r/vex

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.

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).

can anyone who read through the legal documents run me through what happened?

Is it normal for a coach to say that your robot needs to be able to do X otherwise we won’t go to the next competition? Or fix X problem with the robot otherwise we won’t go to the next competition?

old blog post about VEX CEO Tony Norman. I don’t know that RECF has acted perfectly, but I find this split suspicious when RECF has essentially run every VEX event

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.

So I'm not entirely new to this team leading stuff, but last year my team complained a lot that I was being tyrannical, but mostly just the people who couldnt take direction or critism well, and I was wondering if reddit had any tips?

Heya all! I'm gonna be a Team Captain and Lead Coder next year. Override makes me... Wildly scared. I am very bad at coding autonomous. Our team is switching to straight Python instead of Block Code next year. I need help/tips. The only tips I will not appreciate is "do C++" or "do Block Code". Genuinely anything else is super appreciated. Give me the super basics, give me crazy wild tips only like 3 people will understand-- I don't care. I just really need help. Lol.

has anyone here started a robotics club? my hs doesnt have one and well.. i dont exactly have enough money to keep buying parts, anyone have any tips?

Do judges actually read entire engg notebook? I saw teams submitting 4” binders and sometimes couple of binders.

Are there any best practices from latest competitions, who can share. Thanks in advance.

About a month ago I told the teams (Vex IQ) I coach that no one was going to hit max score in dome. I told them they might see it in division finals and maybe during qualification rounds but not in dome. They didn't believe me, so I told them I was so certain that if any team got 434 in dome that I'd give them each 10 dollars.

Alliance after alliance goes up to play on the stage and no one is able to get it. As a matter of fact a lot of the scores are pretty low. I told them that the pressure is too much. So there we are sitting there watching the teams go up. Last team goes up and ties for first. So they play again as a tiebreaker.

First team 392 again, second team goes up, and wouldn't you know it, perfect score 434. So I sink into my chair as all the kids are cheering about getting 10 dollars and proving me wrong.

Also I'm proud of my teams but they said if they won an award I'd have to shave my beard so off it goes later this week I guess.

The Reality: If you’re in college and want to learn "real" robotics, VEX shouldn't be your primary focus. You should be spending lab time on advanced projects that actually land you jobs. VEX U should be a part-time competitive sport, not a full-time academic burden.

My proposal to fix the meta:

• Embrace Constraints: We should stick to V5 limits. In the real world, engineering is about designing around strict limitations. Keeping the rules tighter makes it easier for students to stay competitive while still having time for other resume-building projects.
• Ditch the 2-Team Rule: Opening the field to smaller groups or individual hobbyists would cause the sport to explode in popularity.
• The eSports Pivot: VEX is a for-profit business; they should lean into an eSports model. Introduce prize money and better spectator production to bring in hobbyists and up the stakes.

Right now, the VEX U isn't that interesting to watch. Even with the "advanced" allowances, I honestly feel like top-tier high school teams could take most of these college teams down.

I can recall that in Push Back, according to a video made by VEX Analyst, there are different types of robot for that game, which includes Ruiguan, S-bot, C-bot, Basket Bot and etc. Although it's still early, is there any yet for Override that anyone could think of?

The rules say that "interacting" with goals is problematic, but does this include just physically touching the base with your robot? I was planning on driving my bot into it to align it