Update 15

[petek]

Team Update 15 (http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Team%20Update%2015.pdf) is up. There's a lot of important info in this update and teams will be relieved to hear that "spare battery assemblies (battery, lugs, connectors, shrink tubing, and/or electrical tape) will not be included in the Withholding Allowance weight limit."

[IndySam]

never seen the GDC put so much effort to cover their buts in an update before :)

[yodameister]

Thank you GDC...thank you!

[Uberbots]

I had faith in the GDC about this battery "issue"

that twitter thing sounds really cool, and it sounds like someone REALLY needs to make a FEED DECODER and get some nice scouting database of all the teams, hopefully that would be updated in real time (:

[Brandon Holley]

thank you GDC for realizing the issue at hand AND following through in correcting it..

[Vikesrock]

Excellent update that should clarify a number of questions/concerns for many teams.

Strangely they decided to cut off the list of event codes at Week 4. All the codes listed match the official FIRST event codes so here are the codes for Week 5 and Week 6:

Week 5
SAC Sacramento Regional Davis, CA
TX Lone Star Regional Houston, TX
SC Palmetto Regional Clemson, SC
LI SBPLI Long Island Regional Hempstead, NY
GTR Greater Toronto Regional Mississauga, ON
CT Connecticut Regional Hartford, CT
NV Las Vegas Regional Las Vegas, NV
CO Colorado Regional Denver, CO
HI Hawaii Regional Honolulu, HI
MI MI - West Michigan District Grand Rapids, MI
OC MI - Troy District Troy, MI

Week 6
MN 10,000 Lakes Regional Minneapolis, MN (Williams Arena)
MN2 Northstar Regional Minneapolis, MN (Mariucci Arena)
GL Michigan State Championship Ypsilanti, MI

[JesseK]

CYA Policies aside, you have to admit that it's pretty hard to get things right on the first try. Don't forget, we've been breaking this rule for 2 years already, and I don't think anyone knew we were.

I'll still bring the Advil to competition, but for a much different reason :p

I have no clue how to use Twitter :( Sounds like an offseason thing for me.

[Nica F.]

I never thought that Twitter would be implemented to this extent. Not a bad thing though. The formatting is going to take a little to get used to because of the letter combinations. My first look at, "#FRCArchimedes TYP P MCH 99 ST T TIM 120 RFIN 33 BFIN 27 RED 9994 9995 9996
BLUE 9991 9992 9993 RCEL 1 BCEL 1 RROC 9 BROC 6" made my brain scramble a little. I'm sure after reading a few of the updates, it will make more sense though.

Overall good update (loving the Allowance Exception).

[IndySam]

Can one or more of you young twitter experts please post a paper or something to help us old guys out?
Thanks

[Bob Steele]

I think the GDC has done a very good job of explaining the situation and applying a solution which is fair an equitable to all teams.

They should be applauded for their action, not because of the result but by making a timely decision based on an evaluation of what would be best for FIRST.

When the question about batteries was posted in QA they had no choice but to answer the way they did. Rules ARE Rules.


I especially appreciated the comments regarding our signatures indicating that we are playing within the rules. This is the kind of professionalism that FIRST is about. Sure anyone can cheat ..... there are always ways to do that....
no matter what the checks against it are....

Thank you GDC for recognizing, in writing, that we are the ultimate judges of our own compliance with the rules.

thank you

Now let's play Lunacy and have some fun....

[chinckley]

Can someone explain what this means???


WPA Encryption Update:
As announced in Team Update 13, FRC will be implementing the use of WPA encryption at all FRC events in 2009. Each team must have their WPA encryption checked before they play any match, including a practice match. Once the WPA encryption has been confirmed, teams will receive a white sticker, which will then gain them access to the Competition Field. The stickers are available at the WPA table, which is located in the pit near the
Inspection area. The WPA table staff will be able to not only check the encryption for teams who set it themselves, but also help teams who have trouble or are uncomfortable setting the radio parameters.
February 24, 2009 When you go to the table to have your WPA encryption checked, you must bring with you, at minimum, your team’s robot radio. You may bring your complete robot, but in that case, must also bring a battery.
The table will be available into Thursday afternoon.




Thanks.

[Elgin Clock]

Can someone explain what this means???


