Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

what new mechanism? can't leave me hanging man :(

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

They are going to attempt adding another claw to the robot to stabilize the bin when they have a stack. Should be interesting to see how it works.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Yep, he is absolutely right. Already have about 50% of it done.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Sounds sweet. Can't wait to see it in action!

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

We've loved watching and cheering for everyone these last few weeks. We look forward to playing with our PNW friends! We'll even be bringing a new toy :)

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Looks great, can't wait to see it in action at PNWCHAMPS

How fast is it from initiation to contact with the can?

And how accurate do you need to be with lining up?

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Based on frame analysis, 26 frames (.867 seconds) from the sound of the piston to the first hit on the can. 7 (.233 seconds) more frames till it stabilizes. 1 more frame till the robot moves back. All at 30fps.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Nikki is about right with his calculation on timing. There's still some optimizing going on so we're looking to drop that time further.

Accuracy hasn't been an issue in our testing. We guarantee alignment during robot placement and the system is rigid enough that it hits the same spot every time.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Team Mean Machine is super excited to play with all of our Northwest friends again.

Of course, we have some changes in store as well. We changed to rollers on our lifter, which is lighter (1 lb) and more robust than the plastic slides. We designed a new claw for can manipulation. It's heavier (4 lbs), but much quicker, and can handle noodles. We changed the swerves to mini-cims for a 2.5 pounds of weight savings, and the robot seems just about the same in terms of performance. We created can burglars for robbing two cans from the step. We also created cheese cake versions for our partners, if that plays out. They weigh less than 2.5 pounds for a pair, and can grab the cans in about 0.5 seconds. Bryce took some nice 240 fps video of it. Hopefully he'll post some here.

It's encouraging to see all the improvement over the season as well as the big jump from last year. The district system is really helping all the teams in the PNW, from the top to the bottom, to get more play and iterate on their designs for stronger competition.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Wow! You guys have been busy! I can't wait to see it.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

So many great teams competing this weekend at PNW Championship!

This will the 1st time a championship event is played in week 6. It should be exciting to see the scores and the level of play approach new highs.

Good luck to all.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Here's a video of the new burglars in action.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Sounds like we have all been busy. Best part of districts, you never stop improving your robot.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

Based on numbers scraped of FIRST's website over the past few days here's the list of teams who have declined their invitiations (in order of district points scored):

5779
3968
4654
4132

As expected for an event in a remote location this is a longer list than last year.

And here's the list of replacement teams (by team number):

3789
4608
4681

Since there are only three of them we currently have a 63-team rather than a 64-team event. There may be reasons that teams have appeared or disappeared from lists other than declining invitations or being invited as a replacement, but I don't know what those would be.

Re: PNW CHAMPS
 

FIRST's public data is messed up. 5 teams have officially declined to PNW FIRST and 5 teams have been invited as replacements by PNW FIRST. If you check the official ranking system site http://frc-districtrankings.usfirst.org/PNW, which is correct you'll see that for some reason the person transferring the data skipped the teams that were ranked 63rd and 64th. They also initially skipped 4 random teams when making their original list.

I can confirm that 5779 and 3968 are two of the teams that have declined.

So yes a team has been invited for every team that has declined.