Mechanical
- Wires exists, don't forget about space for routing them in your design
- You'll probably have to replace parts or tighten bolts so make sure your design is easy to disassemble and reassemble
- Strain relieve cables, especially to the TIVA USB
- You're going to need to charge the batteries, make sure they're easily accessible
- Circuit board mounts are useful and help keep things neat
Electrical
- Label your wires as you plug things into the robot
- Take the time to neatly lay out your circuits on protoboards before you start soldering
- Make a protoboard for specific components (motor circuit, IR, power distribution to sensor circuits, etc.)
- Use molexes from the start of the project
- Keep batteries charged, low battery causes things to stop working
Software
- Establish a coding convention across the team so everyone know where things should go and things look neat
- Write up a keyboard key press service for testing
- Update your state charts as you go
General
- Scavenge for parts in the cabinet of freedom EARLY to save on cost
- If you need to buy things, buy them right away. This project goes by fast, and shipping time is no joke
- Buy backups of things
- Keep your lab space clean or you might end up losing things a lot
- Install TeraTerm on laptops to debug on the field
- Make things robust as you go, don't just try and get to the checkpoint