Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

...Then again, maybe we've got a few more years to go before we eliminate paper entirely from our way of living... :)

Nevertheless, Team 296 has come up with a system to complement the printout match lists we get at competitions, and we want to share it with the FIRST community.

Based on something we had last year at the Canadian Regional and in Galileo Division, the idea is that one team at an event maintains a wireless network and a webserver, and other teams can use their web browsers to access a Flash application which displays an automatically generated list of their qualification matches, no download or hunting through the printout required. The Flash application is in constant communication with the webserver, and shows a countdown to the teams next match and keeps track of field lateness, among other things (see attached screenshot).

Last year we hosted a similar service at our events, and we got quite a few requests from other teams for the software so that they could host it at events they attended. So this year, in the spirit of gracious professionalism, we're giving the system away for all to use. I've put all the software together in one easy install, and in one week (in order to catch any bugs first) I'll put it up for download on the Sundial homepage. Besides this software, all that's needed is a wireless router or access point and one or two people to maintain the database.

I've put a simulation of Sundial online at sundial.patfair.net/sundial/ which is currently simulating a small tournament of made-up teams. Please try it out and let me know what you think and if there are any bugs. Log in as any team between 1801 and 1812 to get it to work.
You can also take a look at the control panel for Sundial here. Log in as user "team0000" and with password "FIRST".

I'd love to know what you think of Sundial, and of any improvements you think I could make. Also, if any team wants to host Sundial at an event, please give me a shout and I'll update my list of events located on the Sundial homepage.

Thanks for reading.
Pat Fairbank

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Hey, this is great. I loved the this down at nationals.
I hope we can see this at every regional this year.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

This is beautiful stuff. Very well-executed and clean, even on the back side.

I would like to throw in one concept, though. Since you've already got the teams and alliances in the database, how hard would it be to add in the results of those matches?

Nothing like knowing that our team just went from fifteenth to fourteenth in the past two minutes, eh?

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

I remember this system in Canada last year. It worked very nicely for our team members who used it up in the stands.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Thats pretty cool, and yet another reason to bring my personal laptop to competition to play with, lol.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

I've thought about this a lot myself, and personally I would love to have something like this - it would eliminate the need to have someone go look at the rankings and then wait 5 minutes for our team ranking to crawl onto the screen...

The reason I haven't put it in though is that it would mean a lot more work and pressure for the people who are constantly updating the database - it's easy enough to hit a button when a match begins or when you hear a "last call" over the intercom, but if you make a mistake entering the results of a match, it can throw off the rankings for the rest of the event. And then there's that complicated tie-breaker system... Maybe someday FIRST will provide something like this which will just tap into their rankings database... :)

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

This is a good idea, but in the future were going to have digital paper, were only a few years before companies release it.
On the digital paper we'll be able to store stuff, read it, put it on a computer.
And of course most people just like reading off of paper more than off a computer, I know I do, even though I read a lot more on the computer.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

now does every team have it separately on their own laptops and such or do you have something that the whole regional teams can access it very easily?

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Do they let you use a wireless network at the events? I had this grand plan for scouting with little hand held computer thingies and a wireless network, but a guy on my team said they wont let you use wireless in the building.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Traditionally, FIRST has not allowed access to the Internet at competitions. Use of intranets has not been directly addressed.

Still, I'd recommend anyone planning to set up a wireless network to drop FIRST a line to make sure it's alright. This may well be one time where it's easier to seek permission than forgiveness.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Basically, it works like this: one team, the host team, installs a pretty complicated software package onto their computer (complicated because it contains Apache, PHP, MySQL and BIND as well as the Sundial files). They then set up a wireless network and connect their computer to it. The teams who want to use the service simply connect to the wireless network, go to an address in their browser, and click a link, and it runs right in their web browser. It's designed to be as easy as possible to connect to.

FIRST usually doesn't have a problem with wireless networks, as long as they don't interfere with its own. As Billfred said, it's a good idea to ask first, and we did so at the Canadian Regional last year, but we didn't bother for the Championship - there were several networks already floating around there anyway.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Great idea, im going to show the rest of the team and see what they think but i really like it.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

is there going be a team with it at finger lakes, buckeye or nats this year? i would love to get one at each of those events it will save us a whole lot of time in the pits.

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

Is there any way to setup a system to know who will be hosting the network at each regional? Also, are any instructions on setting up all the server software available?

Re: Out with the match list printouts, in with...
 

I can do this at VCU, no problem. It would be my pleasure really...

That said, we should make sure multiple teams don't do this, or it would quickly become a pain. I think we should keep a scouting database seperate from this, code-wise. It just doesn't make sense to mix the two. If anyone is interested in doing this in Perl, I'm game.