Alamo 2012
 

So who is attending alamo?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

We will be going to lone star but since we are from san antonio we will be watching from the stands.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

We'll be there with a skeleton crew. It's going to be fun to see how another region plays robots.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I'll be inspecting and we should have a few other volunteers from my team there as well on Saturday.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Some of the folks from 418 will be joining you guys in helping to support the Alamo Regional by volunteering. I can only come volunteer on Thursday but I am looking forward to it. I'm sooooo excited that Madison and 488 are making the trip to San Antonio for the first time!

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

2158 is chomping at the bit.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I'll post on be half of the 36 advancing FTC teams from the Austin, Brownsville, Laredo and two San Antonio FTC qualifiers competing on Friday for a chance to earn a spot at world's. Likewise, 61 FLL teams on Saturday as part of the brand new FLL Championship.
If you team is bringing more than a skeleton crew, we could use some FTC and FLL practice field monitors and judge assistants on Friday and Saturday. PM or send me a note if you want to volunteer.:cool:

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I'll be there telling people where to go, what to do, when to do it and how fast I want them to do it. Don't ask me why. It's a que thang, you gots to understand...

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Team 704 will be there!!

Re: Alamo 2012
 

You'll get to see some of the teams you met at Texas Robot Round-up and meet some new ones. Thank you for coming all this way, Ed!

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Thank Southwest for flying me there. It's why I picked Alamo over Smokey Mountains.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Out of curiosity, is San Antonio's downtown completely dead and abandoned on a weeknight? We arrive fairly late and will want food, I'm sure. Is Riverwalk always kinda alive?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

2583 will be there! It should be a good one.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

The Riverwalk's busy till really late. I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding someplace to eat. Most places are open til at least 10pm there. Barriba Cantina is open till 2am, and I'm sure there's other places open late.

Also, it's probably out of your price range ($25 entrees) but Boudro's makes tableside guacamole that's ridiculously good.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

San Antonio has a vibrant downtown. There are many establishments along the Riverwalk which serve food and drinks of both kinds late. There is a McDonalds and even a Fuddruckers if you want a 1/3, 1/2, ... build your own burger on a homemade bun, ... On your way downtown, you can stop at any number of local or chain Mexican food restruantes. Taco Cabana is open late with the original location on Hildebrand & San Pedro just off of US HWY 281 which is on the way from the airport.

In short, Downtown San Antonio is tourist friendly place with the Alamo, Riverwalk, Rivercenter Mall, Ripleys Believe it or Not Museum, House of Wax, ....:D

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Any reason to you pick SA over any other week one event is a reason the celebrate.:)

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Dont sell yourself short... Alamo has a frightening list of teams attending this year. It may be one of the better week 1s.


Im not From SA but I am from the wonderful state that houses it,

And for any visiting teams I would recommend going to the River walk at night.

If you have Wednesday or Sunday to spare, I would also recommend going to the Alamo, its a cool piece of Texas History.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

The Alamo is neat, and all, but Ripley's Believe it or Not is a lot more likely to amuse a bunch of robot nerds.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Those aren't just in SA though. Whereas that is the only place to see the Alamo :P

Re: Alamo 2012
 

For the Civil Engineering nerds, the Riverwalk has a north reach that opened in recent years that has a lock system to move the barges upstream. It has some really nice walking / jogging paths and on the right Saturday morning you might find a FIRST Senior Mentor with his relay for life team. SA also has less than year old rent a bike program with bikes parked in stations ready to accept cash or credit for pay by the day/hour rental. Somewhere near the River Center Mall is a Segway self-guided tour of the downtown store. One has to pass a short safety course::safety:: I think before they let you out of the shop.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Thanks, everyone, for the recommendations. I'm sure we'll wander around Riverwalk during the evenings -- our hotel is, I believe, right alongside it.

My Sunday will be spent at Fiesta Texas. I can't pass up a chance to ride roller coasters.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

It's been a while since I've been, but the Poltergeist was good last time I was there. LIM coaster that launches you at 60 mph into, literally, a huge knot of track. Plus you can hear it sounding spooky from a quarter of the park away.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Yeah, I am looking forward to Poltergeist; it's a clone of the Flight of Fear coasters in Virginia and Ohio and I quite liked the Virginia version when I last rode it several years ago. I'm also looking forward to Goliath, a mirror-image of the original Batman: The Ride at Great America near Chicago.

Krypton Coaster is the longest floorless coaster in the world, so that's cool; and for awhile, it had the largest vertical loop in the world. I'm also kinda curious about Rattler. It has an interesting history and has been completely neutered, so I'm interested to see what could've been there.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

What do you mean by Rattler being neutered and when did that occur? (I think you mean that it has been tamed?)

My husband still talks about the horrors of that ride after several years of trying to forget about it. And he loves roller coasters.

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

When The Rattler opened in 1992, it was the tallest, fastest wooden roller coaster in the world. It had a 166' first drop. During the park's off-season each year for the following four years, The Rattler's first drop was in some way re-profiled. The end result was a first drop that is 42' shorter today than when it was originally opened.

