2015 Ventura Regional
 

Kicking off this thread. A brand new regional hosting city, beautiful Ventura California! 42 teams in attendance, many of whom will be powerhouse teams fresh out of the Los Angeles regional from this past weekend.

We are excited to see the new venue!

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

I'll be there as Lead Robot Inspector (with a great crew of inspectors) and Dona will be the Judge Advisor.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Team 696 is looking forward to a great event!

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

I'll be up there, in stripes again.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

With week 3 complete, six teams attending Ventura have spots at Championships already. (someone correct me if I'm wrong here)

207 - LA Regional Chairman's Award
330 - LA Regional Winner
1323 - CV Regional Winner
1515 - LA Regional Winner
5136 - IE wildcard (?)
5529 - CV Rookie All Stars

Many other teams are semi-finalists and finalists in other regionals, and still others are going to be at Sacramento this weekend.

Should be a good showing of robots.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Team 1266 is hyped for Ventura, we look forward to a weekend of FIRST fun! Good Luck to all!

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Yes, 5136 does generate a wildcard at Ventura, because the wildcards of 359 and 3562 passed to the finalist's alliance at Inland Empire.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

I heard rumors from a seemingly casual e-mail earlier this week about a social event planned for teams on the evening of the 28th (Saturday). Has anyone else heard any more info about this?

Also, I was curious about the setup in Ventura -- has anyone seen the layout? Was wondering if the field will be situated within a basketball court type setup (like many District events) or if Ventura College had a larger venue.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

For the field, it looks like one large gym with upper level bleachers on one side. It seems like the pits will be in a smaller gym immediately adjacent to the large gym.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

I'll be there judging. Excited to see what Ventura has in store.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

See everyone there!

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

The social was canceled due to liability concerns

The lay out will use Ventura colleges two gyms the lower will be the pits and the upper will be the field. The practice field will be in the breezeway between the two gyms. we will also be using the college's machine shop golf carts will be running between the pits and the shop as it is a good distance away.

My team is hosing and I am on the board if you have any more questions i should be able to answer them.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Woo Hoo...finally a week we are in it.

Iron Kodiaks 5137 in the house, can't wait to see all the fine bots/teams in Ventura next week....then back home to San Diego.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Will teams be allowed to use equipment the machine shop, or staff/volunteers only?

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Anyone doing the webcast and have a link?

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

From the very informative Ventura Regional Organizing Committee:

We are producing a great livestream for the entire regional, with highlights and other social interaction through our twitter account. Please direct your schools, your media, your sponsors, and your friends and family to the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering Charter High School website in order to view the livestream.

Hope that helps. Looking forward to it...we've been practicing.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

"This webpage is not available" when will it be live?..and thanks.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Fixed the link...my bad. I don't know when it'll be live though.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Only staff/volunteers will be allowed to run equipment.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Here's all the info for those watching from afar and present:

Another webcast link

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/12224997/frcventura

They say it goes live 2PM today. They will also be updating Twitter during the event.
https://twitter.com/frcventura

#frcventura to post to twitter about the event

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/venregional

Official site:
http://www.frcventuraregional.com/

Its here!





The new Battle of California....42 teams


US CA Van Nuys Team 4 ELEMENT 4
US CA Hawthorne METALCRAFTERS 207 [Regional Chairman's Award LA]
US CA Hermosa Beach The Beach Bots 330 [Regional Winner LA ]
US CA Lancaster Eagle Robotics 399
US CA La Crescenta Falkon Robotics 589
US CA Granada Hills Robodox 599
US CA Santa Clarita Project 691 691
US CA La Crescenta Circuit Breakers 696
US CA Sylmar ThunderBots 980
US CA Lebec Snobotics 981
US CA Alhambra Ramona Rampage 1159
US CA San Diego The Devil Duckies 1266
US CA Madera MadTown Robotics 1323 [Regional Winner CV]
US CA Arroyo Grande Eagle Robotics 1388
US CA Danville Red Tie Robotics 1458
US CA Beverly Hills MorTorq 1515 [Regional Winner LA]
US CA Goleta D'Penguineers 1717
US CA El Segundo Potatoes 1759
US CA Los Angeles The MilkenKnights 1836
US CA Lancaster Robolopes 2339
US CA La Cañada La Canada Engneerng Cub 2429
US CA Fresno IronHorse Robotics 2761
US CA Ventura Seraphim Systems 3027
US CA Sherman Oaks RoboKnights 3120
US CA Sunnyvale Firebots 3501
US CA Orcutt Spartatroniks 3512
US CA Newbury Park Pantherbotics 3863
US CA Ventura Circuit of Life 3925 (Hosting)
US CA Eastvale LORE of the ROBATS 3953
US CA Fresno Duncan Dynamics 3970
US CA Newhall SCV Coaster Bots 3993
US CA Hawthorne Vitruvian Bots 4201
US CA Huntington Beach Viking Robotics 4276
US CA Studio City Golden Gears Robotics 4413
US CA Huntington Beach HawkBots 4619
US CA Camarillo The Flying Aces 4711
US CA Los Angeles LA Streetbots 4964
US CA Santa Ynez Mechapirates 5136 [Finals WC entry IE]
US CA San Marcos Iron Kodiaks 5137
US CA Visalia Visalia Vanquishers 5529 [Rookie All-Star Award CV]
US CA Long Beach Jaguars Robotics & ROVs 5500
US CA Sherman Oaks Knightrise 5678

