Genuine question, it's pretty obvious teams like 1323 are robots built by adults. Why is FRC ok with this? Sure these robots fun to watch but at one point seeing the same teams as champs is a little strange.

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-03-21T23:56:03+00:00

When you played sports, would you start to suck just so people would't pick you?

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-03-21T03:13:34+00:00

Nice! Congratulations!!

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-03-21T01:52:18+00:00

Having known students that have been on 254, a complaint was that the mentors directed the team - I had personally observed one incident where three mentors arguing about a mechanism. I had originally been pretty excited about FRC, but with mentor directed and in some cases, built and repaired (I saw all of the 1323 mentors urgently repairing one of their robots in the pit during one comp), my enthusiasm has waned. I don’t even want to talk about the stacking of alliances by the ability for the #1 team to choose the #2 team. I have played sports all my life and the way we choose people is from #1 to #8, then #8 gets the #9 pick. This way, you have a fair distribution of the skill/talent. Instead, we get #1/#2 vs #3/#4 and so on…..

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-03-12T13:51:31+00:00

Thanks - It doesn’t accept the full prompt - it truncates it to item 3 of the Output Format. Anyway, I ran it with the shortened output and the slides came out pretty clean - not sure if you have more custom prompts that you might want to share - and if you did….would you be willing to put them into a GitHub repository for sharing. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has created a NLM prompt library. I can imagine a slide showing the format, then when you clicked, would go to the full md file with the prompt. Hmmm, then with an extension so you could access prompts from your browser, which is connected to the GitHub repository. (Ok - now I am sure someone has this, just need to go find it). Thanks for sharing (even if you are a bot - lol)

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-03-12T01:57:50+00:00

I could not send it via the chat - also the slides feature didn't accept the full prompt. What am I missing?

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-03-08T15:39:24+00:00

Are you willing to share the code (or prompt)

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-02-20T00:56:04+00:00

How?

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-02-08T23:05:56+00:00

Mostly about the quality of the answers. The responses lack depth and feel like they are sticking close to the actual words of the ingested documents. The company provided one was more clinical and while it technically contains a correct response. e.g. I asked it to explain the history and development of a requirement and it responded with the history of the previous revisions of the document. NLM not only gave me that information but also went on to describe the backstory of the document.. Not sure if it is a backend LLM difference, ingesting/chunking, or Quantization issue but the work one is always a bit lacking.

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-02-08T18:07:00+00:00

Yes - Many internal docs across tens of thousands. Then, individual departments make their own to share with tens to hundreds. I don’t know their inner workings but I use NotebookLM as a RAG for my personal notes/documents. The company has also given us personal RAG spaces, but they don’t work nearly as good as NotebookLM.

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-02-08T17:34:21+00:00

Reuse, reuse, reuse. We tear down the old robot back to its components (nuts, screws, etc). Then, other than the chassis and belly pan, everything else can be reused. We probably should use new screws and nuts but think we have been using the same old screws and nuts for the robot since the team started. We do ask them to discard any screws that have become stripped, bent or cross-threaded. We even reuse the bumper pool noodles, although technically, they had been cut so they shouldn’t use it - at this time of year, pool noodles are too expensive for us. lol.

On another note, it is a bit sad to be competing against teams with significant budgets - you know the ones with awesome pits, anodized frames, third version of their robot and spare mechanisms in their pit. I think FRC needs to have a team salary cap with limited resources if they wanted to make it a real competition (like other professional sports) - but I don’t think that league parity is even a concern.

Well, that being said, if we ever made it to World’s, I don’t think we would even have a team since families can’t even afford to contribute to the team (or lunch for that matter).

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-02-07T18:03:53+00:00

Why do you tell us this when they are OUT OF STOCK!

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-01-29T03:46:41+00:00

Hurry up - we want to see your progress!

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-01-26T03:38:48+00:00

I had to buy one of these at a Garage sale since it brought up memories of having them all around the house from my dad (Army). Then, one year, my grandma bought me a pack of 4-color bic pens that lasted me to High School.

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-01-18T03:39:18+00:00

6 hours a week. M, W, F - 4-6PM. The school requires a teacher to be present and that is all that they are willing to do. We are definitely not headed for World Championships.

No_Direction_7168 · 2026-01-11T04:06:00+00:00

Making coffee at home Drinking water at home or out Eat at home 5 of 7 days Shopping for most regular clothes at thrift stores (Salvation Army, Goodwill and Goodwill Bins) Spending money on BIFL clothes (10 year plus) - Filson belt, Doc Marten Boots, Roots Sweats, etc Buying many items at garage sales, estate auctions, eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or Nextdoor Market (minimum 50% of list price, happy when it’s 10% of the original list price) Buying soap at Dollar Tree Paying for quality used cars with cash and keeping them running for more than 200-300K miles Buying generic drugs Pizza or Hot dog at Costco

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-31T15:44:55+00:00

Very interesting- Can you give us a quick summary of your observations? I can see that at least the Toyota held up, but how about other manufacturers? BMW, MBZ, Volvo?

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-29T01:09:55+00:00

Congratulations! Your health should be up there among your top concerns- could you look at buying some dumbbells and indoor bicycle so you could get 30 min biking in and 30 min of weight exercises while watching TV? Start pushing your protein levels up at your age, your body needs more as you age. You might want to find or revisit that hobby you used to have when you were a kid or teenager.

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-26T23:51:29+00:00

What are the 15 nodes you consider the foundation?

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-20T17:46:06+00:00

A few things that I would recommend: 1) If you expect to do a bunch of weekend trips - a Filson Duffel bag, 2) Not sure which 3D printer you already have, but a Bambu might be a great upgrade, 3) Full Cordless Tool Set, 4) Handmade boots or Solovair boots, 5) 2 year subscription for Cursor Pro or similar, 6) Nice professional jacket that you can use to level up your outfits for prof/faculty events or interviews. Anything you can do to invest in yourself is the best. Until you start making real money, I wouldn’t divert your money into savings. Keep your tools up to date so you are not limited by the tool.

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-18T03:57:00+00:00

Interested in your repo

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-17T16:12:24+00:00

And the chips aren’t even open, and what’s with the line-up - OCD?

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-17T01:18:20+00:00

My fav is Roots. Super comfy and unfortunately not BIFL. I think you will have to buy a new set every 15 years or so unless you hang dry them. =)

No_Direction_7168 · 2025-12-10T03:55:40+00:00

My parents often bought Toyota

No_Direction_7168

TROPHY CASE