View Full Version : Pre-Shipdate UTC Scrimmage
Aces High Team #176 Presents the 9th annual
Winter War-Zone Scrimmage
Test Your Robot!
Check out the Official 2007 Field!
Compete With Other Teams!
Team 176 Aces High will host its annual pre-competition scrimmage on Saturday, February 17, 2007. As in the past, we will be using the official FIRST playing field for the 2007 competition season. The event will be held at Suffield High School on Sheldon Street in Suffield from 8:00-4:00. Registration fee is $75 in advance and $100 at the door. Please note that team will be able to pre-order pizza's for lunch.
For additional information please check the ACES HIGH website at:
http://aceshigh176.org/drupal/node/113
Or contact Arlene Willett, co-chairman at saw869@cox.net with questions or intent to attend.
Attention FIRST LEGO LEAGUE teams. As an added dimension to this years fun, the Suffield LEGO League teams would like to invite other teams for a post-season scrimmage. This is a free event and all teams are welcome. Please contact Kim Congden at congden@cox.net with your intent to participate or for further information. "http://bionicbulldogs.googlepages.com/scrimmage"
AcesPease
18-12-2006, 06:46
Wow, how many of the 9 years have been at Suffield?
I think its been there since 2002. I remember my first year (2000) it was in farmington, and in 2001 it was BUZZ that provided a space.
I will strongly suggest to any of the local (and I use that term loosely) teams attend this event. As many of the veteran teams know it is an excellent event even without a fully functional robot, or even no robot at all. This scrimmage will give rookies or new team members an idea of how an event runs and what a formal competition is like. It is also extremely beneficial to see how the game is played and it lets you view some of the kinks or oversights you had about this year’s game. Aces High has done an excellent job in years past putting on a well organized and executed event. (Very worth the long drive across the state.) So even if you aren’t competing I strongly encourage everyone to attend.
I Hope To See You All there!
If there is any interest in holding a NEMO workshop on any non-technical topic (teambuilding, fundraising, mentor recruitment and retention, team organization, etc.) please contact me and I will check with the scrimmage organizers to see if we can get a room to meet in.
AcesPease
18-12-2006, 09:42
If there is any interest in holding a NEMO workshop on any non-technical topic (teambuilding, fundraising, mentor recruitment and retention, team organization, etc.) please contact me and I will check with the scrimmage organizers to see if we can get a room to meet in.
With some advance notice we can get a room.
Ian Curtis
18-12-2006, 13:55
Are there plans for a webcast? It's always fun to see the game play out.
I will strongly suggest to any of the local (and I use that term loosely) teams attend this event. As many of the veteran teams know it is an excellent event even without a fully functional robot, or even no robot at all. This scrimmage will give rookies or new team members an idea of how an event runs and what a formal competition is like. It is also extremely beneficial to see how the game is played and it lets you view some of the kinks or oversights you had about this year’s game. Aces High has done an excellent job in years past putting on a well organized and executed event. (Very worth the long drive across the state.) So even if you aren’t competing I strongly encourage everyone to attend.
I Hope To See You All there!
This is a very good event, last year we found a couple things on the bot that needed a little work done. It's much better to find out early so you can have time to fix it, than later.
AcesPease
18-12-2006, 16:17
Are there plans for a webcast? It's always fun to see the game play out.
There have been attempts in the past, but I don't think we have done a webcast yet. I will bring it up at our meeting and find out if we can try this year.
There have been attempts in the past, but I don't think we have done a webcast yet. I will bring it up at our meeting and find out if we can try this year.
In past years we have worked with the Gael Hawks team 230 to do the webcast. However, I haven't been able to contact them for this years event.
Yes we plan to do this again this year. We will send out a link when we get closer to the event.
We've webcasted this for probably four or five years now. There were firewall issues in year 1 but with a little push and less pull, we get through that now!
Hope you all enjoy, it is usually our test run for the UTC- New England Regional webcast.
Good luck to everyone this year!!!
AcesPease
02-01-2007, 14:16
Yes we plan to do this again this year. We will send out a link when we get closer to the event.
We've webcasted this for probably four or five years now. There were firewall issues in year 1 but with a little push and less pull, we get through that now!
Hope you all enjoy, it is usually our test run for the UTC- New England Regional webcast.
Good luck to everyone this year!!!
Thanks!
