Oh, the Field Faults.
 

As a fanboy of the Industrial Revolution, I love the design of this game.
I appreciate the theming that FIRST has imbued on our competitions.

I thought that last year's field costs would have resulted in a more modest and pure scenario this year.
I was mistaken.
The airships are more complex than the Stronghold defenses.
At least they are static.

My concern is field fault replays.
There are many more active sensors that are part of the game this year than in the past.
7 on the airship: 4 rotors, and 3 TouchPads.
5 on the field Hoppers.
The boiler fuel counters are likely not an issue. (See the animation caveat)

I was hoping that video replay would make its debut this year.
I can argue that it would reduce match cycle times. (See 2016 NEDCMP)
With SteamWorks, I would not go there.

I predict that the question box will be well-populated.

Last year I praised the fortitude of the field reset crews. 600 wiffle balls this year are no small task either. At least they won't be replacing shear pins this year.

The FTA's will deserve combat pay.
+10 minute match cycles as the field breaks in and wears down.

My optimism survives with the knowledge that our competitions will be filled with engineers and their proteges.

Prepare for flight.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Contact departure 125.4, if unable, call on guard 121.5, g'day

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

In 2014 the pedestals holding the balls would light up inconsistently AND without indication to the referees, so they had no real way of knowing that they were lit up unless the were constantly staring at the pedestal off-field.

I hope FIRST learned from that. The last thing refs need in this competition is an FMS that doesn't track anything.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

I am also not looking forward to resetting the practice areas at competition...

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Is there an actual sensor on the hoppers on the sides? I thought those were purely mechanical.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Easy, hockey sticks and snow shovels for gathering fuel/gears. The manual said that the bins will have an approximate number of fuel. I imagine they'll just say "yep, that one's full" and go to the next bin.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

I do not understand what you mean. The approximate is for the bins that hold the fuel after it is scored in the boiler. The manual says nothing about how the practice field is set up. I would assume teams might expect exactly 50 fuel in the hoppers so they can practice firing in autonomous.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

I agree on this one. For FTC in RES-Q, with 80 field elements, we just shoved them into two bins, made sure they looked about right, and went for it.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

4.6
"There will not be an ARENA FAULT called for MATCHES that accidentally begin with an incorrect number of GAME PIECES, damaged GAME PIECES, or experience the failure of a Team provided ROPE."

But aside from that, they may just use both boilers to do the counting for them.
Between both boilers (only shoveling into the low goal) we have 10 count/second.

540 fuel between all the hoppers and stations (-robots), you could have those counted pretty dang quick.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

So I want to point out that it says you don't get a field fault for starting a match with an incorrect number of game pieces, however they also can't start the match if a human being is on the field pointing out that the hopper they are going for in auto doesn't have enough fuel.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Plus, by a literal reading of the rules, even if one bin is clearly not full; even if one bin is left empty, calling a field fault for that mistake is prohibited. Not a judgment call, but specifically disallowed! The leaps FIRST will take to write rules like this never ceases to bug me. I understand why they would need a provision that prevented a field fault from being called because of a single ball out of place or something like that, but the breadth of the rule is astounding to me.

That said, there are decent ways to count balls quickly, so if this is well done hopefully it won't be a serious issue. Imagine a box with a bottom shaped like an egg crate, a 10x10 grid of pockets for balls to fall into. Dump a bunch of balls into the box, shake it until it mostly settles, get 50 set up, then dump the box into a hopper. Rinse and repeat.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Leaf vacuum, modified to a 5-1/4" diameter intake?

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Seem to me that if you tell them before the match starts "Hey -- that hopper doesn't have 100 balls in it" and they start anyway, then the above doesn't apply because it's no longer accidental.

Right at the bottom of p. 39, there will be 100 fuel in each hopper, 50 in each hopper container.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

My guess is that Field Reset fills each hopper up to a line, and that is +/- 50 balls. No counting.

The rule is so that no one sits there having to count out 50 balls.

Re: Oh, the Field Faults.
 

Sssh, don't give away our shooter.

;)