I agree with David.  I have seen many teams tape their practice mats for convenience -- some as he mentioned, some with double-sided tape under the corners, some with dual-lock.  But, it is important that the kids understand the potential variables for the mats at the tournaments.  

We saw just about everything at the different tournaments over the last eight years -- some unfolded the mats the night before and they still had folds sticking up, some did not align the mat "correctly" or the table dimensions weren't what was "expected", some had cracks or un-level sections under the mat, and somehow they all taped down the mats differently.

For eight years, our team did not have a permanent practice space so we found using no tape, rolling the mat, and storing it in a tube or box was the safest method for transport and easy enough that the kids could do it themselves.  The looser the roll, the sooner it sits flat.  One benefit was that it forced the kids to know the proper field setup.

We tried several different tables over the years.  The collapsible/travel tables will force you to re-align you mat each time so installing and removing tape is going to end up destroying your mat.

This is a good team engineering project for the kids!

Good luck!


Jeff Beima


On Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 10:06 PM David Kane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Jose,

I had one season where we were not able to leave our table up.  We had black tape along the North or South edge (I forgot which) as well as on the east and west sides.  Then when we put the board on its side to put it away, we put the tape side towards the top, so that the mat was hanging down from the tape.  There was a black border on that mat, and we used black tape right on the edge so that is didn't create new lines to confused the robot.  We also only bothered to place the models on the map that were relevant for the missions we were working on.

It seemed to work well enough for us.  

In one sense, anything is "allowed" on your practice mat.  However, variance between your practice environment and the tournament tables may cause a difference in performance of your robot.  So if you do something different, makes sure the kids understand what those differences are so they can consider the implications of those differences for their design.

David

---- On Sun, 17 Mar 2019 21:10:19 -0400 Forest Grove <[log in to unmask]> wrote ----

Hello Friends,

Does anyone have some good tips on how to initially set up the table mat on the practice table? I unfortunately have to put the table away after each practice and cant just leave it out over a long period of time so that the "waviness" can settle. The instructions say that some people use a blow drier and to put black tape on the east and west side along the black edges. I also thought about double sided tape but the instructions state " Foam tape is not allowed. DO NOT PUT DUAL LOCK NOR ANY OTHER TAPE NOR ADHESIVE UNDER THE MAT."

Wondering if anyone has any good suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

Jose

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