Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

They play smart, they play hard, and they do the best they can to be as competitive as they can. While they're doing all this, they are also taking the time to help others, share their knowledge, and work to "push the FIRST envelope".

My one experience competing with 254 was in Cleveland 2002. If one thing was clear, it was that they knew EXACTLY what was going on, what we needed to do to win, and what our opponents were going to do. I imagine, this attitude toward competition is one of the major reasons for their success. Stay calm, stay focused, and do what needs to be done.

(Ohh... and build a darned good robot to help you along, and pick darned good partners who play the same way you do. ;))

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

We keep telling you, use Spectra! Congratulations and thanks so much to both you and 971!

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

LOL! Maybe we will at Nationals. Thanks again for being allied with us (again). WE're so glad no one picked you in the first round.

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

We think we have the problem worked out. In the match where it fell 4 feet, our ratchet wouldn't catch, so i kept driving the winch hoping it would catch at some point. I was just about to let off the winch and just let the robot fall when the top of our robot hit the bar and the cable snapped. We had set the winch up incorrectly before the match which is why it never ratcheted.

But then we went out and hung both matches in the finals, so we think it's fixed.

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

I almost cried too when that robot came down. It winches up pretty slow, at least compared to the monumental speed on the way down. In a split second we were down and tipped (the first time we've ever fallen over, I suppose), and no one on our side could see anything but the bottom of the bot, so we had no idea what the damage was. Turns out when Justin and I went to get it off the field, everything looked fine; we were even still powered. Finally got that cable fixed and put up a great score in the final match. Thanks to all at the regional.

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

Woodside's (Team 100) mascot (the big orange cat in the hat type hat) is really cool. It ate the Jesuit mascot's chair :D okay, maybe engulfing is a better term but that's okay, the big giant hat is cool!

Congrats to all of the teams at SVR! Oh, and to the Cheesy Poofs, yes, Spectra is a good thing. Now if we could just find it in red or black... But anyway, see you guys at nationals!

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

I took a look at the video my dad took during elim matches, and we didn't actually fall onto our side. We hit the wheels, and bounced up, then down again and tipped. Thank whatever luck we had that day (Friday it seemed everything broke) that we were mostly over the platform, and came straight down, or we could seriously have damaged our bot. Scariest moment ever.

...hey cool two dots...wonder when that happened...

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

This year's was the best SVR yet!
Congratulations to winning alliance 971, 254, and 852. All the robots and students were amazing, but yours stood out the most, and won you the regional. Good job, and good luck at nationals.
Thanks to our own alliance partners, 473 and 687. Two great teams with great robots that I'm surprised didn't get picked earlier. 687 as 13th pick was a steal. We were a great alliance that worked well together, and there's certainly no shame in losing to the poofs.

Everyone did a wonderful job this year, and I hope the next one is even better!
Now...back to sleep.

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

OK here’s the cable scoop, in the earlier matches our cable was fairly ridged, as we would winch up we believe it was pushing up against a small radius pin that holds our ratchet in place. Since we drive away as we winch, a side load was being applied to the cable (which is only intended to withstand tensile loading). The cable would kink and then eventually snap.

Later we went to a more flexible cable, and didn’t have any problems until we sent the robot out without properly setting up the ratchet. When Jay winched up the ratchet couldn’t engage and we kept back driving down. Not one to give up, Jay kept at winching up and trying to engage the ratchet until…BAM! The top of the bot hit the bar then the bottom of the bot hit the floor…OUCH! Apparently our winch delivers 900+ lbs because we snapped that cable ourselves. Amazingly the robot didn’t have a scratch on it.

The only thing we don’t like about the flexible cable is that it tends to fray and we have to change the cable every 4-5 matches, which we will do if need be. As for the Spectra, the guide we use to route the cable across the spool would have cut through Spectra like a piece of string. So although we may redesign the guide and use Spectra at Nationals it really wasn’t an option at the time.

Good luck to all,
Dennis

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

Heh, we wanted to pick 852 the whole time, but thought that 254 was going to decline 971 and pick 852. When they actually accepted, I wasn't paying any attention and didnt see that they hadn't picked 852. We made it to the finals anyways, so I can't really be too mad :P

Great job to teams 971, 254, and 852. We couldn't have lost to a better alliance.

We were absolutely amazed that we were finalists. For those of you who don't know, we went 0-8-1 at Sacramento, and finished dead last. For us to not only seed 9th, but captain the 6th alliance, and make it to the final match was simply amazing.

I really want to thank our alliance partners. Without them, we would never have made it past the QF's. 691 has a great hanging bot, and so does 1280. You guys truly deserved the Inspiration Award, and we look forward to competing with you next year.

I also want to thank team 1422 for being such great pit neighbors. You guys are awesome also, and we had lots of fun hanging out with you guys last night. We'll see you in two weeks!

Cory

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

Yeah Sillicon Valley regional was pretty cool especially at finals ...254 dominated i was amazed at how fast they played the game .... makes me want to build a robot that can actually be competitive with them.... :D ... our team (701) Did very well compared to Sac... at sac we got picked although we were 30th seed, this time we figured out how to hang, fixed our planetary drive, and played fast, we were manueverable, our driver was REALLy good... we hung 1 match against team 47 and team ??? in which we won that was really fun esp finally hanging .. Unfortunately our last match we were 7th seed and then lost to 115 and 972 who played well, I couldn't get the hook to swing around and so we went down to 13th seed (FINAL) ... we didn't get picked although 12th seed made it as an alliance leader .... thats too bad o well.

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

Bubbling over with INSPIRATION!
I love it!!!

Re: Week #5 - Silicon Valley Regional
 

How do the poofs do it? Well obviously it is the quality of the mentors! ;)

Seriously - Lot's of things have changed about the Poofs - the one thing that has stayed constant is Steve Kyramarios - who was their mentor in 1999 when the students were from Broadway Continuation High School, and the teacher expertise was english. (You might remember that teacher - his name was Jason Morella.) Lot's of things have changed - the mentors(all except Steve), the students and teachers (now from Bellarmine Prep.) Their shop location has changed at least 4 times, from a class room to a basement to a old warehouse to an vacant wing of a sheet metal shop.

Here is a list of what also doesn't change:

A strong streak of competitiveness
willingness to work hard and always do your best
Grace to admit your mistakes and learn from them
Lots of practice driving your robot.
Realizing even though the build cycle is 6 weeks, there is an awful lot you can
do before the build cycle to get ready.
Thorough strategic analysis of the game.
Careful scouting of potential allies and opponents.
Collaboration with and assisting other FIRST Teams.
Staying cool and calm and focused during competition.

I am very proud of this team as they not only represent their school, they also represent NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Robotics Education Project. Dean Kamen always gives out homework assignments to FIRST teams. The Poofs always do their homework. A little history here - Not only have the poofs won SVR 6 times in a row, They have only ended up as finalists in one of the total of 9(?) regionals they competed in. I am pretty sure they have reached the elimination rounds in every national they have competed in, and were National finalists in 2001. They also are two time regional Chairman's Award winners.