Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

I really missed having no video feed of matches in the pits.

Match cycle times would be greatly improved if FIRST would move to a faster-booting bridge. I miss the little black Linksys bridges from 2009, they only took 15 seconds to boot up. It sucks having to wait for the radio to boot after the cRIO has been booted for 30 seconds already. It would make for faster match cycles, which would make for more matches for more teams.

Or just get rid of it altogether and move to a more reliable system...

They could also debug the FMS software a bit more thoroughly.

-Nick

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

This issue happened to 1747 in 2010. The field used at BMR was off as the tunnel was IIRC 1/2" too low. The robot didn't have that amount of tolerance height wise (it was pretty crammed to say the least) and it caused the robot to be unable to to use the tunnel. This issue might have cost us the regional, as one reason why we lost in the SFs was due to being blocked from crossing bumps by the defense.

BTW, the same field appeared at our second regional (Buckeye) as well...

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

Suggestion to FIRST: allow teams to use the black boxes and a 5 port switch- they even make them in the d-link's exact form factor (I have one in my junk bin) . Yeah, it would draw a shade more power, but it would allow future use of field-specific radios and might perhaps reduce the load on the wireless AP (for intra-robot comms).

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

Or better yet, why not give us illuminated targets? A simple LED strip instead of reflective tape marking the backboards would have solved most tracking problems which, in turn, would make the game even more exciting.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

I would have liked to have seen a separate practice bridge in the pits. With as much as the triple balance was worth and how specifically the combinations of robots had to fit together, it was very unfortunate that it was so complicated to get combinations of robots together to try it. Seems like they could have replaced the extra hoop off to the side with a bridge practice area (like so many regionals, including ours in Vegas, had) and let more teams onto the main field for hoop practice.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

Having illuminated targets does not solve the problem that Don mentions. The retroreflective targets where just as easy to track (if not moreso) than self-illuminated targets...but in either case there is always the possibility that something off in the distance will be look the "same" to your vision system (in color if not in shape/size).

An opaque top backboard would have partially addressed this, and it's not like the audience seated behind the ends of the field was able to see anything anyhow.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

This. So much this. The idea of having teams to cooperate with eachother for a common good is in theory a great thing. Especially since most teams follow the creed of gracious professionalism. We encountered at least one instance this year though where a team flat out told us they would not balance with us.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

That's better than having the team who says they will balance with you and they never show up. How unGP is that?

I understand the intent but IMHO the reality is that cooperation points are not working and hurt the game. Those same people you are competing against can prevent you from a good ranking. Unfortunately there are a few who believe this is a legit strategy of the game. As a result, the intent of COOP points is doing the exact opposite of the great intentions from FIRST.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

I saw a team accept an alliance selection at an off season last year and then leave immediately. The team that picked them was none too pleased.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

1. Own problems and when you get owned by problems know when and how to ask for help. That goes for everyone, but in this particular case FIRST as well.

2. Provide a level playing field for troubleshooting to eliminate power quality issues leaving dead robots on the field (that's been going on to some extent for 17 years that I know of).

3. Provide more electronics support at the competitions and more parts to support troubleshooting in the spare parts.

4. Characterize all the parts from the KOP and control system so that teams do not have to clean up later.

5. Open up more factual data about the field.

5. Track much more information about events, teams, robots, problems and be quick and fair to act on problems.

6. Encourage much more community participation directly to the canopy of control at FIRST before, during and after competition. Especially when number 1 above applies. Also take more interest in additional input gotten from beta tests.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

While for the most part it is beneficial for everyone if the Co-Op bridge is present, I would imagine there is at least one scenario where it is in a team's best interest to make sure the Co-Op bridge is not balanced. This is a strategy decision and it is unfair to say they are acting against the idea of Gracious Professionalism and not know why they chose to make that decision.

If you want the bridge balanced, the other teams on the alliance can probably be convinced to help you with that, as it may be in their best interest for that to happen.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

Except refusing to balance with us did not help this team in the rankings at all. They were in bottom 50. It would have made no difference to their team's individual ranking.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

1. There needs to be a safer setup for teams entering the building at the start of the day. I know this has been discussed but it happens at most events. There should be a way to keep people from rushing the doors and running to the seats. If my team get there at 6AM I should get better seats than the team that shows up just before the doors open and shoves their way to the front. You have seating charts for the arenas, let teams designate where they want to be and avoid the unsafe behaviors. Maybe you should position a judge or 2 by the doorway. That may change some behaviors.

2. There needs to be a better way to have teams bring their stuff into the pits. Again, it was a mad rush of people to get their stuff to their pits so they could get to work as soon as possible.

3. Fewer teams at Champs. There were just way too many teams there.

4. Fix the match listings. I may be the only person to say this but our match listings were unfair. We had to play 7 of the top 15 team in our division and got the pleasure of playing with 7 of the bottom 20. We finished 3 - 6 and placed in 36th place, only because of the co-op bridge. Our last match was against 2 teams that ended up on Einstein (548 and 118, and our partners finished in 74th & 90th).

5. Video in the pits at champs. It is a long walk to get to the field and too often our pit crew couldn’t watch matches.

Re: 2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative
 

Let me second this. At MAR Mount Olive it took a bit for people to get video in the pits using my laptop and finally getting the feed into the pit area.

It was obviously a different event but it should be similar for any event and I've seen this issue repeatedly over the years.