Re: New FTC Platform
 

This does not look good. It seems they are both stepping up the mechanical/mahcining requirements, while at the same time dumming down the software/electrical system, unless of course you have access to electrical engineers.

I will state again that I have had considerably less than satifactory experiences in FLL with NXTs. Their memory capabilities are quite low, even for FLL. I cannot imagine running an FTC/FRC style robot off of one.

Once again, they have dissed vex. I don't have access to our robot now, but I do have a similar chair, and would be very interested to see if our 4 motor, direct driven chassis can do the same. I'm betting it does so easily. Vex motors and hardware have already been proven to be able to easily lift FVC robots. What "challenges not possible in the past" are they possibly planning? Bowling balls?

Great point. When working with Vex, I feel a sense of saftey that if my fingers go somewhere bad, they will stall the motors. This kit looks like the chain incident at the Florida regional waiting to happen, if it is marketed to the same audience as FTC currently is.

I'm losing my sense of optimism with each blog post :(

Re: New FTC Platform
 

This leaves me thinking a little differently about the matter:

It seems like you're not going to have to depend on NXT sensors, unless FIRST is playing fast and loose with the definition of "terminal block".

Of course, as with everything else dealing with this platform switch, I'm withholding judgment until I see these things playing Quad Quandary in Atlanta.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

Which means, people have to start off with an NXT brain I guess. Plus an additional coprocessor.

I believe its cheaper and less costly to have just 18Fxxxx devices. Its easyC compatible too. Not to mention free samples for prototyping..

Re: New FTC Platform
 

They are going to play QQ with the new FTC kit. I will have to see this.

As I said over on the VEX forum this concerns me even more. Especially with it sounding like we are using a Stock NXT brain. I would like to see some more of the structure of these robots too.

As far as it being more dangerous, you're probably right but at the same time it can only get so dangerous. I find it really hard to hurt myself with VEX, besides the nicks to my hands etc. But I don't think you will really be able to hurt yourself with the new stuff.

As rocketperson said, I really do believe that the VEX kit is more powerful from what we have seen. Either that or the people who built the demonstration robot did not build it for pulling around chairs. If so then what did they build it for?

Re: New FTC Platform
 

I'm in total agreement here: is the point of the FTC and FRC changeover to more closely (maybe not perfectly) align the FLL/FTC/FRC controllers and sensors to make the sensor/software/control side of things more similar? That way as the kids move up from FLL they won't have to completely relearn the programming end.

This is my third year as an FRC mentor and I can attest to how intimidated FLL veterans were by the thought of programming an FRC robot. (I feel like I'm just getting a handle on it now.) Kids who wrote programs to do pretty complicated things in FLL just won't attempt programming in FRC even with similar sensors because there's so much to learn about the controller.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

Currently the jump from FLL programming to VEX isn't that big. EasyC uses blocks like Lego and is pretty self explanatory. Also with VEX you can use other programs like MpLab to progam the controller to get more of a C coding feel. It's the same with FRC so the jump from FTC to FRC with respect to coding isn't that big. It just gets a little more complicated.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

I like the idea of the three systems becoming a bit more seamless. It will be nice for the many many kids coming up from FLL to FTC. They will see parts that they are familiar with. I can't tell you how many parents can to me with questions about jumping from FLL to FTC when we did a demo at the Virginia competition at James Madison University. Growth for FIRST isn't going to come from teachers and admin asking for a team, it's going to come from parents demanding a team at the high school. If we can keep more of the students in FLL through FTC and eventually to FRC we will see exponential growth.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

ROBOTC, which is now available for NXT, Vex, and was offered free to FRC teams this season, could have been the glue that bound the 3 programs together. I am trusting that it will be usable by the new system -- if not, shame on the system.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

FIRST should take the world champion team from QQ to face their new system of robots built by the new FTC kit, and see who would win.

I'd be willing to bet, unless they play unfairly, the new FTC kit wouldn't stand a chance.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

I believe there is now enough pieces of information now to fill in a few more details on the new FTC control system. From the blog and pictures it now seams certain that an off the shelf Lego Mindstorm NTX is the base. To add more sensor, digital IO's, hobby PWM servo outputs and motor control FTC will use an expansion board from Hitechnic.http://hitechnic.com/index.html?lang...arget=d20.html
The First community has been complaining about expansion, This appears to be their answer. One channel of I2C. I don't believe more than 1 channel is available. No mention of SPI. No mention of TTL serial. The one channel may become a bottle neck given that allot will be going through it. They mention a 4 to 400 ms latency. On the software side I'll bet on labview with a plug in to be the base software platform with Carnegie-Mellon C IDE as an option for those who want more control. What I want to know is how are they going to handle the motors? Do we get current and thermal protection? Feedback? How about full protected intelligent motor-driver? This could be not bad but until they are available for testing who can say.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

Respectfully, I disagree. Growth for FIRST at the high school level is going to be in FTC, and is going to be driven by mentors and teachers with a passion for the program. Parents are, for the most part, passive participants. (Of course there is some tautology here. Once a parent becomes passionate about this, they become mentors.) I've never been in any youth program (sports, Scouts, robots, math teams, chess teams) where the parents had more than 10 or 20% involvement. It's about the volunteers and the kids.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

I'm just throwing this out here:

What if this is an elaborate prank?

Think about it:
We have very limited information on the new FTC platform, with only one gear being shown in public. We are getting details from a blog, not an official press release.

What if this is Mancherster's April Fools to all FIRSTers?

Re: New FTC Platform
 

That is highly unlikely and if it was it would kill every FTC team respect of the FTC program.

Its no joke,

Theres the new motors (or very close to them),
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.as...&CategoryID=11

and here is the metal (or something very close to it),
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.as...&CategoryID=96

All the info so far matches up. I think FIRST is pulling together parts from different companies much like FRC. That is my theory so far.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

It definitely looks like this kit is thrown together from many sources. This also has me worried, because while you may go to one place for support on one part you will have to go somewhere else for support for something else. The problem with this is that people will get confused as to where to go for support with each component making everything more complicated. Another thing is getting it all to work together correctly will probably not be as easy as with VEX.

Re: New FTC Platform
 

I think FIRST will make it work just fine. Support will be a bit of a problem but I am sure FIRST is smart and will over come this.