The ride was designed and built by the Roller Coaster Corporation of America just before computer's began to revolutionize roller coaster design and is part of a generation of wooden coasters that were, in many ways, too big for their britches. As a consequence, The Rattler was a VERY rough ride when it first opened; the changes to its first dropped were meant to lower its speed and smooth out the violent vibration that occurred at the bottom of that drop.

This video shows the original ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4YGPKbKhq0

And this shows the reprofiled drop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trDnw...feature=fvwrel

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Ok, we went a few years later which would be after the change. He said, "It was like a controlled crash the entire time." I think you're going to like it. :)

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Returning to our regularly scheduled programming...

I've worked out a deal with my wife, so I'm actually going to be at Alamo all or most of Saturday. For research purposes. (Spying) And to check in on the various Houston area teams that are attending. So I'll see you all there on Saturday, and you'd better put on a good show, dang it. That's 6 hours round trip I'm driving for you people.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Going to miss you guys this year, was already signed up to volunteer for Alamo when San Diego got bumped to week 1. Next year for sure!

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Good luck to all the teams attending the Alamo Regional and a special shot out to team 3999 Shadetree Mechanics:)

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Anybody know what type of ruling 118 has gotten for there hanging balancing?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Against my better judgement I have decided to drive from college station to come watch Saturday. I just couldn't wait for robots any longer.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

It's legal, for now.

https://twitter.com/#!/robonauts118

Re: Alamo 2012
 

How did you draw that conclusion? Their feed implies they will not know until tomorrow.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

If you look at the match in which that happen 118 was on Red and 488 was on blue. The Coopertition score is 0...this would actually imply it didn't count...

Time will tell...

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Hmm, why would they post then? This is only going to get more and more frustrating until qualifications start.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

"successfully balanced" could just mean that the Bridge was level.

Successful != legal

Like I said - the field system shows they were awarded 0 points.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I read the tweet as meaning they were physically successful, not necessarily legally successful.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Yes I do see it now. I did tweet them back for a more concise clarification on the ruling.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I was told by a student on another team that the ruling would be handed out tomorrow.

-Nick

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I wouldnt be surprised if the Refs had to call the GDC and clarify if it's in the "spirit of the game".

Re: Alamo 2012
 

There's a picture of that balance with 488 on the Robonauts facebook page. I think it's publicly viewable. Just search Robonauts.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I loved the Alamo last year - alas, it coincided with a band trip this year.

Have fun and take notes!

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Honestly, even if the balancing mechanism is ruled illegal, at least 118 will have an awesome bridge manipulator. It's not like they built their entire robot around one strategy that got ruled illegal (see the Troll Bot discussion).

However, if their method IS legal, Then i'm expecting every competition to play this sound whenever they balance: http://inception.davepedu.com/ ;) .

Re: Alamo 2012
 

The entire day they were not scoring bridge points. Numerous teams including ours balanced but the points were not displayed. The points being neglected does not imply anything.

Let's see what happens tomorrow!

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Aside from the trollbot we'd built could still manipulate the bridge and pickup and shoot balls....

Re: Alamo 2012
 

You're right. I should've used 190's 2008 hurdling mechanism, or 68's field-obstructing mechanism in 2003 as an example.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

looks like 118's hang has been ruled legal. Match 1 score changed to add 10 bridge points.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Anyone know if there's a live stream of the matches?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

why is the stream still down?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

stream is still offline

Re: Alamo 2012
 

That's interesting considering a 118 mentor told me this morning they were ruled illegal. You sure you have your story straight?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

stream for alamo is working now

http://madstream.team1323.com/

Re: Alamo 2012
 

cast for Alamo is working now

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Yes. check usfirst match results

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Link here.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Don't mean they balanced with it, could be they just went on the bridge like normal.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

well anything saying they didn't just drive onto the bridge to balance?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Initial result from FMS twitter:

#FRCSTX TY Q MC 1 RF 43 BF 5 RA 118 3582 2936 BA 3999 3353 3103 RB 10 BB 0 RFP 9 BFP 0 RHS 6 BHS 5 RTS 18 BTS 0 CP 0

(43 points)

Result on event match results now:

9:15 AM 1 118 3582 2936 3999 3353 3103 53 5

(53 points)

Sources:
http://twitter.com/#!/frcfms/status/175597747330756608
http://www2.usfirst.org/2012comp/Eve...chresults.html

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Congrats... there was a balance. Who was on the bridge? Can you tell me that from that information? If you can could you also tell me some lottery numbers? I'd like to retire early.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

chat indicated they hung, ruled a technical, usfirst showed no balance pts for Match 1, 118 asked for ruling, balance points restored. I did not see as stream was down for early matches

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Just providing the information that likely led to the assumption. Chill :)

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Match 009, 148 did not move and their number was red.

Did they get a red card? Or does Red mean no comms?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

No, there was a field issue that bypassed them.

That match will be rerun right before lunch

Re: Alamo 2012
 

The Robonauts were informed this morning our mechanism would be penalized if used. We did not attempt to hang in our first match, nor will we for the remainder of this tournament. 2936 balanced the bridge for 10 pts. The head ref announced the ruling to the regional during a break after match 4. I will post more details on this at a later time.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Can we save the snarkiness for other places and leave it off CD and off this thread?

