Gems of Wisdom

🥄  Having more than 3 wheels can make an unsteady robot! Make sure your non-driving wheels are not lower than your driving wheels, or else you might not be able to drive.

🥄  Decide early about what type of sensors your robot is going to include and how to attach them to the robot. Get them attached as early as possible in the final configuration so you can tune your circuits.

🥄  If you don't know how to solder or haven't done it much in the past, ask for advice! Stable connections will make your robot so much more durable.

🥄  Get a bare minimum functional robot before ANYTHING else. A robot that does a little is worth far more than one that should do a lot but actually does nothing.

🥄  Install TeraTerm and MPLab on your laptop for the speediest debugging and fixing.

🥄 Buy a pack of screws and nuts (m3 or whatever you prefer) off of Amazon. The PRL upcharges terribly for individual hardware.

🥄 A simple, well-designed firing mechanism will save your hours of headaches and revisions

🥄 Understanding signal conditioning early is key; it is okay to saturate Op-Amp in the Trans-Resistive Circuit through the lines with feedback resistors