To all Canadian FIRST teams stopped from going to Houston by your school board.

[Racer26]

Sinclair Secondary(1075) and Port Perry High(1006) are contemplating hosting a mini-competition that may occur if there is enough support. Post here if you think that you would like to be a part. You must be able to get to Toronto area relatively cheaply and quickly. There may be a nominal registration fee for a facility, but apart from that it will be free. So post here to show your support for such an event. :yikes:

[D. Gregory]

849 would like to, we are based in Markham.

[Robb Gerber]

count us in...but it'll have to be after we're back from Houston

[MORLET]

^ You... and your robot;). Give it about ten days to arrive back from Houston.

[cbudrecki]

Although I'm from the States, I love the idea of a Canadian mini. My team went to the Canadian Regional last year and it cost about $800 just to get our robot through Customs(each way!). That didn't even include the regular shipping costs. Anyway, I'm sure that any team would have the same problem for mini-regionals.

$250 (PARC (http://tahsroboticsteam.org/PARC/PARobotChallenge.htm) fee) + $1600 (Customs) = $1850 Then add on your hotel costs... (WAY TOO MUCH FOR A MINI!!!)

So, eventhough my team wouldn't be there, I think it would be great to see a Canadian MINI.

[D. Gregory]

We should investigate getting a local college to hold the competition. I know Centennial and Humber have both hosted Canada FIRST in years before.

[Tristan Lall]

I think we'd be interested...I'll mention it to the people in charge of the money.
Do you have a date & place planned?

-Tristan Lall
Woburn Robotics (188)

[Racer26]

Hi, we dont have a time or a place yet... it was just a thought, and its great to see support in it! Anybody that wants to help out with setting it up can email me at (whodoyacallit@hotmail.com) and the team at (info@sinclairsprockets.com). We're not totally sure how we will do the auton & disable part running off of time on a comp. My thought was a spike relay attached to a spare RC programmed to count time. Any ideas?

[Racer26]

it would have to be as cheap and cheerful as possible because we still havent paid for our robot.

[Brett W]

Team 843 is very interested in going just as long as the dates don't conflict with our schools events and we have enough money then sure.

to do the auton part and disable part. Remeber at the kickoff they had a bit of a mock up system for the edubot competition. they had plugs for the competition port. If it is still around I am sure that it could be modified with a 3 way switch. one way for disable, one for auton and one for manual control. we have something like that hardwired to our control port for when we are testing and at the comp we just un plug it and plug in FIRST's competition port cable in the driver stations.

Thank you for maybe organizing this we miss the competition so much we wanted to go to another regional just to drive around and have some more fun. nothing serious. Just for the heck of it.

Thanks again.

[Greg]

Ok, I'll try to create a competition control when I get some free time. We are still not sure where it will be hosted (or if it is going to happen). We also need to complete the field.

We have the ramp, except it is made of plywood, not metal mesh (we used it for testing, not as often as we should have though :)) The bots should still run :D.

[D. Gregory]

The ramp mesh is available form Dupont wire works in North York and is about the same price as plywood.

[Brett W]

What about the ramp that they had at the kick off that GM made for FIRST i am sure we still have access to it. I heard something about it being at GM Place or something like that. It does only have wooden supports but it has the wire mesh, HDPE and Plexi Walls. and i think Wolburn(SP?) robotics has some carpet that they use from year after year. then all you would need is some tape for the auton line and to mark off the scoring zones. set up a few tables for the drivers to control from. make a border for the field and there you have it. a make-shift playing field.

I hope this helps. if you have any more questions that i can answer i am checking this thread quite frequently so you can just ask them on here. i will do as much as possible to try and make this work. I loved this years comp sooo much. thanks again.

Team Captain
843 WOW

[Simeon]

hey... this is great idea...
i'll let my team know about it...

[aBoris26]

Great idea about the mini!

Hopefuly some of the Canadian teams going to the Championship will bring back some hardware!

[Kane_da_slayer]

a mini would be cool, but hold back untill after houston cause im sure 912 will want to participate

[Racer26]

Hi all, again, we still have no confirmation that this will happen, but it may, great ideas on making the field, carpets cheap but if woburn has some, great! P.S. Thx for helping with SECOND at the Canadian Regional, Woburn and CRT. Also, GM sponsored Port Perry, so we might be able to get our hands on the ramp. Our school gyms are currently the most likely place for it to be held. Pits could be in our small gym, the field and spectator room in the large gym. I'm sure P.E. would make us put something on their floor in the pits tho... ;) Anyway, keep posting here, and tell other canadian teams that you know of about this...!

[doomsdaytank]

Hello team 902 would love to come. We are based in Saginaw MI. i have one small question how will you make the pressure mats. the resets for the field and the advanced wiring used at the comps

[cbudrecki]

you can just rent a FIRST field. It comes in a nice kit(about 2 tractor-trailers), carpet and control systems come included, it works great!!! That's what we do for the PARC and we love it!!! In fact, last year we ended up getting the field from the Einstein arena at Nats. You'd probably be shipped the one from the Canadian Regional.

[Greg]

Thanks for a great idea! I'll talk to the team on Tuesday and see what they think

[Racer26]

Sorry the Canadian MINI never happened, however I will see if I can get the wheels in motion to do it this year... I'm amazed by all the response, hopefully we can make it happen this year! Email info@sinclairsprockets.com with any comments, or just post em here