Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I had so much fun at Pittsburgh! I cannot wait until next year, I wish that the regional lasted longer! Our robot team 1708 we really had a tough time because we could not use the suction cup did not work which made me sad. Overall we did really well though we made sixth place overall which is really good considering that this is only our 3rd year competiting:D

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Our wonderful camera-person filming all of our matches got it.
On that video... there will be a raw, and there has been talk of a slow-mo version, with some editing and a "NOOOOOOOOOO", with some faces we got.

What was amazing was how quickly 48 got their bot back up and running, WITH their ramps and bumpers :3
But yeah, their treads kicked them up onto a tube, and then they continued forward onto our bot, and did a barrel roll.
It was scary :3

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

It was like a movie stunt. Awesome. I will be waiting for a link.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

DO A BARREL ROLL!
But seriously, how do I shot web?
/end of random/

Absolutely awesome how fast you guys recovered! I don't mean to be rude, but that is my favorite robot wreck!

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Go ahead and laugh it up - I enjoyed it myself.

That was our driver's very first match against live competition with that robot, ever. Considering how well he acclimated himself to driving by the end of the competition, I can forgive Johnny for sending the bot flying his first time out. At least he knows how to entertain!

Welded square tubing may be heavy as heck, but it has its advantages.

And we added a velcro battery strap following this outing. That was one of those things on the very extensive list o' junk to do on Thursday that we hadn't gotten to yet.....

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I remember, before the match, you guys decided to play "light defense", because the bumpers weren't on. Then, we were shocked (I was behind the human player station), when you guys flipped like 5 seconds into the teleoperated period.. It was a pretty epic maneuver, if you ask me :3

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I gotta say, of the scoring robots 375 was one of the best - especially in auton. They only missed like 3 in the whole competition, including practice. We were 4 for 6 in practice and around 2 for 14 in competition - we think the floor was biasing the robot causing the problem. We found we were better on the blue side in auton and went left on the red side, a little mad programming on Friday PM to give a little right bias did not appear to help much.

Concerning the aerobatics of team 48, you gotta love a team who can flip thier naked bot at top speed and come back to make it to the finals - 48 Rocks! The rolls will be available later on video....:)

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Okay, I just thought about a huge issue at the regional, though I'm not sure I should be opening this particular can of worms...


Did anyone else notice that there was not a real robot inspection going on? I have to admit, our inspector was a very nice volunteer, but she had been informed that she was to do robot inspections the night before Thursday. Literally, as long as our robot fit size and weight, hadn't been "grounded to the frame" and lacked "sharp things" (All of which were zip-ties), we were passed. Passed with a sticker, but no signature, which worried me throughout the regional. No one was even inspected for the elimination matches.

Literally, had we wanted to, we could've run the entire regional at 120psi with no pressure switch, used aluminum foil for wire and connections, and taped the entirety of our robot together with duct tape- and still been passed. At Pittsburgh in the past, we had been nearly failed before for not using a solder splice instead of a solderless butt connector that an inspector felt was necessary. Overkill, but better than nothing at all. I was just worried for the sake of other teams. Our robot was completely correct and within specifications, but we could've easily made a small electrical error that could become a huge problem.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

I did wonder a bit when our robot passed quite that quickly; I left the pit when the robot did, and it was back before me. I had thought they usually took longer, but since I didn't actually go through the inspection with the robot this year I don't know for sure how thorough ours was.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Well, our robot was inspected for wiring, for a proper pneumatic system and all of the other stuff we typically found in the past few years. Perhaps it varied from inspector to inspector? Ours seemed to know what he was doing and was quite nice. It took a total of 25 or so minutes in two different sessions. Plus the time to weigh and "box" the robot.

As for the 48 roll, it was definitely highlight worthy. The thing that came to mind for me (something you have to be a bit older to remember) was the opening of the old "Wide World of Sports." Those in their mid 30s and older will know what I am talking about.:)

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Yeah, my team noticed this too... We found a few things that should have prevented us from passing inspection right afterwards (and fixed them). This is a pretty big issue...

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Our robot was only put in the box and on the scales. A quick look over and i got the sticker. No paperwork to sign or anything. I did wonder if i was complete and ask if i needed it to come back for the check list inspection. The man said i passed. I now must go to Palmetta for inspection wondering if everything is right.

Re: Pittsburgh reflections...
 

Yeah, the problem with Pittsburgh was is we didn't have a scoring table person. So our "Lead Inspector" became the scorekeeper because we figured that all the inspections would have been done on Thursday and could be handed by the other Inspectors.

There were a lot of issues that were found as we were checking things on the field during matches... and we couldn't even check the robot classifications because they didn't number the robots with what class they were for the first set of matches!

Our FTA (cause we didn't have a field supervisor) couldn't find anything that said we had to reinspect the robots for the elims on Saturday, and we didn't feel they would have time (nor would a bunch of the rookie team robots pass) if we did a proper inspection for the elims. It didn't turn out to be an issue.

Granted, Pittsburgh was very low on Volunteers this year, so I would say we did the best with what we could.