2015 VENTURA REGIONAL SCHEDULE

Thursday, March 26, 2015
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm ..........................5 Team Reps to Load In

Friday, March 27, 2015
7:45 am ...........................................5 Team Reps to Load In
8:30 am ...........................................Pits, Machine Shop, Registration, and Inspection Open
9:00 am - 11:00 am..........................Driver’s Meeting, Field open for Measurement and Calibration
11:00 am - 12:00 pm .......................Lunch
12:00 pm - 6:30 pm .........................Practice Matches
8:00 pm...........................................Pits and Machine Shop Close

Saturday, March 28, 2015
8:00 am ...........................................Pits and Machine Shop Open
8:30 am - 9:00 am............................Opening Ceremonies
9:00 am - 12:00 pm .........................Qualification Matches
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm .........................Lunch
1:00 pm - 5:45 pm...........................Qualification Matches
5:45 pm - 6:30 pm...........................Awards Ceremony
7:00 pm** .......................................Pits and Machine Shop Close immediately following
Closing Ceremonies

Sunday, March 29, 2015
8:00 am ..........................................Pits and Machine shop Open
8:30 am - 9:00 am............................Opening Ceremonies
9:00 am - 12:15 pm .........................Qualification Matches
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm ......................Alliance Selections
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm ........................Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:30 pm .........................Final Rounds
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm...........................Awards Ceremony
6:30 pm ..........................................Pits close

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Other than the heat I had a great time at this regional, it was 3512's strongest showing ever, and my first time as drive coach.

Shoutout to the inaugural winning alliance of 330, 1717, and 2761 for throwing up a regional high score of 207 in the finals!

I'd like to say a huge thanks to our alliance partners, who we couldn't have made it to the finals without:

-4201 for being beasts at stacking from the human player station, working with them was a pleasure and a privilege. I was ecstatic when 1515 generated the wildcard allowing them to go to champs.

-3970 for working that landfill and getting that bin. We could not believe they hadn't been picked when it came time to choose our 2nd pick.

In all the event ran really well for a inaugural regional.

Edit: listed wrong 2nd pick for #1 alliance

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Just correcting...

It was 330 1717 and 2761 on Winning alliance

It was 696, 1836 and 5137 on SF Alliance #3

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Good catch...must still be tired after the event :yikes:

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

I would like to thank all the teams attending for being gentle on this rookie Lead Robot Inspector.

Had a great time, finished inspections by 6PM on Friday. No serious issues and all the teams were cooperative and worked with their inspectors.

Used the GMS (Game Management System) and hardware purchased for SoCal FRC events for inspecting and have to say I LOVED IT. Also received positive reviews from some teams about the system as well.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

I think we were the only holdouts here, as we spent well over 2 hours trying to hunt down and eliminate a 400 Kohm chassis ground "short" before inspection would let us pass.

By the way, I saw the electronic inspection system and thought it was really great -- especially handy for the elims reinspection to record weight deltas and associated notes.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

We had the sane high resistance short issue at Long Beach. It was our Banebots 775 motors.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

So sorry you wrestled with a 400 KOhm "short" for chassis isolation.

Chassis isolation criteria per R27 in 2015 is 10 kOhm. In previous years, the bar for chassis isolation was higher, so your inspector may not have been aware of the current spec.

Challenging the robot inspector's call was well within your rights and the Lead Robot Inspector should definitely have been consulted. The FRC inspection process is motivated by safety and fair play consideration. The intent is not to hinder teams from competing in top form.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

It's been 10 kOhm since 2011, and 100 kOhm before then.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

We pointed the 10 kOhm rule but the inspector denied the validity in this case "until we found the source of the short". In hindsight we should have spoken with the lead inspector. I'm over it by now, but it was a shame that we lost 2 valuable hours of time the students could have spent practicing their driving on the field. In the end it was a different inspector who actually approved the chassis isolation check (we were completely open anyway, although I was never 100% certain on root cause)

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

1836 had a great time. The entire regional was extremely competitive, and we were pretty surprised by the depth of the field.

We'd like to thank 696 for picking us. You guys build beautiful machines, and it was a pleasure working with one of the best teams in California. We'd love to work with you again.