AcesPease
29-01-2007, 14:59
Check out the Winter Warzone Information Page (http://aceshigh176.org/drupal/node/113)
There are currently 15 teams signed up including all three of the UTC Regional Champs from last season.
Tom Bottiglieri
29-01-2007, 15:10
How many spots are there for teams at the event?
JamesBrown
29-01-2007, 15:21
Are there any easy ways to get to the school other than driving, ie Bus terminal or Amtrak, I would like to make it down and see what is going on but I am not sure what the easiest way to get there is.
The nearest amtrak station is a town away. The airport is nearby but you would still need to take a taxi. Suffield doesn't have any bus transportation we are a small town and our school is out in the middle of nowhere.
AcesPease
29-01-2007, 16:10
Are there any easy ways to get to the school other than driving, ie Bus terminal or Amtrak, I would like to make it down and see what is going on but I am not sure what the easiest way to get there is.
I suppose you could fly into Bradley in Windsor Locks and take a taxi. Suffield High is very close to the airport (maybe 6 miles), but in a rural location. Windsor Locks also has an Amtrak station, but that is even farther than the airport (about 8 miles). From Troy, it would only take 90 min to drive and the Mass Pike is Free up to the I91 Exit in West Springfield.
How many spots are there for teams at the event?
We have never had a reason to limit the number of teams. In past years we have had up to 28 teams registered. If this number gets above 30 we may have to begin to limit the number of teams able to participate.
We never want to limit the number of teams who can participate in this event because of opportunity it gives. However, due to building constraints a limit may be put in place in the future.
If there is any interest in holding a NEMO workshop on any non-technical topic (teambuilding, fundraising, mentor recruitment and retention, team organization, etc.) please contact me and I will check with the scrimmage organizers to see if we can get a room to meet in.I'm pleased to announce that we WILL be holding a NEMO workshop/meeting. Spread the word on your teams that this meeting is free to attend (thanks to the generosity of FRC 176 for hosting it) and is open to any adult/college mentors on any FIRST robotics program team. RSVP to kathiek@firstnemo.org with name, program (FRC, FVC, FLL or JFLL), team number, and the topic(s) you'd like to discuss. This is a great way to network with other mentors from the area! Don't know about NEMO? Visit our website, www.firstnemo.org.
BiTurboS4
30-01-2007, 18:03
This event its pretty much the best pre-shipdate event you can attend. It is the only pre-season event to use a real FIRST field. Only shot to get some real stick time on the same thing you'll see at the regionals you attend.
I'm eagerly awaiting this event. See you folks there.
Andy Grady
30-01-2007, 20:51
Hi everyone!
I HIGHLY recommend that you get in on Winter Warzone. As always, this event is top notch...and for pre-season...its not for the weak hearted! The actual FIRST field gets tested and a full fledge tourney takes place. A wonderful time, dont miss out!
I hope to see you all there!
-Andy
Hi everyone!
I HIGHLY recommend that you get in on Winter Warzone. As always, this event is top notch...and for pre-season...its not for the weak hearted! The actual FIRST field gets tested and a full fledge tourney takes place. A wonderful time, dont miss out!
I hope to see you all there!
-Andy
We usually have the top notch announcers and mc's also.
Elgin Clock
11-02-2007, 19:57
I'll be there sometime by noon.
Will you still be selling raffle tickets for the 176 raffle by then?
AcesPease
11-02-2007, 20:03
I'll be there sometime by noon.
Will you still be selling raffle tickets for the 176 raffle by then?
Sadly the raffle had to be canceled :(
Listen to the radio discussion of Aces High's "Winter Warzone" Scrimmage 2007
Go to link
http://206.128.27.80/radio/index.htm
click on part two of 2-10-2007
Let me know what you think.
That was on one of the biggest radio station in New England.
Aces High Team #176 Presents the 9th annual
Winter War-Zone Scrimmage
Test Your Robot!
Check out the Official 2007 Field!
Compete With Other Teams!
Team 176 Aces High will host its annual pre-competition scrimmage on Saturday, February 17, 2007. As in the past, we will be using the official FIRST playing field for the 2007 competition season. The event will be held at Suffield High School on Sheldon Street in Suffield from 8:00-4:00. Registration fee is $75 in advance and $100 at the door. Please note that team will be able to pre-order pizza's for lunch.
For additional information please check the ACES HIGH website at:
http://aceshigh176.org/drupal/node/113
Or contact Arlene Willett, co-chairman at saw869@cox.net with questions or intent to attend.
