Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I'm thinking the first line of the hint is just messing with us: if you just move the space "five 'bots" becomes "five' bots" which just means "five-foot bots" simply referring to the robot height limit and not anything about the number of bots on the field.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

and then, the last line of the hint...
You scare me sometimes, other times you make me wonder: what do you know that the rest of us don't. :rolleyes:

Dave, one day before kickoff, and you've given us a great piece of insight.

OK, so may be the shovel's show has to do with some form of renewable enery such as a windmill, but more likely geothermal. Something around the lines of nuclear energy processes perhaps and how a shovel would be used to assist with that. But the pasta part of the hint really evades me in the object aspect of a renewable energy game. Now, pasta doesn't necessarily have to deal with spagetti noodles. Pasta noodles can also include the "screw" shaped noodle. That's pretty much all I'll say there.

Shovel show: scooping for uranium chunks or other energy stuff.

Longer matches: no. No way, no how. I think FIRST has enough on their hands getting all the current teams ran through several matches before dinner time.

New batteries: we can only hope
Real time recharging bases are possible from what your hinting though.

Conclusion: I love the renewable energy idea, I'll be looking for that tomorrow.

$0.02
-Joe :cool:

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I don't want to be the bringer of bad news...but the list of components for the field still leaves all those people holding out for the water game with some hope. Polycarb + Caulk= water tank

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I don't think the venues are set up to be able to handle a water game...(wooden floored gyms and water don't mix very well) The polycarb is probably either the player station protections or some field surface

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I doubt that FIRST would implement a water tank. Water, which weights about 8lbs/gallon is very heavy. The force being exerted on the sides of a polycarbonate (Lexan) tank would be far too much for a 1/8" think piece of Lexan to bear without tremendous reforcement. The large quantity of 2x4s may lead some creadence to this clue, but if it was for a water tank, they would use thinker polycarbonate material anyway.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Why are people holding on to this water red herring so much?

I would love to know why people think FIRST would even consider accepting that liability. We all know how difficult it is for many teams to even pass a basic safety inspection when it is clearly spelled out in the rules and they don't need to be water proof. This isn't even talking about the cost of waterproof motors and wiring pass throughs necessary in a kit to attempt making it safe.

Pardon the rant but the water thing is so nonsensical I just don't get it.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

i completely agree. you must remember, high school kids must be able to build this field, and also, you must think, every year, there are rookie teams, rookie teams can sometimes mean not the greatest robots, which will mean sinking robots, which means, 5K down the drain (No Pun Intended).

This is a fantasy, not a reality.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

I don't think anyone seriously expects it to happen we just like talking about the possibility :D , and to some extent joking about it. We know it's silly but assuming it did happen and if it was ever feasible (which it's not really) it would make a pretty cool game. Anyway the game is in what 11 hours I think ill just wait until im at Richmond to find out. Im not so sure about this whole pool noodle thing by the way. I have a couple lying around and they are pretty hard to manipulate with accuracy.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Don't you remember team 842, who beat MIT in the underwater ROV competition with a PVC robot? They didn't have huge resources, and they made it. Cheapish underwater FIRST bots aren't a complete impossibility.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

While I agree with most of the water points above, I do have to say that it's NOT as hard as it looks. My engineering class built and competed with underwater ROV's last year. We made them out of PVC and standard 12V DC motor (I wanted to water proof some CIM's for it, but the teacher said no) we waterproofed them with vaseline and wax. All seven of them worked and were able to complete the challenge (picking up various shaped cans from the bottom of the swiming pool). In conclusion, I my opinion, it's not the logistics of building and underwater robot that's the problem, but that it's the venue and field setup that would cause problems...plus how do you test on a practice field?

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Well, only the important thing to remember is that only parts of the field need to be assembled, like in 2004.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

My point is not that it's not possible to make a robot that can work underwater for a reasonable price.

The intended point was that to garantee all the teams built a safe robot and mitigate the risks to FIRST would have to "mistake proof" the kit with "inherently safe" parts this driving up the the cost of the kits.

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

Well it hink the safety part is more a factor than the price...we made ours (see my post above) for about $50 each. However, it's generally not a good idea to mix water and electronics unless you KNOW what you're doing. I don't think FIRST would put that high schoolers in that kind of situation..land robots are dangerous enough

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

$20 says in 10hours this whole threads a joke :D

Re: 2006 Official Game Hint Discussion
 

as a highschooler i dont see us building underwater robots and having fun it would be so complex that college students would be doing most of it.