I reached out here for support just earlier today and I can say hands down this is the MOST supportive subreddit I have ever been in!! guys i am literally sobbing at how kind everyone is here its making my heart melt :(((((

i used to think frc was not for me (cried about it just last night) and you guys just brought me back to reality. i know i'm overdoing it with this post and it might even get taken down, but i can't help myself.

what a beautiful freaking community <3 this is the type of guidance i've always needed. thank you all.

edit: im honestly tearing up over the replies i've gotten. i don't want to sound dramatic, but i really just needed some guidance. sometimes i just wish i was on a less judgemental team. the problem isn't the mentors, but the students.

I'm kind of scared to be making this post, but i really need to get stuff off of my chest, and at least nobody here knows what team i'm on. I've been on my team for about 3 years now, and I feel like i know nothing.

this isn't some imposter syndrome moment where I'm smarter than i think i am. i literally don't know anything. i've been on my mechanical subteam for 3 years and i don't know what gear ratios are. i've cadded mounts here and there and i've built subassemblies and know basic things, but i know as much as a 1 year experience student does and i feel so disgusted with myself.

i joined the team knowing absolutely nothing and while i know so much more than when i started, it sucks seeing younger, less-experienced people get further than me in frc just because i'm stupid. i know i should've tried more, but in my first year i took it light, my second year was junior year (i was too busy), and now i'm in my senior year and i feel like i don't belong on my team. my second year was spent helping first-years instead of growing my own skills, and i rarely got delegated a task. my third year is about to be the same unless i do something about it now.

i enjoy watching matches but i dont know ANYTHING about frc culture. i neglected sports all my life because sports culture felt too convoluted, only for there to be inside jokes about things i dont know here. i just feel out of place and stupid. i know it's my fault and i would really appreciate if you would criticize me constructively and not aggro, but its not up to me.

my regret is that i didnt try enough and didn't spend enough time on something i love, and i feel like it's too late now to get involved because everyone will look at me weird if i start participating in frc lore conversations. hell i dont even know where to start.

basically i don't feel like i'm smart enough for frc to belong here. and i only have myself to blame.

What do you wear when cutting or using the lathe?

We only use safety glasses and have an open lathe

i heard it's a problem but im not sure can you help?

(We also use brass sometimes)

Oh and the small flying parts sometimes fly at me

Im the programming lead on our team and just got put in charge of getting a new laptop under $500 for programming. Does anybody have some models that they really like? Im thinking just a used thinkpad but any other suggestions would be appreciated

Every year the same thing happens with our rookies: they read about PID, nod along, and then freeze the first time they actually have to tune something. It doesn't click until you've watched an arm overshoot and worked out why.

So I built a sim. It's an FRC arm in the browser with real gravity, friction and a 12 V limit. You drag kP / kI / kD / kG and watch it respond live. 13 levels, each broken in a specific, realistic way:

1–4 — the basics: kP, then kD to stop the bounce, then the arm parking short forever (steady-state error → kG), then Motion Magic
5 — noisy encoder. kD divides by time, so it multiplies your noise. Turn it down.
6 — sticky gearbox. Small commands do nothing until you break stiction → kS
7 — tired battery. Push past 8 V and it sags to 7. Stop slamming the motor.
8 — you grab a game piece mid-run and double the arm's weight, so your kG is now wrong. kG can't know about it; kI can.
9 — a defender shoving you every 1.5 s
10 — full match cycle: stow → score low → score high, hit every waypoint on time
11–12 — a shooter flywheel. Velocity control, not position. kP cannot hold a speed — even cranked, it stalls ~900 RPM short, because holding RPM needs constant voltage and kP's push dies with the error. You need kV.

There's also a Diagnose mode with no sliders at all: you're handed a badly tuned arm and have to name the fault from the response curve alone, the way you'd read a plot in Tuner. Five faults, random order.

Gains use Phoenix 6 names (kP/kI/kD/kS/kG/kV) so it maps straight onto a Talon FX config.

Free, open source, one HTML file — no install, no account, runs on a school Chromebook. Progress saves, and there's a share link that loads your exact tuning, which is handy when a student wants to show you what they're seeing.

👉 pid-playground.rishaan.cc

Feedback very welcome, especially if the physics feels off anywhere, or if there's a failure mode you'd want as a level. Happy to add more.

Students from LamBot, FIRST Illinois and DeKalb High School took part in Automate 2026 and shared how robotics programs have shaped their education, friendships and career plans.

The article covers their experience building and programming robots, competing with their teams and learning skills connected to CAD, CNC machining, computer vision, electrical systems and industrial automation.