Attention FIRST LEGO LEAGUE teams. As an added dimension to this years fun, the Suffield LEGO League teams would like to invite other teams for a post-season scrimmage. This is a free event and all teams are welcome. Please contact Kim Congden at congden@cox.net with your intent to participate or for further information. "http://bionicbulldogs.googlepages.com/scrimmage"
I hear we are up to 30 teams for FRC. Yahoo it's going to be fun.
Tom Bottiglieri
12-02-2007, 10:13
I hear we are up to 30 teams for FRC. Yahoo it's going to be fun.
And now we are one of them! I've been to the pre-ship scrimmage for the past 4 seasons, and its always been a great event. I have no doubts this season will be the same.
Brandon Holley
12-02-2007, 10:20
Im pumppeeeeeeedddddd
Just a reminder that TODAY is the last day to reserve a spot at the NEMO workshop. If you are a mentor from any FIRST program and wish to join us at Suffield High School on Saturday at 10am (even if you don't have an FRC team competing at Winter War Zone or an FLL team demoing), send me an e-mail with your name, FIRST program and team number and the non-technical topics of concern to your team (mentor recruitment and retention, fundraising, team organization, teambuilding, travel planning, etc.). The workshop is free to attend, and plan to stay awhile - the scrimmage will be amazing as always.
Due to an overwhelming number of teams who plan to attend, we have had to close registration. You may still email Arlene Willett at saw869@cox.net to be placed on the waiting list, however we currently have 32 team and our facility's will not be able to handle any more. We also are asking that any team who has previously signed up but now can not make it respond as well so that we can give your spot to other teams. As always the public is invited to watch the competition.
orelinde
16-02-2007, 18:18
does anyone know how many teams are currently on the wait list and how the teams are placed on the wait list because i tried to register but they are listed as full. i would like to find out the status of the wait list if possible. Thanks!
orelinde
16-02-2007, 21:01
never mind they called us .. we are IN!! *runs around room screaming wildly inciting a riot as we race to finish the robot*
Does anyone know this scrimmage is being webcasted from Suffield?
I know that it has been in the past. It is always great for the guys back at the shop to catch the action going on at the field.
Greg Needel
17-02-2007, 07:59
http://www.shsrobotics.org/06/webcast/
or a direct link to the stream http://www.shsrobotics.org/06/webcast300.asx
http://www.shsrobotics.org/06/webcast/
or a direct link to the stream http://www.shsrobotics.org/06/webcast300.asx
THANKS!
jjdebner
17-02-2007, 08:13
Anyone know what time the webcast goes live?
http://www.shsrobotics.org Webcast of Scrimage. Watch 30+ Teams compete for the Pre-Ship Winter War Zone Champion Title.
BoyWithCape195
17-02-2007, 11:56
So far from watching the practice matches it looks like its going to be a good event!
BoyWithCape195
17-02-2007, 12:52
If anyone is watching the UTC scimmage...talk about it here! From that first match I thought team 230's ramp design was very innovative, I have yet to see anything like that.
UTC Scrimmage has been interesting so far.
Several nice ramps. We're in sixth place right now, but we're probably done for the day. We blew a window motor, and have some minor controls issues to optimize in the next few days before it ships.
All in all, quite a good shakedown of our robot, and it was really nice seeing some of the other teams' work. 230 in particular has a very nice ramp.
Elgin Clock
17-02-2007, 19:12
Oops, a fire alarm right in the middle of alliance pairings halted the event for a while. It seems it's not an East Coast FRC event anymore without some kind of wacky delay. LOL :eek:
Congratulations to all who made it today to compete!!!
Being ready before a shipping deadline in time to compete is awesome in itself! Kudos to all teams who showed up!
It "sounds interesting but I can't see it. My school blocks all streaming content and YouTube. Can someone please post up progressive download video somewhere and provide a link? Thank you.
Elgin Clock
17-02-2007, 19:41
I spoke with someone from 176, and they plan on having archived footage (different than the webcam footage) up on their site I believe.
Someone from 176 want to confirm that?
Andrew Blair
17-02-2007, 21:22
Well, to everyone who attended- how did it play out all in all? Here's a whole bunch of pertinent questions. Though many of these things can and definitely will change as teams get up to speed:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What was more important- ramping or racking?
Generally speaking, how hard was it to get on the ramps?
I imagine many matches weren't actually played with three per alliance, but did any teams get two robots up?
