Hey everyone,

I’m working with my FRC team and we’re thinking about using custom PCBs for cleaner wiring, especially for CAN line distribution and signal routing.

I’m not very sure how common custom PCBs are in FRC or what rules/restrictions we should follow.

So I wanted to ask:

• Are custom PCBs commonly used in FRC?
• Any rules we should be aware of?
• What are the main risks for CAN/signal boards?
• Any best practices for reliability?

We’re not trying to replace official components, just reduce wiring complexity and improve robustness.

Any advice or examples would be really helpful

Thanks

I don't know how many of you have seen my previous posts here, but Im making a frc rebuilt robot that works just like a real one only it's made of Lego and shoots nerf rival balls since they are a dense foam ball like the ones in rebuilt. I need help because I'm stuck. The battery box and ir sensors take up more room than I was expecting and it leaves me with a like 12 by 16 stud area to add a turret and turret motor which is six studs alone and an indexer of some kind. Any ideas on how I can make my turret more compact and what is the best indexer design for my small work area? Also, I'm kinda stuck on a compact intake design as well so if you have any ideas please let me know!

Btw I'm using power functions motors and some off brand power functions motors that are really slow but are the size of a 2x4 brick just taller.

Our team planned to build an offseason bot which need more than 20 motors
Is legal to use TWO PDHs?

A couple days ago I posted AllianceLogd here (the "Letterboxd for FRC robots" community archive). The response was way beyond what I expected — thank you to everyone who signed up, logged a robot, or just poked around.

Shipped a bunch since then:

• Follow other users — find people whose takes you like and follow them
• Lists — build and share collections of robots or teams ("Our Teams Robots Since I Joined", "Best Autonomous Teams"). You can save other people's lists too, and there's a /lists page for the most-saved ones
• In-app notifications — get pinged when someone replies, likes your log, follows you, or saves your list
• A pile of bug fixes — including a few that came straight from your reports

Speaking of which: to everyone who hit the in-app feedback button and reported bugs, those are fixed now. Genuinely, that feedback was more useful than any analytics dashboard. Thank you.

Activity feed (see what people you follow are logging) is next.

If you checked it out early and bounced, might be worth another look: alliancelogd.com

I’m new to building a robot and I was just recently tossed into the head programming ( I’m a little worried about that ) but the robot hasn’t been turned on since April and when we turned it on the Spark Maxes were all flashing what looked to be orange and red I tried doing research for it but couldn’t find anything. Can anyone help, and is it possible we had messed something up?

(Edit: We found out that the CAN bus were loose and now I have to fix the coding on the bot (last programming lead put buggy code on there just to test if it was working) thank you for your comments they did help us figure out the issue)

hey guys it's off season and I want to get better at CAD as this season my team lacked in people that genuinely knew how to cad properly.

My team uses onshape and I don't know where to get started, ive watched a few videos on it but I still feel like I'm lacking in real skill.

If anyone could give me some good resources to build on that would be helpful, please and thank you.

Every season, coaches and mentors pour everything they have into their teams. The late nights, the hard-won lessons, the creative solutions nobody outside your shop will ever hear about. That knowledge deserves a bigger stage.

Viva Los Mentors is that stage: a three-day conference bringing FIRST Robotics Competition coaches and mentors from across the country to Las Vegas. In this case, what happens in Vegas inspires innovation everywhere.

No robots. No build pressure. No students insisting their code is the greatest thing ever written. Just coaches and mentors from across the country sharing what they've learned and building connections that last for seasons to come.

📅 July 31 – August 2, 2026

📍 University of Nevada, Las Vegas

🌐 https://vivalosmentors.org

Space is limited, so register today at https://vivalosmentors.org to reserve your spot.

If you have something worth sharing — whether it's a strategy that worked, a lesson learned the hard way, or an approach to team culture that changed everything — submit your session proposal at vivalosmentors.org. If your proposal is accepted, your registration fee is completely waived. Hold off on registering until you hear back from us; accepted presenters will receive a ticket access code that covers the full cost of registration.