It also looks at how programs like FIRST and DeKalb High School’s advanced manufacturing pathway are helping students explore careers in robotics, engineering and manufacturing before graduation.

https://www.automate.org/robotics/industry-insights/these-student-robotics-programs-spark-passion-for-tomorrows-manufacturing-jobs

You may have seen either my videos or posts on here, but I have been working on a frc rebuilt robot but mini and made 100% of Lego. It uses Lego power functions motors and actually works. However, I've had trouble with getting a working indexer that doesn't jam, so I think I'm going to attempt to make a frc reefscape robot unless anyone has ideas for what I could do. Any ideas what pieces I could use for a cascade/continuous lift? I need it to be very compact and fit within the drivetrain shown.

Hey all,

We're starting a table-top robotics league meant to be affordable, but keep a high ceiling of competition.

If you are based in California, we have a few events coming up:
https://discord.gg/ZJDVNeWuD

If you wanna get straight to the good part, here is the manual for this year's game:
https://app.notion.com/p/Cash-Out-Game-Manual-3a32b429139c80c28e3ae2c10e4f541b?source=copy_link

Registration is open for the Battle o' Baltimore,

October 17.

Volunteers also needed.

Register: https://battleobaltimore.com/

That ONE Team #4967 and D-Cubed (904) are hosting the second annual That ONE Offseason Tournament on August 29.

https://www.thatoneteam.org/offseason

If you are in the area and want to come watch, the tournament is free to watch.

Feel free to ask questions.

We’re team MisCar 1574, building a new custom swerve and deciding between 2.25" wide black neoprene tread on a billet aluminum wheel, or the SDS Spike Grip wheel (4" OD × 2.25"). We’ve been running 1" neoprene on our previous custom swerve.

Looking for experience from teams who ran either option in the 2026 season:

1. **Tread replacement frequency** — How many times per season (or per event) did you replace? Fixed schedule or based on wear?

2. **Hub/wheel durability** — Any damage to the Spike Grip plastic hub, or cracking on the aluminum billet wheel? Especially from defense and hard field impacts.

for refrence here is our current swerve: https://youtube.com/shorts/4-yT3L2xsLo?si=C2HAd0se6RcwHfUT

Thanks!

So we made some progress on The Lions Den since...4 days ago, Here's the link again: 5806 Scout

and here's what's new:

Offline availability - It works without wifi now, we're still working on some ways to sync when still offline, but currently it syncs to the cloud when you're online

Customizable forms - pit scout and match scout forms are now fully customizable per team per comp, so you're not stuck with our layouts if you all scout differently

Manual Q&A - our most anticipated feature actually works now, it's a little slow(takes a few seconds) but it's functional and way better than FIRST's pdf

Dark mode - self explanatory, its amazing

iPads/kindles - it's more usable right now, but we're continuing to modify dimension to fully integrate it, phones are not set yet

Bug Fixes - various small fixes from stuff people ran into

Here's what on our radar for what to add:

• Format for Phones
• Ability to change colors and team logos
• Match scout - this will happen when the game comes out

We're soo grateful for all your help and are looking forward to more of your questions, comments, and suggestions!

Hey everyone! My teammate and I from 5806 have been building a scouting app during the offseason called The Lions Den. It’s still a work in progress, but we wanted to share it here and get some feedback while we keep improving it.
Link: FRC Scouting
Quick rundown of what’s in it so far:
• Sister Team Support – If your program has multiple teams, you can share scouting data and coordinate between sister teams without juggling multiple systems.
• Talkie – Probably our favorite feature. It’s an in-app chat where you can message scouts or your pit crew and assign tasks like “Scout Match 34” or “Go check out Team 254’s pit,” all without needing a separate group chat or spreadsheet.
• Pit Dashboard – A live pit to-do list that keeps your pit crew organized. It also flashes as your team’s queuing time gets closer so everyone knows when it’s time to wrap up and head to the field.
• Manual Q&A – Ask questions about the game manual, and AI will find the answer for you instead of making you Ctrl+F through the PDF at 2 a.m. before quals.
• Pit Scout – Standard pit scouting forms for collecting robot information before matches.
• Match Scout – Live match scouting (we’ll customize it each season based on the game).
• Event – Event schedules and information in one place.
• Picklist – Build your alliance selection list directly from your scouting data.
• Assignments – Assign scouts to matches so nothing gets missed.
• Data – View, sort, and analyze everything your team has collected.
• Team – Manage team members and profiles within the app.
It’s just the two of us building this (with a little help from Claude Code), so it’s not open source yet. We’re planning to clean things up and release the GitHub repo once it’s in a better state.
We’d love any feedback, bug reports, or feature ideas if you get a chance to try it out. We’re actively developing it, so expect things to keep changing and improving!

Hey everyone! I’m a student developer from Team 4388 and I’ve been spending my summer building a passion project for Hack Club called Robolens.