Were teams having a difficult time scoring with defense being played on them, or was it nice and easy to sling 'em up regardless?
How about scoring on the opposite side of the rack? Did it happen? Easily?
Were teams using the far side tubes, or entirely their own?
Grouping the past few questions, was there much cross-side mingling?
Did the rack swing like crazy?
Any cool auto-modes figured out yet? Was there anything?
How inflated did the tubes stay? Any tube carnage?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any other interesting tidbits would be cool to hear about. I wanna know how this game flows! Thanks guys!
AcesPease
17-02-2007, 21:48
I spoke with someone from 176, and they plan on having archived footage (different than the webcam footage) up on their site I believe.
Someone from 176 want to confirm that?
I'd check with SHSrobotics first. We were running it on a team laptop which may have recorded the stream. I'll check later.
Ian Curtis
17-02-2007, 22:08
I wasn't there, but I watched about 3/4 of the webcast.
Ramping?
Ridiculously important. I was astounded by the lack of ramp robots there. Many matches had scores of 4 to 2 (or something in that range) and even high scoring matches typically did not go above 30. 1@12 will probably win matches in early regionals.
Difficulty of Ramping?
Severe, many ramps folded, or were just too darn hard to get up. Steepness was also an issue. Matches were 3vs3, and I didn't see 2 robots up, but it was pretty close a couple of times (it may have happened when I wasn't watching)
Autonomous?
Bad. I didn't see a single keeper scored (but I saw 230 almost get it several times.) People didn't even play defense. No one moved. This was a scrimmage, so autonomous is probably still under development, but I don't think this bodes well for Rack'n'Roll autonomous. I really wanted to see some autonomous scoring. Guess I'll have to wait til week 1.
Opposite side?
Nope. Robots couldn't score on their own side, let alone their opponent's.
Tubes?
Their own. Too far to go to get the ones in the home zone.
Robots on opposite side?
Only if they had a good tube placer. Then that tube placer was defended like crazy. Otherwise, no. Too difficult to score.
Rack Swingage?
Yes.
Overall, I was astounded by the lack of ramps, and the lack of scoring. I was expecting no more than 3 tubes a robot, but in most of these matches, robot's were lucky to get 1 up.
I have video of a couple of the matches on my camera. I will post them either to google or youtube tomorrow. It is 10:15 and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow. It has been a long two days with setup and break down but i will try to get the video's up sometime tomorrow morning and post links here.
Good night all.
As expected Aces High went above and beyond to put on an exellent event. The teams attending got a good look at the game and all its glory. I think that ramping is going to be a big factor. What I saw today was alot of different angles and materials on the ramps. If you don't have at least a 1 1/2 inch clearance it is going to be tough to climb. I also think if you are going to attempt to climb, you build a practice ramp to get use to staight shot climbs and sudden stops at the top. Well good luck to all and I look forward to seeing you all at Hartford. Come say Hi (look for the HAT) Again my hat comes of to Aces for a GREAT JOB
Greg Marra
17-02-2007, 22:48
I am currently ripping video. Expect to see some stuff from The Blue Alliance tonight.
BoyWithCape195
17-02-2007, 22:52
Here are a few pictures from today’s scrimmage. Some teams brought older bolts with different manipulator, so you may recognize some from 2005. Thanks to Megan from 195 for these photos, she got as many robots as she could before the battery died!
2007 WWZ Bot pics (15 teams) (http://good-times.webshots.com/album/557699340gJuAeN)
I think that everything went well, considering one, we are a rookie team, and two, one of the teams broke a tooth on a nylon hear that just snowballed at the end. All I know is, I scored the first ringer for the team!
(BTW, this is the pic of our bot from the post above... http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2950347670075543707UlHkbx )
ANOTHER EDIT:
here are some pics from today
http://24.151.3.19/FIRST/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=192
It shows a lot of our bot and a few pics of the competition
artdutra04
17-02-2007, 23:27
What was more important- ramping or racking?
Seeing how there was only a few teams there who actually had their 2007 robot (and not their 2005 or a practice/prototype robot), there wasn't much scoring on the Rack. When our team went there today we didn't even have our manipulator mounted; all we did was drive around the field so I could practice driving.
At early events (Week 1, some Week 2), ramping will be more important than racking in many matches. But as the competition intensifies, expect racking to become just as important.
Generally speaking, how hard was it to get on the ramps?
