FIRST Technical Difficulties at Rutgers

[aka Scott White]

No, I'm not talking about the poor performance of our robot, that was all mechanical (our bearings kept popping out of their seats, but we changed the design and fixed it so it can't break at nationals), I am talking about how we were screwed out of 30 QPs in our first round and how some other teams were had the same thing happen to them.

In our first round (the only one in which our robot didn't break down and die), we were paired up with team 11, Mt. Olive. We grabbed one goal and towed it to our goal zone, while 11 filled up a goal with balls. Seeing that were we were winning heavily with about 45 seconds to go, we headed for the other alliance's home zone. With about four feet to go, our robot stopped moving, the light went out, and the "Disabled" light went on on our controller. Somehow, our controller was now in the state that it was before the match started. It remained so until the match ended. We asked several officials what would be done about this, but recieved no answer. The same thing happened in a later match to another team playing from the same side we were, except I think both teams were disabled. Nothing was done about this, either. At one point, we were ready to start our match, they counted down "3,2,1...go!" and then nothing happened for a few minutes. "More technical difficulties" we were told.

I have two questions: Did anyone at rutgers or anywhere else experience anything like this, and
Where can we get replacement batteries, one of ours has a dead cell.

[Brian Savitt]

we never experienced anything like that at Rutgers. We however one match lost power cuz our pit crew put the battery in wrong and when we hit the goals off went our power, we thought we hit so hard our breaker switch popped to off but it was infact the battery came disconnected cuz the battery was backwards and the wires were pullin on each other and the hit against the goals just put it over the top to pull the connection apart. we yelled at the pit crew over and over never happened again:D

Brian

[Perseus]

in the very first match at drexel. w had two false starts. On teh first one, none of the robots moved and one the second, we dropped our wings and halfway there, every robot shut down. I found it quite amusing because we had to tether and reset, so the first match took like 10 minutes to start. we had some problems at VCU but just n practie rounds.

[GregT]

Your sure your E-stop button wasn't hit? It's very easy for a ball or body part to hit that thing without knowing it, and hitting it would have the same effect as being "disabled".

Greg

[AdamT]

Hwen you hit the "E" stop button, the light flashes, this sounds like it was all the way off. Is there any possibility these teams were tearing up the carpet??

If not then, that really sucks....

[aka Scott White]

No, no team out there was tearing up the carpet; we were paired with a ball dumper, and were going against two more dumpers. Our robot just stopped dead, and the yellow "disabled" light on the operator board went on. The same thing happened to the other teams. As far as anyone could tell, it was the same state that the robot is in right before the match starts.

[Perseus]

Scott,

Was the disabled button always on, like before the start of the match?


also, was your breaker on? I know it sounds stupid but its a mistake every team makes at one point or another

[Joe3]

The breaker must have been on and the disabled button off at the beginning of the match if they competed for any of the match.

[GregT]

your SURE it wasn't the e-stop? my impression was the e-stop did the same thing as being disabled which is the same thing as at the biginning and end of the match?

maybe im wrong

Greg

[Keith Chester]

It didn't happen to our robot, but I did see a few robots mysteriously stop. One round everyone stopped for a few seconds, so it definately wasn't the e-stop button, since that effects one robot.
whats done is done. im sure you wont see anything like this in florida competition...
i hope. :rolleyes:
oh well, we're not going to florida, but i hope i dont hear about any of these difficulties. its real unfair. any other teams that competed at rutgers have this problem? (if you havent figured it out yet i was there)

:cool:

[aka Scott White]

We're sure it wasn't the emergency kill button, those don't accidently get pressed, you really have to push. The disabled light only came on when the robot stopped.