u/Camaxtli2020

I am curious as to what other people think (I haven't done a lawyer's dive into the game manual so forgive me if I sound obtuse).

1. It sounds like you get a DQ if you knock over a "tower" of scoring objects (whatever they are called). But accidentally hitting them during a match seems inevitable, even if everyone tries to avoid it.

2. The new rule against painted parts, does it apply to those color coded screws that Robosource sells? What if I bought a bunch of brass screws that are not the same color as aluminum? (As I understood it any screws are legal as long as they are 8-32 and less than 2" long, but this color rule seems like it would be almost silly applied to that, since even the old school vex hex screws are painted black!)

Also while I get that some folks may have cheated I can't see how the color of the part would make any difference, even if you attempted to fabricate stuff how would you do it? It's not like most high schools have a metal fab facility handy and a plastic 3D printed part wouldn't last long unless you set the print density really high, and probably not even then.

Am I missing anything here?

This might be a bit of a deep cut for some folks. A lot of people (myself included) have thought about what would Jimi Hendrix, or John Lennon, or Jim Morrison might have produced had they lived. But I want to get into some other artists who were pretty influential and had their lives cut short, and Ian Curtis of Joy Division comes to mind.

He was about to go on the US tour with the band when he tragically committed suicide. So, for fans of that particular strain of post-punk, or even music historians, I'm curious what people think the knock on effects of Curtis managing to get some better help, or even just getting past the US tour.

Personally, I think one reason he didn't get the help he needed was just the time -- in 1980 it wasn't like mental health services were anything to brag about, and given that his bandmates, spouse or possible girlfriend (I am going by the fact that Curtis' wife said he was having an affair but the woman involved does not, and who knows at this point?) weren't any older or more experienced than he was it is no surprise they weren't able to help him out either.

Anyhow, had he lived I could see Joy Division going in a not-dissimilar direction that New Order did, if darker -- and Curtis becoming very much a kind of elder statesman of New Wave. The band clearly had a few more albums in them, and I think it's interesting to speculate what Curtis' influence might have meant, if anything.

What do you all think?

This may sound odd here, but I am curious what people think. I run a classroom that has robotics, and occasionally we need to cut wood (for a different engineering class project). Neither is a ton of use -- I cut parts for the classes regularly, and for the robotics competitions.

That said, a good chop saw would be great (they are cheap enough) but it would be great if on the worktable I had one that could do decent cuts on metal and be used as a miter. I saw this one and it seemed like a good fit, but I imagine I'd be replacing the blade occasionally. Or, certainly I could use a grinder blade in a miter but that isn't good for a wood-oriented miter saw.

Currently we just use a Dremel tool which is OK but it's hard to get cuts that are nice and straight with no ugliness that don't need a lot of filing. (I am, admittedly, a bit OCD about this). I plan to buy a cheap hacksaw which I know will make straighter less burr-y cuts but will of course take longer for each cut.

Anyhow I am curious what people think. One reason I want to combine the two tools is that we only have one work table in the classroom I can use for it, and I need to save some room, but if it's a bad idea from the getgo then I will just bite the bullet and have two; I won't die. But it's one of those it-would-be-nice things.

I teach HS, so going over safety protocols and all that is not so big a deal, my students were pretty goo about learning Dremel and screw gun safety.

(While we are at it -- recs on brands of screw gun hex tip are also welcome! The hex tips I got were cheap-o Amazon things and seem to be rounding out on us more quickly than we'd like, but you get what you pay for. I just figured it'd be nice to have better steel).

I am a coach for a team at a title I school.

What now? Two sets of competitions? I don't know that I can juggle that.

It just seems so... unnecessary. Like, if you have invoices, you pay 'em. Or have it out with the people you bought from. Or clarify what your various agreements say. If you are selling stuff to a non profit make sure that everyone is on the same page as to what they owe you and what you owe them. Get in contact with the leadership and have it out before the money adds up to millions.

It just seems like the leadership at both organizations were asleep at the switch in a big way. Certainly there is a reason you have a legal department - to take care of problems before they are problems.

Or am I just thinking too logically here? Because the net result seems to be a lot of hassle, confusion and potential disappointment for a lot of teams.

Basically the title. I have stuff from two years running, and it's starting to take up space. Do you just.. . throw it out? I kind of hate to do that.

Hi all. I have some V5 cable (the official stuff) and got a bunch of 4p4c connectors from both VEX and a third party. I've crimped phone wire before, and had reasonable success with it... but for some reason I can't seem to get a good, consistent crimp from the tools I have. One is an old one I used for phone wire at home. One is a newer one I got off of amazon: Link Here

Neither seems to work all that well. I can't seem to get consistent crimps -- the pins are not all flush or two two are flush or three are and one isn't.

Any suggestions? I am thinking of getting the one from VEX; it's not super expensive or anything, but if there's a better one out there I'd love to know about it. Making custom length cable for the team I coach (and a class I teach) would be a real help in a lot of situations.

(Also if there's a good crimping tool for the battery cables? We had one where the cable was actually frayed a bit at the joint where it goes into the pseudo Molex plug and I'd love to just tear the thing off, re-crimp the ends, and put the plastic plug back on -- hopefully tighter).

Hi all, I am curious if anyone has any experience with the turntables - linked here

I think for the latest game they might be useful, but I was just curioous if anyone else has any experience with how well they work. I coach a team and teach a robotics class, one student of mine was able to rig up a turntable of sorts with rollers and bearings that worked OK.

But I am sort of curious how much balance these things have -- any turntable supported from the center only will wobble like crazy.

Anyhow, I was curious what people think. Worth getting? Not? Maybe for the robotics class as opposed to the team?