Ummm, yeah. :-/ Generally, I would use the advice that one ramp bot != automatic 60 points. 30 points would seem feasible most of the time, but may ramps are not much bigger than the robots themselves, and with bumpers on a robot, ramps become even harder to climb up. Most teams who did ramp started doing so with around 30 seconds left in the game.
I imagine many matches weren't actually played with three per alliance, but did any teams get two robots up?
Actually, every match I saw had three robots playing against three robots. In one of our three qualification matches our alliance had 2 at 12".
Were teams having a difficult time scoring with defense being played on them, or was it nice and easy to sling 'em up regardless?
New England or not, this was a scrimmage event and more or less there wasn't any defense. All teams seemed like all they did on the playing field was test mechanisms and practice driving.
How about scoring on the opposite side of the rack? Did it happen? Easily?
From a driver's point of view, it looks like it would be a bit easier than I originally thought at the New Hampshire Kickoff event. But again, this was a scrimmage event and little scoring of any kind actually occured.
Were teams using the far side tubes, or entirely their own?
Human player tubes.
Grouping the past few questions, was there much cross-side mingling?
It was a scrimmage, so there wasn't too much or anything that occurred. :) But I didn't seem to have any problems zipping around the rack to the far side of the playing field and driving around all the other robots and tubes there. Granted, there were no serious attempts at defense, but it looks like fast, maneuverable robots will venture down to the far side of the field more often that slower ones.
Did the rack swing like crazy?
The rack definitely did move and swing, but it didn't seem to "swing like crazy". Again, when most matches had only a handful of tubes scored, there wasn't much robot+rack interaction.
Any cool auto-modes figured out yet? Was there anything?Team 230 has an almost keeper (it was about 50% onto the spider leg), but autonomous ended before they were able to score it. However, the current procedure for a partially scored tube seems to be pause the match, have a referee go out, and literally slash the tube to instantly remove it from game play without having to fiddle it off the robot and the rack.
How inflated did the tubes stay? Any tube carnage?
So far it doesn't seem to be that unreasonable. Deflated tubes seem to be about as common as broken tetras in Triple Play.
Any other interesting tidbits would be cool to hear about. I wanna know how this game flows! Thanks guys!
Defense
Defense will be important, but don't expect it to be as rampant as Aim High, as the referees are calling a lot of penalties. So far it looks like this game is going to play out like Triple [re]Play, so expect a lot of offense.
Also, don't underestimate getting from one side of the rack to the other. Even driving full speed from one side of the rack to the other (without any obstructions) can easily take 5-8 seconds. Just in the time it takes to get from one side of the rack to the other gives plenty of opportunity for offensive teams to "turn and burn" - e.g. get into the rack, score a ringer really quickly, and get back out before the defensive robot can get to you. Again, another Triple [re]Play phenomenon.
Offense
I guess I can file this under offense, but so far spoilers have remained virtually virtually untouched. But then again, teams were having enough problems just scoring ringers, let along descoring them. However, IMO, give teams time to get used to their manipulators, and you'll start seeing a lot more exciting action on the playing field.
CMUcam
Sorry, CMUcam, it looks like this isn't your year. While there were a ton of teams who had them on their robot last year, there are only a few who seem to be using it this year. Again, Triple [re]Play.
Ramp bot / Tube Bots
All in all, I was greatly surprised at the ratio of ramp bots to arm robots at the event, which was probably 30:70. I was expecting much closer to 50:50, especially since New England is legendary for it's defense. Most matches seemed to have one ramp bot in each alliance. And there wasn't that many "dedicated" ramp robots without an arm of some kind.
Kyle Fenton
18-02-2007, 00:39
I was at the Quincy scrimmage instead, but some of these questions apply to it.
What was more important- ramping or racking?
In Quincy there definitely was a lot of tube racking going on. During the matches the averages were only about 4 tubes. But I think that was just lack of practice.
Generally speaking, how hard was it to get on the ramps?
Depends on the robot. 69 was definitely the best ramp bot. Two robots were able to get on and off it relatively easily. From what I seen, it seems that a successful ramp bot needs to have a couple of things. A non-slippery ramp, guide rails, and some type of stop at the end.
How about scoring on the opposite side of the rack? Did it happen? Easily?
Yes, it did happen. It was harder, but feasible. More practice with the drivers will make it easier.
Were teams using the far side tubes, or entirely their own? [/I]
Yes they were using far side tubes.
Grouping the past few questions, was there much cross-side mingling?
