Re: My apologies. Team 343 Was truly awesome!
 

Posted by Mike Carron at 03/06/2001 5:25 PM EST


Engineer on team #343, Metal In Motion, from Hamilton Career Center and Square D Company.


In Reply to: My apologies. Team 343 Was truly awesome!
Posted by Mike Sklar on 03/06/2001 12:42 PM EST:



No problem Mike. It was late...long ride home...etc. I feel much better now though! I really hope to see you guys at the Nationals. You were on top of our picking list should the opportunity had been available. Heatwave and ourselves were looking for a few good limbo bots to help us with our strategy. You guys had the machine that our strategy team leader was ranting and raving about on practice day. Just remember team 343 "metal in motion". Good luck.

Mike Carron

Re: Bottom line analysis from KSC
 

Posted by Ed Sparks at 03/04/2001 6:51 PM EST


Engineer on team #34, The Rockets, from Bob Jones High / New Century High and DaimlerChrysler.


In Reply to: Bottom line analysis from KSC
Posted by Mike Sklar on 03/03/2001 11:37 PM EST:



First of all, I congratulate all of the teams at KSC. I had the best time I've ever had in my 5 years of FIRST at this regional even though we had some bad luck.

Some things I observed that might help:

Take a small white board & markers with you to discuss the plan with your partners. A picture says it quicker. We were one of only a few that I saw with this and everyone we went on stage with seemed to like it.

Be sure to discuss the path that each robot will take after the colors are assigned. There were a lot of robots tied up in knots trying to cross paths.

I was amazed & disappointed to be involved in a match where the student operator on another team did not know how to operate the E-Stop. The student was twisting the knob just like the button indicates and as you hopefully know, that releases the E-Stop.

Nearly every one of our matches involved one or more robots not being able to perform as expected. Several were essentially DOA. In one round, we left our "Air Dump Valve" wide open after relieving our tanks to remove a ball from our ball gripper in the previous round (We now have a check list).

There were many robots that didn’t have the ability to cross the bridge by themselves.

I observed a lot of trouble with bridge management. Most took too long.

Our next stop is in Houston where I know we will “have it together”. See ‘ya there.

Re: Bottom line analysis from KSC
 

Posted by Gary Bonner at 03/05/2001 4:02 PM EST


Other on team #433, Firebirds, from Mount Saint Joseph Academy and SCT Corp., FMC Corp..


In Reply to: Re: Bottom line analysis from KSC
Posted by Ed Sparks on 03/04/2001 6:51 PM EST:



All these observations are great for those of us who haven't competed yet. It will be interesting to see if in subsequent events there is a shorter learning curve. Although, there are probably plenty of teams, like us, that didn't get much practice time before the robot went in the box.

Using the manual override button on the pneumatic valves is a good way to release grippers after a match without completely draining the air from your system.