What do you hate the most about making robots?

[emmannuel]

You can't say time/money thats just to easy

What are the top 3 things you hate about making robots?

1 - ) Soldering - I don't mind it on PCBs but when I have to solder stuff on perf boards  with wires its just seems to take forever
2 - ) Ordering exactly the wrong thing you needed - yay I got what I wanted... noticing those 1000 resistors I got were not axial but surface mount
3 - ) The mess I have in my room while fabricating, and putting my robot together

Not to say I'm not loving every second of it but these would have to be the things that bug me.  Whats yours?

[Rand alThor]

Well, I haven't exacly built a robot yet, but when I do, I'm going to have to do all the soldering out in the garge. No doing it my room for me: Mom says it is a fire hazard. I'll have to lug everything out ther and back. *sigh*

[emmannuel]

Well, I haven't exacly built a robot yet, but when I do, I'm going to have to do all the soldering out in the garge. No doing it my room for me: Mom says it is a fire hazard. I'll have to lug everything out ther and back. *sigh*

Man thats got to suck.  I don't wana know how hot your garage gets.  I imagine stuff can catch on fire there easier than in your room

Speaking of catching fires who wants to see the reason why I haven't gone outside this week? 

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Jun2008/California_AMO_2008177_lrg.jpg  The big grey stuff isn't a cloud.  The little red boxes are wildfires all over northern california

[Webbot]

Yeah - the whole 'surface mount' thing is a nightmare as is component packaging in general - ie all of the TO*, Quad this, LQFP that, Multiwatt etc etc. It would great if websites said 'I only want stuff for 0.1 inch stripboard', or 'I am a hobbyist' checkbox, or 'I cant make PCBs' etc. Most websites I look at then 75% of their stuff I am unable to use. Since you normally have to register with them to place an order then I would welcome them capturing this stuff to stop me from buying stuff I can't use.I dont really want to get into chemicals, UV light etc, to make my own PCBs - not that I have a problem with them other than cost - but as a hobbyist then the size of my board doesn't really matter. If it uses stripboard and is 4 times the area that it could be by making my own PCB then so what.

What else do I hate - making chassis. I always engineer them for the job in hand and so when I want to add that extra 'thinga ma jig' at a later date there's never enough room.

But the WORST thing has got to be finding wheels to fit the axles of the motors (not talking servos here). I've got many motors with 4mm axles but trying to find wheels for them is a nightmare. Have found 1 or 2 UK websites that have 4mm hubs but they dont give details as to how the hubs then fit to the wheels. Have found lots of USA websites but the postage is about 5 x the cost of the hubs/wheels. I don't have a lathe, or other benchtop hardware, so how do I fit wheels?

[paulstreats]

I hate it when im there at work and I think of a robot that I want to build and get really psyched up aout it then get home and find out that I dont have enough free servos to make it, or Ive run out of protoboard or even dont have a spare oscillator for a board. Or when you dont have enough bolts of the right size and have to wait until the shops open the next day or (and this is my problem at the minute). I got rid of my desktop computer and got another laptop. Now im stuck with 3 computers and none of them have serial ports to program my mcu's with (so im gonna have to get another cheap computer anyway).

The thing i really hate the most is having to scrap old robots (usually for parts). Or when you just have to scrap them so youve got enough space to store the new one

[airman00]

I hate it when im there at work and I think of a robot that I want to build and get really psyched up aout it then get home and find out that I dont have enough free servos to make it, or Ive run out of protoboard or even dont have a spare oscillator for a board. Or when you dont have enough bolts of the right size and have to wait until the shops open the next day or (and this is my problem at the minute). I got rid of my desktop computer and got another laptop. Now im stuck with 3 computers and none of them have serial ports to program my mcu's with (so im gonna have to get another cheap computer anyway).

I totally agree

what I hate is doing like small repetitive tasks like making connectors for 100 wires ... bleh

can we have another topic on whats our favorite part of robotics? 

[Rand alThor]

I imagine stuff can catch on fire there easier than in your room

I don't know...My room is almost as bad as it gets.

As for my favorite part of robotics, here's a little monologue/answer for you:

When I was younger, I wanted to either be a lower or a practitioner in the field of medicine (a doctor). A doctor because of the way things work and a lawyer because of the logical syntax. Programming combined the two pros. Then robotics combined the joy of programming with working with my hands, which brought me out of cyberspace  . Also, robotics has let me gain greater insight as to how computers actually work, on a bitwise scale.

[Jake11611]

I tend to enjoy soldering, but it get really annoying when something that you should normally be able to do fails miserably. The other day I was making another "deck" for a Boe-Bot I was working on, and the CD split when I decided that the servo would fit in the hole I'd been filing if I pushed a little harder

[AndrewM]

Having to wait for parts to arrive before you can progress any further.  Worse still, realising that after all that waiting you need a different part instead and having to wait some more.  And the thing I hate most is having too many ideas, no way to decide which to do and instead doing nothing (why I undertook the "You Design It" idea, to force me to atleast do one...which strangely enough turned into two)

[airman00]

hows the You Design It project coming along???

[benji]

actually the worst thing is when the bot doesnt work because of a blown out IC or somthin like that
also debugging real long programs makes some headaches

[Fredrik Andersson]

The worst thing I've encountered is destroying expensive equipment. I burnt a Boe-bot version of CMUcam that i spent 200$ on just because of lack of documentation (I assumed there was a voltage regulator onboard because there is one on the 'real' version ). In addition to that i burnt a couple of servos that same day.

So yeah, I also hate lack of documentation. Now I'm stuck with a SBC that almost totally lacks documentation (if you don't dig a little on it, but I'm not an electrical engineer which makes it very hard for me).

[TrickyNekro]

What I hate the most....

Well, some times I get furious about a robot and I want to finish it the same day and other times I really can't get off me bed...
Soldering is not that bothering... you get used to it...
Also what I really really hate is when it comes to programming... Programming is nice but debugging the program is a hell when you don't know what
is really wrong... the program the sensors... the controller.... the oscillator( yep, I overclock my controllers too!!!)

And well, hell, I really think sometimes I'm really bored of that staff but still, I do them.... it's idiotic.... but...

I think you gotta be nuts to do such things.... And I am!!!


Lefteris

[AndrewM]

hows the You Design It project coming along???

On hold while I am finishing my very last college class.  Probably be mid July when I can start back up.

This happened to me last night (and happens on a far too regular basis) and would have to be the thing I hate *most* about robotics...  Laying in bed at night not being able to sleep because an idea, problem solution or concept keeps swirling around in my head.  To a lesser degree, being distracted during the day with the same.  Doesn't my mind understand that I have to wait for free time, money, tools and parts before I can work on these things?

[Tater]

power source... my last attempts came out sort of large and unshapely so i could fill her full of batteries... slimmer would be more appealing...

[Asellith]

The fact that the precision of my brain doesn't match the precision of my hands or tools.

need cnc machine

[Admin]

I'm convinced Murphy's ghost is latched onto my back chanting out his law . . .

As soon as I fix one thing, another thing breaks . . . and after several months of this it gets disenchanting . . .