Yes, there was a lot of defense. I also saw that you could easily get between a bot and the ramp, and be effective in blocking.
How inflated did the tubes stay? Any tube carnage?
A lot of them leaked. These tubes were simply not made to take the pressure exerted by a gripper.
Elgin Clock
18-02-2007, 00:48
I'd check with SHSrobotics first. We were running it on a team laptop which may have recorded the stream. I'll check later.
Ok, I just assumed it was a 176 member cause they had a Winter Warzone scrimmage T-Shirt on on and was hangin' out with 176 members during the finals on the DJ side of the back field.
It may have been a member of 230 though. idk.
AcesPease
18-02-2007, 08:35
I video a couple of the matches on my camera. I will post them either to google or youtube tomorrow. It is 10:15 and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow. It has been a long two days with setup and break down but i will try to get the video's up sometime tomorrow morning and post links here.
Good night all.
Thanks for all your help Bob!
Here are some links of video. There not the greatest taken with what is supposed to be a still camera.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2195317496240399453&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4501538022194941328&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2843256628330555328&hl=en
I have two more uploaded that have not become available yet. When they do i will add them here or just search on FIRST Robotics Scrimmage 2007.
Greg Marra
18-02-2007, 10:27
The Blue Alliance has posted a highlight reel of yesterday's competition, as well as video of most of the elimination matches. Check it out (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=54422) to see how this year's game plays.
HELLOOooo:D
Thankx to Team 176 for the scrimmage day and also thankx to Team 230 for the super webcast. I didnot attend but watched it all at home. I know that my team 88 had a great day THANKS AGAIN for all the effort put in by all. Great job Andy did you go ICE FISSON????? or what? oh? yeah? OH!!!! YEAH!!!!
See All Sooooon! :yikes:
MOE and TEAM 88 TJ2
Thank you to all the folks at 176 and FIRST who provided a great opportunity for teams to practice... and for allowing NEMO to hold our meeting there!
From what I seen, it seems that a successful ramp bot needs to have a couple of things. A non-slippery ramp, guide rails, and some type of stop at the end. Kyle brings up an interesting point - I didn't see all the matches, but I did see a few robots tipped over at the end of the matches - maybe because they fell off the sides of the ramps? Anyone want to clarify? And I also saw the refs measuring lots of ramps to verify the height.
As far as tube carnage, I'm not too sure, but I would recommend to try and not sit anywhere near where they will be blowing up replacements - the squeal from the air compressor was awful! :rolleyes:
Gael Hawks need something so that the robots don't keep falling off. We were the highest unselected seed, so if anything happened, we were up, as a result, we remained on the sidelines and got a good look at everything. They were drifting to the left.
As for 1991, it almost looked like a broken hinge, but we were towards the blue side, so I couldn't see that well.
Ricky Q.
18-02-2007, 21:13
How did the radios and field control/scoring system work?
Jessica Boucher
18-02-2007, 23:06
How did the radios and field control/scoring system work?
The field control/scorekeeping is, in a word, magnifique.
The next test: will it work as awesome next October when we have to use it at RiverRage? Time will tell. But for now, my mind is at ease.
AcesPease
19-02-2007, 07:12
How did the radios and field control/scoring system work?
We experienced many losses of radio signal, and we heard from other teams that had similar experiences. The longest loss for us I think was a full 10 seconds (the drivers say 30, but I think being dead on the field for any time seems like an eternity)
We are in the process of trying the IFI recommendations for improving reception.
At some point we were contolling other robots on the field
Andy Brockway
20-02-2007, 09:15
We also had problems with our radio early on. Ended up moving the radio away from all metal and the power wires. We also made sure we had a fully charged back up battery and these changes solved the problem for the finals.
I don't know if anyone else noticed but the refs seemed to be getting tired towards the end of the event. The rack was being moved less and less before the matches.
Thanks Teams 178 and 176 for picking us. We thought we were going home early!
AcesPease
20-02-2007, 21:13
We also had problems with our radio early on. Ended up moving the radio away from all metal and the power wires. We also made sure we had a fully charged back up battery and these changes solved the problem for the finals.
I don't know if anyone else noticed but the refs seemed to be getting tired towards the end of the event. The rack was being moved less and less before the matches.
Thanks Teams 178 and 176 for picking us. We thought we were going home early!
Tired backup battery may explain our practice problems. Moving the radio up and away does seem to help quite a bit. This will be tough for teams with metal ramps mounted vertically.