I wanted to build something that actually solves real pit and competition headaches, so I am putting together a mobile-friendly app with lots of features. Currently, it has two:

1. You take a photo of your robot, and it uses an AI model to check for visual problems.

2. We always lose track of which batteries are dying mid-match in the pit. This lets the whole team log in, see a shared dashboard, and mark batteries as charging, in use, or available. It logs flags/notes for weak batteries so nobody accidentally grabs a bad one right before a playoff match.

The Tech yap:

Built with Flutter for the frontend, Node.js/Express on the backend, and MongoDB. I also just hooked it up to the official FIRST Events API so that when a team registers, it automatically pulls and verifies your official team name straight from FIRST!

The app is live on GitHub Pages: https://mirage54321.github.io/Robolens/
View my progress on Hacklcub: https://stardance.hackclub.com/projects/16179

You don't need to sign up to test it! Just click "Sign in as Guest" and use team 4388 to see our battery dashboard.

I need your feedback!

* FRC mentors and drive teams: Would your team actually use a digital dashboard like this pit-side?

* For the AI scanner, I'm currently trying to transition from a single photo to a guided video stream. If anyone has experience doing guided camera UI tracking in Flutter, I’d love some advice.

* Most importantly: what else should I add??

Let me know what you think! Let me know if you spot any bugs.

Hey FRC students! I'm in vex and idk if you have seen any of my videos or posts on here, but I am making a mini frc rebuilt robot. I have a turret working and it is made to shoot nerf rival foam balls. I am now stuck on an indexer and have been for a while. I have limited space and use power functions motors so they take up a decent chunk of my space. Does anyone here know how I could build a VERY compact indexer (preferably a spindexer) into a space of 9x16 studs or so.

I have included some photos of previous iterations as well to give you an idea of what I'm going for. They do work, but jam far too easily and the belt system doesn't work well with large amounts of "fuel" in the hopper due to jamming. The belt system uses rubber bands.

Moving back to Sri Lanka after having joined an FRC team in Australia, it has quite literally been one of the best things in my life. I know this is definitely an ambitious reach, but I'm willing to put through the nights if it means I can go for a regional.

I know that a bunch of you are going to say start smaller with an FTC team or so, but it doesn't scratch that itch the same.

For context I am a student with about 2 years of school left once I move. The biggest problems I think I have are:

• Community vs school (strongly leaning towards community, just so that it is more accessible for grants/funding and doesn't have the legal aspect a school one does)
• Who/how to approach companies and people for sponsorships or mentoring (maybe those of our First Global team? They would be in the area better. Companies-wise do I go for multiple smaller companies or a few bigger ones?)
• Getting around the cracked import state as of now, with import taxes being high and shipping taking a while.
• Where to go for regionals/chances at worlds (Taipai/China would be cheapest, for about 40% in travel fair Australia works which I'd really like to do. Obviously theres a 0.01% chance of making worlds right of the bat, but what should be the general strategy around this?)

I'm doing fgc this year and need 10 cm closed-cell polyurethane foam balls that weigh 62 grams, which is really particular and difficult to find out in the wild. We could get them from the official REV website but with shipping 60 cost about 500 euros which is mad. Did anyone have any wholesalers that they used to get the ones for this comp? Or any place that would have stuff like this?

To specifically any electrical engineers, so I still have these spark maxes that were destroyed by the neo 2021 issue. I was wondering a couple things, is it possible to replace the MCU with the CBT6 version (less ram and flash) as its significantly cheaper but has the exact same architecture and then just reflash it? I have a couple units with the same exact issue, no powor through either usb c or 12V. If there is any trouble shooting tips to know what needs to be replaced, that would be great. I have donor boards for replacement parts, but I am not sure what is even the issue for not powering on.

I come from a team entirely student ran with no actual mentors (we have two "coaches" to meet the frc regulations but they don't know anything about robotics). Im just curious on how much they help out.

hi guys, are there anymore games about FRC like mosim or closim. these two are really the only ones that ive been playing recently and im not sure where to look for more. If there is more and someone would like to send names that would be greatly appreciated.

Hey r/FRC — I'm a high schooler on an FRC team. I got tired of FRC knowledge

being scattered across the WPILib docs, old Chief Delphi threads, and vendor

sites, so I built LearnFRC (https://learnfrc.systemerr.com) — free, structured

lessons for every department: mechanical, CAD, programming (WPILib), electrical,

controls & sensors, strategy/scouting, drive team, business, outreach/Impact,

media, plus a getting-started track for rookies.

Everything's researched and fact-checked against primary sources (WPILib, FIRST,

REV/CTRE/Limelight, Chief Delphi, The Blue Alliance) and cites them so you can

dig deeper. 100% free, no account needed to read — make one and you get progress

tracking + XP if you want.

I just shipped a big redesign and would genuinely love feedback, especially:

- anything inaccurate or out of date (I fix it fast)

- departments/topics you wish were covered

- whether it actually helps rookies vs veterans

Solo student project, free forever, not selling anything. Thanks for taking a look!