careful when loading/unloading batteries into the robot and during general handling. Dropping a battery can lead to a cracked case and spilled battery acid which can ruin your day in a hurry. If your hands feel like they’re burning, that’s because they probably are (due to battery acid). Wash with water and baking soda to neutralize the acid.
7. Build a battery charging station for use in your pit area. This should remove tripping hazards.
8. Convert all your battery chargers from alligator clips to Anderson SB-50 connector to plug directly into your batteries. SB-50s connectors can be found HERE.
9. Pneumatics can move quickly. Read and understand the pneumatics manual and make sure fingers, hands, and other assorted body parts are clear of all mechanisms when testing. This is especially true during prototyping when guards and shields might be absent.
10. Safety is everyone’s job on the team, students and mentors alike. If you see something that is not safe, speak up.

1. RTFM - Read the FIRST Manual. The robot section of the manual has many rules concerning wiring and pneumatics. Remember, the robot must pass inspection prior to competition and it’s always easier to design in compliance rather than trying to correct problems.
2. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can damage electrical components. Use a wrist strap when handling electronics prior to installation on robot. Make sure you ground yourself (touch the metal frame of the robot) prior to handling any on the electronic equipment including the main breaker.
3. Don’t leave batteries discharged, it severely weakens them. Mark each battery with a Sharpie permanent marker with team number, year the battery was received, and unique designator (A, B, C, or -1, -2) after the year. This helps the Battery Czar and team in general identify any suspect battery.
4. The battery is the life blood of the robot. Competition batteries should be fully charged with good connections at both the battery end and at the plug end. Designate a single student as "Battery Czar" for handling batteries. Duties include loading/unloading batteries from the robot and placing batteries on/off the chargers. The Czar knows which batteries are most fully charged at all times.
5. Pay attention to your electrical connections. We recommend a crimped, soldered, shrink sleeved connection whenever possible.
6. Strain relief your electrical connections to prevent them from working loose during competition. The robots can bounce around quite a bit during the normal course of a match. Try to secure your electrical wires immediately next to a connection to keep the wires from vibrating at the connection. Sticky pads and tie wraps work great for this.
7. Bring up your power system slowly and methodically when you first apply power.
   1. Without battery attached and all fuses installed, check for shorts between power and ground (with and without the main breaker thrown). Correct any issues.
   2. Connect battery, remove all fuses from power distribution board, and flip main breaker. Check voltage input and output at the board.
   3. Insert fuses one at a time and check equipment (Note: for cRIO, sidecar, and bumber cards, check the power and polarity at the plug BEFORE connecting the equipment).
8. The "wago" connectors that make connections that "never pull out", can indeed have wires pull out. Make a robot "check list" for things to check whenever the robot returns to the pits. Make sure checking the connectors are part of that list.
9. The robot frame must be isolated from electrical ground and +12v. Without power applied, use an ohmmeter to check for short. Note: The cRIO and Axis camera chassis are both connected to electrical ground and need to be isolated. Other sensors may have their mounts tied to ground.
10. When a problem crops up, look for quick ways to identify it as either a hardware problem or a software problem. Keep a "last known working" software version that you can always revert to for testing.

1. Jaguar speed controllers are not commanded (you can tell by the LED). PWM wired incorrectly, check both ends.
2. Intermittent power to robot wireless. Check wago connection at power distribution board. Strain relief power connection at wireless adapter.
3. Fuses keep popping. Current draw is exceeded. Check for shorts between power and ground. Running CIM motors in a stall condition can and will trip a 40 amp breaker. Note: While breakers will "reset" automatically, they are thermally triggered. So once a breaker has tripped, it is more likely to trip again. Therefore, you should replace any breakers that have tripped.
4. 12v Festo Solenoid valves (from years’ past) do not operate correctly. These are problematic because the wiring to the valves is not consistent. Documentation shows one possible way, but same part numbers have different wiring.
5. Solenoid valves in general are problematic. Still searching for a nice KoP replacement. Using a 24v valve is not desirable since the only 24v available is the power port that powers the cRIO. Should really try to buy these "off-season" and test.
6. Intermittent connections. Take the time to crimp, solder, and shrink sleeve connections. Make sure you strain relieve all wires near there connection point. Make sure components are securely fastened.

1. Prototyping should be done ASAP and should be done before CAD to make sure the concept works before spending the time putting it into CAD
2. Sketch out in detail what you want your prototype to look like and include.
3. Hold design reviews often to make sure what you are prototyping is still compatible with the current robot design.
4. Make sure your prototype is robust so it can withstand all tests that it will be used for.
5. Make sure cheap simple materials are used when building your prototype so that the more expensive pieces can be used for the real thing.

1. When learning a CAD program it is essential that simple shapes (e.i. plates, pipes, hollow box (for assemblies) are created first as the more complex parts and functions might be intimidating to a beginner.
2. A good first step for starting a CAD drawing is to visualize the object in question and draw it out to analyze all the pieces that are required to make the object.
3. Make sure there is a huge amount of communication between people working on the same object to minimize mix-ups and make sure the parts will fit together once they have been built.
4. Make sure the team has set the dimensions of as many pieces as possible - that reduces the chance of pieces not fitting together once the object has been built.
5. Make sure all of the part files are saved in one known location so there won't need to be any remakes of lost parts.

KAnalogUltrasonic.H file
KAnalogUltrasonic.CPP file
Note: This code is calibrated to return feet from maxbotic’s LV-EZ1 Ultrasonic sensor.