Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Was able to record all the matches today using a MacBook and some discontinued hardware (note for next year). Will have to compress them and put them on our site later.

Cheers
-Tanner 1261 (the guy on the segway)

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

We'll all be more than grateful to you if you inform us once you are done with the processing of the videos.

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

I've been told that the weather in Atlanta has knocked out the scoring computer, and that the elim matches started about 3 hours late and are being scored manually.

In addition, there is severe weather in the area again. Hope everyone stays safe and has a safe trip home tonight.

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Yes, that was true. Not sure who the winners were. After the hail the weather calmed down, but the managing table was not able to communicate with the red side of the field. So, we had to go to manual scoring and using Dongles to run matches.

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Just got back for observing peachtree. It was pretty intence, the whole field was down for the first three hours of elim. matches and they had to write some now code to display all the scores and the time. I have to say, I honor those IFI guys, I can't even image how much stress they were under in that time frame.

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

they ended up getting it working after those three hours waiting. the #1 seeded alliance ended up winning. I believe the members were:

343 Metal in Motion
1319
547

It was a great regional once again, and good luck to everyone who is going to either another regional or the championship event in atlanta!

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Agreed. The IFI crew and the entire field team deserve a big thanks for keeping things running as smoothly as they did after the wait. As far as I know the only real issue they had after starting elimination matches was losing power midway through one match (which we were in, so I could have missed something in another match). It reminds you how so much of what we're doing has the same type of problems that happen in real life.

Thanks for a great regional!

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Yes, there was a 3 hour delay. The staff did a great job trying to get the scoring system fixed and an even better job manually scoring each elimination match. Ryan Stewart also did a great job announcing how much time was left. Once the matches started, everything seemed to go well with only one matched replayed due to power to the robots stopping with under a minute to play. :)
Dave

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

The scoring was apparently knocked out when the building was struck by lightening. All the staff and volunteers did a great job organizing a way to continue the regional with the system down. They all deserve a big thanks.

We were in the match that power was lost. Apparently, it was actually caused because someone slipped and hit the button to end the match... They just treated the match as if it were a tie and continued the finals on a normal schedule.

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Hmm... apparently there was a webcast! O.o
http://robotics.arc.nasa.gov/events/...s.php#webcasts

Also, again thanks to the IFI crew & congrats to 343, 1319, and 547!

And of course, thanks to our alliance partners, 832 (Oscar!) for picking us and 1648 (Grady Gearbox) for a good run in the elimination matches =)

<--newly refreshed from a 14 hour nap :] and in denial about built-up homework...

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Team 343 would like to thank 1319 for picking us! we were really excited at the opportunity to play with FLASH. and thanks to 547 for rounding out a great #1 seeded alliance to take it home!

thanks to everyone there for making this a great regional!

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Congrats to 343,1319,547 on a great competition and to 34 the 2008 Peachtree Chairman's Award winner.

A special thanks to the entire field crew that after a long delay in an attempt to repair the field electronics managed to create a work around that was reasonable and fair for all. I would also like to thank the Peachtree Regional committee and volunteers for putting on another great event. Every year this event is exactly what you would want for the student. Great competition, great people, and tons of fun.

Thank you everyone!!

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Just to clear things up a little ............

EVERYONE involved with running the field deserves props. I happened to be one of the "IFI GUYS" on Saturday. I was training under Tom Watson because I'll be representing IFI at the Bayou regional in week 5. The issue with the field really was not with the IFI Arena Controllers. It seems that the red control unit lost communication to the main field management system. IFI is responsible for the communication between the robots and the field management system, not for the field management system itself. When something like this happens, it doesn't matter who you work for or what your responsible for, everyone works together to "Get 'er done". After several attempts to replace various pieces of equipment and cables, FIRST determined that we should go to the back up plan which involved setting up dongles on each player station. Tom Watson of IFI came up with a startup sequence that was safe to the robots and the setup folks on the field, the green shirt "Safety Guys" stepped up to help us flip those dongle switches in the right sequence and at the right time, The head ref synched all of us up with that checkered flag. All in all it went amazingly well after we worked out the bumps with a couple practice runs.

2 points I want to stress .....

1. The teams involved were VERY gracious and professional. I didn't hear a single negative comment the whole time even though things were a little confusing in the beginning. Thanks to all of you!

2. I pray this doesn't happen again, especially to me when I'm in the Bayou. :D

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

tHANKS!! to Ed Sparks and Tom Watson and the rest of the field crew, officials and safety judges for getting us up and running again. After plan B was in place everything went smoothly.

It was interesting that very few of those songs that we have come to associate with our FIRST experience were played during the seeding rounds, or at least I didn't hear them. So during the delay we were treated to a FIRST dance marathon that involved ALL of those favorites plus a few more! The end result was that all the kids were too tired to complain much even if they had been inclined to. Many of the students were on the floor having a nap. Whether by design or happenstance, it was a good idea.

Re: 2008 PeachTree Regional
 

Gene here, the guy that took over for Sir Charles for the eliminations (did he know about the coming problems before grabbing me out of the pits to take over?).

I want to add to Ed's comments! I was more than extremely impressed with everyone’s patience with what was going on on the field. I too never heard one complaint about the delay. It's moments like these that keep me coming back. My hat is off to everyone that participated in the Peachtree Regional. Thank you for letting me be part of this great event!

Keep up the GP throughout your life! … and pass it on!