WPA Encryption Update:
As announced in Team Update 13, FRC will be implementing the use of WPA encryption at all FRC events in 2009. Each team must have their WPA encryption checked before they play any match, including a practice match. Once the WPA encryption has been confirmed, teams will receive a white sticker, which will then gain them access to the Competition Field. The stickers are available at the WPA table, which is located in the pit near the
Inspection area. The WPA table staff will be able to not only check the encryption for teams who set it themselves, but also help teams who have trouble or are uncomfortable setting the radio parameters.
When you go to the table to have your WPA encryption checked, you must bring with you, at minimum, your team’s robot radio. You may bring your complete robot, but in that case, must also bring a battery to be able to compete.
The table will be available into Thursday afternoon.
Thanks.

Similar to how your robot had to have your team number programmed into the driver's station/robot in previous years, there is an extra layer of security this year that you must have programmed/set into your robot before you plug in to the playing field.
Read Team Update 13 for more info.

[chinckley]

Similar to how your robot had to have your team number programmed into the driver's station/robot in previous years, there is an extra layer of security this year that you must have programmed/set into your robot before you plug in to the playing field.
Read Team Update 13 for more info.

Thanks. We leave Thursday morning for Traverse City and I thought we had something else to do. So there is nothing we need to bring to do this, is there? They give us all the stuff there?

[engunneer]

If you have a working robot at the event, then you have what you need. Just bring it to the WPA table to have it checked.

[chinckley]

If you have a working robot at the event, then you have what you need. Just bring it to the WPA table to have it checked.

Our robot worked here at the school.

I certainly hope it works there.

[petek]

If you have a working robot at the event, then you have what you need. Just bring it to the WPA table to have it checked.There is a little more to it than that.

Each team will get a sheet Thursday morning listing the WPA code for that team's radio, along with instructions on how to load it. Each team must then bring their radio (or robot, if it's hard to remove the radio) to the "WPA Table" to verify the correct code is loaded, and get the sticker indicating it's been done. Any teams that need help with loading the code can get assistance at the WPA Table.

Please note that no robot will be allowed onto the playing field without the sticker. Also, for teams going to more than one regional, the WPA codes are unique to the event, so you will need to get a new code at each event. Finally, the codes are for communication security, so do not share your team's code or leave the sheet listing it laying around.

[ATannahill]

Will we need to disable it after a regional?

[artdutra04]

Dear FIRST,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Edit: If I have free time, I may work on a PHP script to parse the Twitter messages and display them in an easier to read format (140 characters can be difficult). Actually, it would be pretty cool if something like this could be implemented in a CD-Spy like feature.

[Brandon Martus]

Actually, it would be pretty cool if something like this could be implemented in a CD-Spy like feature.
My thoughts exactly.
Filterable by event(s).

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I'm glad info about super cells/empty cells/moon rocks is being posted. If this data feed is reliable, a whole bunch of needless scouting was just cut out. Woo!

[Tom Bottiglieri]

: If I have free time, I may work on a PHP script to parse the Twitter messages and display them in an easier to read format (140 characters can be difficult). Actually, it would be pretty cool if something like this could be implemented in a CD-Spy like feature.
To add to what Art said:

If anyone wants to cook up some gateway scripts to mirror this Twitter data and store it in a easy to access way, we'd be happy to let you host them on The Blue Alliance. I haven't done any of this stuff myself, but I can only assume parsing a whole bunch of twitter data on demand is much, much slower than a sql query. It would be cool to have a scouting data system that works much in the way that the TBA API works now.

Google's App Engine might also be a neat, free way to host this.

[Brandon Martus]

Dear FIRST,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Edit: If I have free time, I may work on a PHP script to parse the Twitter messages and display them in an easier to read format (140 characters can be difficult). Actually, it would be pretty cool if something like this could be implemented in a CD-Spy like feature.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/frcspy.php

Should be looking fairly decent by Friday's qualification matches.

[ATannahill]

Since I anticipate them sending something out every 15 seconds in a match or similar, you might want to have more info included on the page. Also you could make a page for every event.

[Mike Betts]

Can one or more of you young twitter experts please post a paper or something to help us old guys out?
Thanks

Sam,

Here is a bit of info for you from Wikipedia on Twitter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter).

However, as one old dinosaur to another, just step back and watch the fun...

Regards,

Mike

[pitzoid]

Strangely they decided to cut off the list of event codes at Week 4. All the codes listed match the official FIRST event codes so here are the codes for Week 5 and Week 6:

That might have been my bad, I sent Kate the list yesterday pulled out of the shop DB as given to me by my lead programmer, I should have counted how many regionals were listed in it instead of just passing it on.... At least all the codes for the test tournaments we've done didn't get posted ;)