Your team always plays smart in eliminations, The Enforcers did well to pick you.
The field control/scorekeeping is, in a word, magnifique.
The next test: will it work as awesome next October when we have to use it at RiverRage? Time will tell. But for now, my mind is at ease.
There are still some issues with the scoring system:
2 teams were scheduled for 6 matches, when 3 was the average, 1 team was only scheduled for 2 matches.
Some teams had the same partners, and played the same teams for most of their matches.
They had to manually adjust the final rankings, as the teams that played more matches got more qual. points.
We had to wait for the scorers to run through 8 matches to reach the elimination rounds, the system would only allow for 8 team final round play.
They did not have the final tree, and the alliance selection portions working.
Something about the Ref's not being able to adjust the scores after the submit button was pushed.
There was a problem with the PDA being used on the Blue side for the scoring during one match, think the operator pushed the wrong button at the wrong time.
Overheard a discussion between the scoring system people and I think a FIRST engineer while helping to take down the field.
While not perfect, the parts that worked seamed to work well. But lets remember this years field, and no automatic scoring make things easier.
First i want to say Thank You to all of team 176; Aces High, the FIRST staff that came down from NH and all the volunteers who made this event come off as smooth as it did for everyone.
There are still some issues with the scoring system:
2 teams were scheduled for 6 matches, when 3 was the average, 1 team was only scheduled for 2 matches.
Some teams had the same partners, and played the same teams for most of their matches.
They had to manually adjust the final rankings, as the teams that played more matches got more qual. points.
We had to wait for the scorers to run through 8 matches to reach the elimination rounds, the system would only allow for 8 team final round play.
They did not have the final tree, and the alliance selection portions working.
Something about the Ref's not being able to adjust the scores after the submit button was pushed.
There was a problem with the PDA being used on the Blue side for the scoring during one match, think the operator pushed the wrong button at the wrong time.
Overheard a discussion between the scoring system people and I think a FIRST engineer while helping to take down the field.
While not perfect, the parts that worked seamed to work well. But lets remember this years field, and no automatic scoring make things easier.
I will try to cover these to the fullest extent.
Pairings for Quals, there was a small glitch that has since been changed that paired the teams for their first match and then just repeated them.
The teams being in an odd # of matches has to do with the odd number of teams that showed. IIRC 6 cant go evenly into 29.
Rankings and Alliances; That part was not 100% yet, thats why it was done "the old way". It will be good for week 1.
Audience displays were put in a priority list to get done behind system functionality, they will be done soon if not all ready.
Adjusting Scores, That was fixed before the event was done.
Ipaq's scoring issue on blue. A Human Player stepped on and broke one of the cable adapters during the match, thus dropping the unit from the network that match.
A big hand goes out to this years development team. The [3] guys came to the scrimmage from 2 states and worked through out the whole event with input from FIRST and other members, to fix some bugs and add in some more functionality.
Also a huge thank you goes to IFI's Corey and Ricky coming from Texas on Friday to also do testing on their systems and helping out all the teams that asked for it.
I look forward to next week and having our first set of regional's go off with a great game to play!
Dave Flowerday
22-02-2007, 14:29
The teams being in an odd # of matches has to do with the odd number of teams that showed. IIRC 6 cant go evenly into 29.
If it was done correctly, the worst-case situation should be that 5 teams play one extra match - meaning that there was a single team who didn't get enough matches scheduled so one more match was added, with 5 "filler" teams to pad it out. If there's a team playing 2 (or 3!) more matches than another team then something was not done right.
Mike Soukup
23-02-2007, 10:46
Pairings for Quals, there was a small glitch that has since been changed that paired the teams for their first match and then just repeated them.
Rankings and Alliances; That part was not 100% yet, thats why it was done "the old way". It will be good for week 1.
Audience displays were put in a priority list to get done behind system functionality, they will be done soon if not all ready.
Adjusting Scores, That was fixed before the event was done.
To me those don't sound like small bugs that are corner cases; they're all in the regular operation of the scoring system. The randomization of matches is something that should have been implemented, tested, and debugged months ago, not discovered the first time it was used at a scrimmage. Honestly I'm worried that all the features weren't implemented and tested sooner. If features that are easily tested and those that are the core of the scoring system weren't rock solid last weekend what corner cases have not been tested yet? I hope this year's developers designed their system well and have thoroughly tested it. No one wants a repeat of the past two years.
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