Hey check out this part from team 148′s 2012 robot. Isn’t it pretty! I wonder what is does? Does it reveal that super secret feature which will give us an advantage?
In actuality this tells you nothing about our robot, except that it will be black and made from sheet metal.
Just like most teasers that make their way to the web during this time of the year, for the most part they are a waste of time. If you are urgently trying to show off your thinking then you should post your whole robot design. Or at a minimum the complete mechanism. Posting a close up picture of a sprocket or gearbox (especially one purchased from andymark) is not really a good representation of your robot or your team. In retrospect I might consider a team who is extremely proud of something like this, to have questionable design abilities.
I understand the desire for teams to gain recognition, but this is the wrong way to draw attention to yourself. Post videos to youtube, full photos of mechanisms, or your whole robot. All of these things are great ways to showcase your work! Even I have fallen into this trap years ago, but I have since learned better, so consider this a lesson to you “youngsters.”
On a side note, as much as I tried, Jeff removed those words from the bottom of the sheet metal.