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Thank you again for providing us direct information on your team's situation. I am interested to hear the exact wording of the ruling and how it will effect teams throughout the rest of the season. I look forward to your comments.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Thanks for the clarification.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

That's too bad Justin. I was really hoping this would be ruled legal.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Thanks for the update, Justin. Congrats to your team for going out on a limb and designing a mechanism that was risky, but inspirational at the same time. You guys created this most likely for the sake of seeing if it could be done, and to push the envelope.

I believe that you guys did this in a very appropriately timed fashion, publishing a video around the time of kickoff and also demonstrating this during practice day at a week 1 regional.

As usual, 118 is a classy and innovative team.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

Re: Alamo 2012
 

118 just flipped and took a hit while trying to balance on the coopertition bridge.

Hope everything is ok

Re: Alamo 2012
 

1477's fender shooting is deadly. It will be interesting to see where they go tomorrow. 118 is also fender shooting but to the side with the turret, the two of them would fit well together and would be a deadly combo. It will also be interesting to see what 148 can do when fully operational and how they fit into the equation. I have a strong feeling that 2 of these 3 teams will be in the top alliance.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I'm curious if Tuesday's team update will provide any commentary on this issue, or will FIRST just let the ruling of a head ref at one regional be the indication to all teams around the world of whether or not this system is legal.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

It would seem like someone should announce it. I know it will likely get passed around among the head refs, but everyone in FIRST isn't following the situation on CD and all that. Or, at least, FIRST shouldn't assume they are.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

So is it just me, or is something screwy about the co-opertition bridge scoring?

In the rankings page, three teams are listed with 2 CP each, and all others have 0 CP each. That's not possible if the Twitter feed is accurate. CPs are scored for both alliances simultaneously, and can't be erased by DQs (although the QPs that ordinarily result would not count).

(Also, the FMS web feed seems to have just gone down, so you may have to wait a while to check this.)

Re: Alamo 2012
 

And now the standings are back...but with 1 CP each. Still wrong.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

That's week 1 for you!

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Match 25: if you can't shoot, for god's sake, go for the bridges! (Especially the middle one.)

Re: Alamo 2012
 

did anyone else lose audio on the webcast?

Re: Alamo 2012
 

ALL OF THE BRIDGES!!!!!! AHAHHAA best match I've seen yet

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Oh man. What am I missing by being at work?!

(On break... )

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

231, 118, 3481 on red vs 2583, 3417, and 2789 on blue (one of the three was missing, I didn't see which)

Red balanced their bridge with 2. Coopertition was balanced with 2. Blue alliance bridge was balanced with the last robot. All robots on the field were balanced, too cool.

(Red put 4 balls in autonomous too, also impressive)

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Thanks, Chris. I bet the fans in the stands went nuts.

Wow.

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

In this case, it looks like the Twitter feed has got it right (2 CP); the FMS feed still doesn't (blue didn't get any CP/red got 2 each).

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Blue isnt supposed to have any. They made an announcement that the entire blue alliance got DQd for the match because one of their robots hadn't passed inspection and that human player was still playing -> pretty rough on the blue alliance imo, but I guess those are the rules

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I didn't hear the announcement. (The non-inspected robot DQ affects the whole alliance, even in qualifying rounds, so that much is right.)

Regardless, disqualified teams are supposed to keep their CP, but forfeit the QP bonus (equal to the number of CP earned) along with the rest of their QP for that match. This impacts the rankings for the Co-Opertition Award.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Some of these matches are just depressing...
I understand that its the first week of competition but still.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Apparently they will let some shoddy bumpers through... at least at Alamo. I wish I didn't have to bring it up, but considering how critical we all have been over each other team's bumpers, it annoys me bumpers that break multiple rules are allowed to compete.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

is the Alamo webcast down for anyone else? Or rather I should ask, does anyone have a working link? I managed to catch the last few but it seems like the feed died around 5:30ish local time with ~10 matches left in the day.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

it is down. recorded matches keep loading

Re: Alamo 2012
 

looks like it just came back for the last few seconds of match 64, running through 68 today

Re: Alamo 2012
 

OH they did.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

I did too! I was screaming and jumping down in my room.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

And were there certain fans and team members jumping up and down when one of their amazing team mentors garnered the Outstanding Volunteer Award AND another amazing mentor on the same team garnered the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award? :)

Congratulations to Jess! Congratulations to David!

Oh.my.goodness!

Jane

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Has this happened elsewhere yet? (haven't seen a ton of matches)

Something to think about as autonomous plans improve

Re: Alamo 2012
 

This has been very common in our testing. The nets are really constricted at the bottom and two balls entering in rapid succession almost always cause jams.

Re: Alamo 2012
 

148, 922, 2936 just triple balanced!

Re: Alamo 2012
 

148's alliance just balanced 3 robots!

148 balances three

Re: Alamo 2012
 

Amazingly smooth balance.