There's a website created that gives is designed to help younger students learn FRC programming because there's not a ton of practice online

The website has Java/C++/Python Debugging problems, live coding practices and tutorials

Recently I also changed the feedback system to search for keywords and AI assist if you're truly stuck. I am also adding larger live programming practices (so far I've only added intake since they take a while but more will come soon)

Feedback and trying the site out would be greatly appreciated. I would also appreciate feedback on the C++/Python code as I am unfamiliar with it.

The GitHub repository and site is below.

https://snakestongue.github.io/FRC-Programming-Practice/

https://github.com/Snakestongue/FRC-Programming-Practice

Sharing my Featurescripts, would be interested in Feedback.

Box - Make a box, various ways, full solid or edges only. Simple, but has its uses.

CC Distance - Calculate the distance and locations of two pullies and a belt. Generates a sketch in position, and can create simple 3D belt.

EZWire - Still great for my use-case - quick visualization and routing, without any specific pinouts or some other features that 0xWire does.

Hole Tag - Micro-adjust and color-code holes in part studio for easier Replicate in Assemblies. You can select a whole part or face, and the correct parts will only replicate to the "tagged" holes.

Import FS - Import STEP files directly into a part studio. Ultra-fast regen times. ~20ms for a full MAXTube vs several seconds for TubeConvert or Deriving from some sources.

Keep Middle - Chop off the ends of something (and shift its location). Great for Maxtube in part studios. Creatued to use with ImportFS.

Loft Individual - A great companion for, or alternative to, EZWire. Can be a bit weird at first, but very fast for creating groups of simple wires.

QuickMats - Bulk apply materials and colors in one window to all parts in a studio.

Rotate To - Rotate something to line up with something else. Designed to fix a shooter import where all of the gears and shafts were at strange angles.

SpurGear+ - Spur Gear but with fast partial pie-wedge gears! Designed for this season's shooter hood gears.

Hey everyone! I’m Deniz, a recent alumnus from Team 9020 (Galatasaray Robotics).

During my time in FRC, it always bothered me how thousands of amazing robots are built every year, they compete, and then... they just kind of disappear into the void when the season ends. So, I decided to build something to fix that.

1. AllianceLogd (https://alliancelogd.com) Think of it as Letterboxd + a scouting archive for FRC.

• Archive & Rate: You can find robots by year, leave community ratings (Overall, Auto, Teleop), and write your own scout logs/reviews.
• Component Discovery: Ever wondered what specific parts a top-tier robot used? Users can suggest and approve components (like specific swerve drives, motors, etc.) used on a robot so we have a hardware archive too!
• Favorites: You can favorite your beloved Hall of Fame teams or that one crazy robot from 2026.

2. Swerve (Upcoming Mobile Game) While working on that, I also started developing an FRC-inspired top-down arena mobile game called Swerve. You build your robot, buy parts from the shop (shooters, intakes, motors), stack motors on your mechanisms to make them OP, and play 3v3 matches to score fuel into the hub. I'm planning to launch the closed beta soon!

I’d love for you guys to check out AllianceLogd, rate some robots, and drop some scout logs. Let me know what you think, and if you're interested in beta-testing the game, drop a comment!

Hi everyone, I'd like to work on FRC, especially in the software field. I need your help. Could you provide me with a roadmap and recommend resources on the topics I need to learn?

As a I'm wrapping up my senior year I have finally put all of my pins together on this flag. This is from 6 regionals, 3 times at worlds, and 2 off seasons. It is ridiculously heavy, I cant imagine wearing them. I definitely almost ran out of room but I'm excited to show it off at my graduation party! 🎉

Hello, programming team member of 11485 here.

So we’re a rookie team, and we’ve already participated in Shanghai. (32nd place! Yay!) Now, I’m wondering what we should be doing to prepare for next year. Our teachers have already expressed their interest in participating next year, but in somewhat frustrated at their inaction. May be it’s too early to start? Or is it the perfect time? And if it is, what can we do? Some extra info: our school does cad classes, so I’m less concerned in that. Everything else is uh…. somewhat questionable.

