stop buttons at championships
 

The following information was secured from an unnamed source.

In Florida at the Championship event the stop button will be used as a "time multiplyer" like last year ONLY IN THE FINAL ROUNDS not the qualifing matches.

This may cause some problems as teams would not have considered this in there strategies and if they do they would not be able to use it until they won their division.

what do you all think about this?

Re: stop buttons at championships
 

i wouldn't count of FIRST doing it. and yes, i know this is the RUMOR Mill

I would think that if you knew about this before everyone else, you wouldn't be posting it.

So whos this mystery source?

Quoth the rulebook:

I do remember...
 

If my memory serves me correctly there was a change in the rules prior to the National Event. I don't remember just what it was, but I think that FIRST does reserve the right to change there mind. I don't think they would, but hey why not.

And the reason why I am sharing this info is
1. Gracious Professionalism
2. The only way I am affiliated with a team is that being a former member of he Aztechs since I have not had contact in a competition sense sinc e then ecause I don't live near them.
3. THIS IS THE RUMOR MILL take what you will with a grain of salt.


and oh yeah why does the Segway have the Macintosh smily face on the display???

Re: I do remember...
 

The Segway and the Mac have nothing in common, except for Steve Jobs promoting it. The logo is just similar the Macintosh OS. I think that the segway runs on similar code (PBasic) that are robot controllers do.

Dean Look Alike.....
 

I kinda thought that little guy was a kinda bad Dean Kamen head impersonation...

:)

uhh...
 

As exciting as this may be, what's the point?

As soon as your alliance clocks out (say at thirty seconds), the opposing alliance has thirty seconds to move all of your points to their side.

Is anyone dumb enough to actually clock out?!


--Jordan
Team 166

I was waiting for someone to say that....that would be really obvious....i mean what would motivate a team to stop early when the other team can go and make their Multiplier of 1.5 be times their score of 0 points....if they actually do use it as multipliers i would highly oppose doing it

missing the point
 

Your missing the point.

The alliance would not clock out and let the other teams run the time out.
When the stop button was pressed last year it ended the ENTIRE match using the time left as a multiplier and YES I did read the manual stating that the stop button would not be used as a multiplier.

I am not saying this will happen I am just saying that I heard a rumor.

Geesh this is the rumor mill I'm posting in not the National Competition Forum????


Good luck everyone

I heard a rumor...
 

That at nationals, when you press the stop button, a pack of Segway riding, armor clad warriors will ride onto the field and attack your opponents!!

This comes from a totally reliable source, you can't deny this...

fairness????
 

So if my alliance scored and then clocked out the other team would have time stopped too? How does that fit in with gracious professionalism or even fairness of play?

Simple.. the other team has the choice of beating you with wiffle ball bats or unleashing a herd of Barbed-back Razor Tooth Crotch Crickets on your team.. Their choice for ending the match..


This is what happens when you ask FIRSTers (or High Schoolers in general) to invent an STD..

that sounds painful... i think i'll pass on that one

Pbasic!
 

When they came up with the segway, they could have used any processor and/or programming language that goes with that processor.

NO RATIONAL PERSON ON EARTH would actually choose to use our wonderfully eccentric version of basic dubbed PBASIC.

it just wouldnt make sense with this years game...... basically all you would have to do it wait with your alliance for about 5 seconds until both the opponents have left thier robot zone and clock out and you win....... theres no game and no fun

Re: Pbasic!
 

Who would think Dean rational? I mean, he dosn't walk anymore! jk
Mybe the reason was to show you the potental of PBASIC...;)

I'm telling you it will happen
 

bump

Where did you get this information from?

The main purpose of PBASIC and BASIC stamps is to be easy and quick to code. I would guess that the Segway needs much, much more processor power then a BASIC stamp can offer to balance well. The faster it reads from the gyros, the more smoothly the software can control the Segway's stability.

I'm guessing they used compiled C/C++ or assembler and a processor with a clock speed faster then 25 MHz. My $0.03

Texas Instruments (TI) has provided its digital signal processing technology to the Segway Human Transporter. TI's TMS320C2000 DSP platform was used to implement closed-loop motor control and balance computation to the Segway, the first self-balancing electric powered transportation machine.