The alliance would not have been complete without 5137. You guys were a pleasure to work with to cheesecake your robot, and I'm glad you guys get to use the can grabber for SD(gotta thank GB for that too). You guys were on top of our list for capping(just what we needed) and I expect to see good things from you guys in the future.

Congrats to both the winning and finalist alliances. Eliminations were really tight and the finalist alliance was just as stacked(pun not intended) as the powerhouse alliance of 330, 1717, and 2791. I'm glad that we will see 3512 and 4201 at worlds too.

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Dave / Eric,

I was original inspector who made this call - based my (EE professional 44yrs)
and others inspectors past experience with RS-775, camera, & sensor chassis almost dead shorts showing up as thousands to hundreds of thousands ohms "falsely" but revealing a "smoking gun" at chassis to Anderson connector terminals.

Problem using the 10K rule at Anderson tp Pass Robot:
(symptom 1000's to multi 100K ohms measured at Anderson)

robot problems developed when root cause was ~0.1 - 0.3 ohm at motor terminal to case, (or sensor, pot, switch, camera)

Due to electrical isolation through multi-semiconductor junctions which are weakly forward biased by DMM current source compliance voltage (yielding high ohms), MASKing downstream low resistance <1ohm short to the chassis

.. with implications making large robot chassis a radio frequency radiator (antenna) of high frequency components of fast PWM rising and falling edges,

possibly interfering with this &/or other robot control or communications systems.

My interpretation is that any non diminishing resistance reading is indicative of a low resistance short somewhere on the robot.

Early-on I informed team captain and mentor Eric they may request LRI review to override my chassis isolation call.

I acted in best interest of their and all competing teams by searching out root cause determination, utilizing my personal previous hands-on robot and team experience using my professional Electrical Engineering formal education and 44 years industry microelectronics design, implementation, and troubleshooting experience.

Note after Eric removed all ckt bkrs a reading of less than 6K ohms was observed, justifying continued concern to identify root cause.

Later Eric said problem was traced to the teams DMM ohmmeter function being defective, which I rejected. As chassis ~300k ohm reading was "steady" i.e. non impulse, non-diminishing, not a transient chassis capacitive ohmmeter current source compliance voltage charge-up, which would be ignored.

No defect in the meter was indicated.
I had the team captain do DMM acceptance test:
probes: 1. open=read "OL" 2. shorted ~1 ohm, verifying proper ohmmeter function

Had the ohmmeter given ANY reading other than over range with probes "open" on the 2000K scale (2M ohm max) the meter would have been rejected.

I prefer teams use their own meters for the experience training and understanding gained.

It is NEVER my intent to make teams spin their wheels, in fact quite the opposite; I streamline wherever possible. I've been in their shoes with my team! I deeply sympathize -been there done that, had that pressure!

I always act in their and competing teams BEST interests.

It is all too easy, even incompetent to let such potential problems... slide.

(if RI has insufficient area expertise, team is always encouraged to bring in LRI "especially" if long troubleshoot time develops, second opinion is welcome, appropriate (as in this case, immediately after the first ohmmeter reading, I suggested team solicit LRI review of my "call")

By teams action it appeared at the time they were in agreement with my call

Robot rules are written carefully as possible but cannot cover every nuance.

Imperative should be "Do the right thing" !! Inspector education, experience, rules interpretation & judgement in specific situations, especially with past precedence, as in this case, should prevail, and applied with compassion for all.

When is it OK to waive such indication (let problem exist)
in order to save "time"? or appease stressed out team on inspection day?

Chassis short to motor terminal =large body interference PWM edge radiator:
Interference potential in this case to radio, processing &/or communication systems, such root cause action IMHO is well justified.

Dale K3MNN, EE w/44 years prof electronics industry, 18+ yrs FIRST

Re: 2015 Ventura Regional
 

Award Winner
Regional Chairman's Award 399
Regional Engineering Inspiration Award 1515
Rookie All Star Award 5678
Woodie Flowers Finalist Award David Black (696)
Volunteer of the Year Velma Lomax
FIRST Dean's List Finalist Award Maleko Bravo (4201)
FIRST Dean's List Finalist Award Cynthia Erenas (4964)
Regional Winners 2761
Regional Winners 330
Regional Winners 1717
Regional Finalists 3512
Regional Finalists 4201
Regional Finalists 3970
Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox 399
Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers 3512
Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi 330
Gracious Professionalism Award sponsored by Johnson & Johnson 3925
Highest Rookie Seed 5529
Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen 1266
Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors 4201
Industrial Safety Award sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories 1515
Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation 1717
Judges' Award 599
Quality Award sponsored by Motorola 696
Rookie Inspiration Award 5529
Team Spirit Award sponsored by Chrysler 1159


Congratulations to all and special thanks to 696 and 1836!
You showed us the way to win in SD.