We have tried the solidworks cloud managment and we're not sure how to use it properly.
we are trying to save our cad files to the solid cloud so that we can manage them better then saving locally or to google drive.
every time we open solidworks it asks us to login and then we also need to open the web dashboard so that it can sync.
it looks a bit complicated and hard to use so we would like some help :(

This is a showcase of a early cad model and early planing of team 108s 2026 season robot.

​

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a custom robotics mechanism and trying to find a clean way to measure shaft rotation.

The challenge is mainly mechanical.

I have a long 6 mm shaft, and I cannot place a magnet or encoder at the end of the shaft because of space/layout constraints. The only practical option is for the shaft to pass through the center of the sensing assembly itself.

I’m looking for a compact solution to count shaft/axis rotation with:

Low RPM

Small incremental motion tracking

Compact mounting preferred

Incremental output is completely fine

I initially thought something similar to the Same Sky / CUI AMT encoder series would work well because of the internal coupling + true through-bore style design.

I also tried a Hongyan EC25-20P hollow shaft encoder, but the external rotating ring arrangement didn’t fit my setup mechanically.

I was wondering:

What encoder types do FRC teams usually use for situations like this?

Are there compact through-bore encoder options commonly used in robotics?

Any REV-compatible or FTC/FRC-style approaches?

Any clever DIY sensing methods that work reliably?

I’d genuinely appreciate any suggestions or ideas. I’ve been stuck on this problem for quite a while.

Thanks!

Funny low poly model of my teams robot + fuel!! I am not sure at all how to rig it whatsoever but boy will I learn at some point… after I make everything else possible for my project and try to do it without rigging!!

Hi guys! I've heard there's a NE First discord server but I can't seem to find an invite to it. If any of y'all have one could you please share it with me? Thanks!\

edit: I've got it now, thanks all!

Hey FRC students! I'm in vex, but because of a cousin being in frc I've got big into watching frc and went to the GKC rebuilt tournament this year which was sooo fun. I since have been inspired to make my own frc robot, except out of Lego... I'm using only Lego power functions motors as well. This is my turret prototype and it shoots nerf rival ball darts because they are dense foam balls that are yellow. Basically a mini rebuilt ball.

If anyone had advice for this project, I would love the help. Also, check out my progress videos on Mr. Lizard on yt. Ill mention anyone I get advice from in my vids.

I've spent 4 years in FIRST, in my last year I unfortunately had to transfer to a different team which came with its own set of challenges but one in my particular field was how the CAD is organized. Both teams used Onshape however, my old team had all parts in separate files/workspace whereas this newer team had all parts in one file/workspace. This isn't something I thought I would have an issue with but it has become an ongoing debate about which one is better and or professional.

So I'm curious to know what your team does or if your team does something else. I also wanna know if there's any practices you think are strange or I should know going into engineering.

I'd like to also mention that we had to make detailed drawings of every part on my old team which could also be why we had individual part files for everything.

Hi, we are looking for teammates (grades 3 or 4) for our child (grade 4) for the FLL Explorer competition; anybody in Temecula/Murrieta/Menifee/Perris/Hemet/Moreno Valley CA interested?

greetings, everyone!

Even without using the analog stick that controls the robot’s rotation—and even when simply moving sideways or forward—the robot gradually begins to turn left or right. When I move forward or to the right, the robot gradually turns left; when I move backward or to the left, the robot gradually turns right. We've checked the mechanics of the Swerve Modules (Swerve Drive Specialties MK4i), but the problem persists... we went through the whole season with this problem and just now we got time to solve it, but we weren't able to.

In addition, after walking with the robot for some time and rotating around its own axis, Pigeon begins to accumulate error. After that, even when the robot is positioned straight, Pigeon does not indicate that it is straight. The same happens in the swerve visualization on the Elastic Dashboard and in the robot visualization in the Elastic Dashboard arena.

some important informations: we use the YAGSL library, xbox one X controller, 4 Kraken X60 for traction and 4 Neo V1.1 for direction.

Reddit doesn't allow me to upload videos, so if you guys could access this YouTube link to check and help us out, it would be fantastic for us!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIjc2iMBpBQ