2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Since no one has started the thread I guess it comes down to me to JUST DO IT.

Who's coming and what do you bring to the BMR :)

Team 1501 (T.H.R.U.S.T.) will be there with another awesome, riveted robot IMHO :D

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Team 1018 will be at the BMR.

we'll bring the spirit and the helmets:cool:

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

1529 will have at least three wheels on its drivebase at BMR.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

45 will bring the Cheez Wiz.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

292 will be there and we will be bringing a very young, spirited team. :yikes:

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

team 2197 will be there with hopefully an awesome bot. and a very energetic team

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

It's going to be a very small regional with only six teams there ;)

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

You know there will be goats in the barn.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

2081 Will be there! maybe cyber blue wont break again eh thrust?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

1646 will coming speeding into the armory!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I volunteered to be a Robot Inspector again this year :ahh:
I can't be bought but I can be rented :D

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

What are your rates? Do you accept post-dated checks?
Call me - we'll discuss details. ;)

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

461 will be there. we'll bring the invasion force :P

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

868 will be there too.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

2783 is looking forward to our rookie year at Boilermaker! See y'all there!

-Mike

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I will be making a complete DVD of the house feed. Plans are being made to make copies for anyone wanting copies at the event with a DVD duplicator.

If you are interested in a DVD copy, plan to bring 4 blank DVDs and be sure to let me know.

There will be a Friday morning, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon DVD made. I will be using DVD+ disks.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Cyber Blue is there!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Team 1760 Robo-Titans will be at the Boilermaker.

It is our only event, so we give it all we have.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Where is every one staying?
We are still negotiating with two hotels on rates.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Our team is looking for a ride from our hotel, which is the Hilton at the Levee Plaza, on Friday to and from the contest. Any takers? We have about 30 team members.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I know that I will be staying in my bed at home for BMR :D

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

For those of you who love the team social (I know I do), last I heard, the Co-rec (place where dodgeball and basketball have been), will not be included with the team social this year. I'm at about 98% sure that it won't happen. There will still be a dinner after competition on Friday, the time will also be good for high school students to ask Purdue students about their experiences at Purdue.

A side note about the social stuff, there is tons of green space behind the co-rec where "pick up" games could take place at possibly. If not, there are plenty of areas where activities can be organized.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

We're bummed about the lack of social (though we understand the reasoning behind it), but we'll come well-prepared with frisbees & footballs, and I imagine more than a few of the students will bring their Magic cards. Who says you can't make your own fun?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

There is a dorm across from the intramural fields (just happens to be my dorm) that magic can happen in probably (since it's spring break and nobody will be here).

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Team 2197 will be bringing the game, we'll let you guys keep it, but we expect a championship in return.

Oh, we might have binary buttons too.

100010010101

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Go 10111011101!!! See u guys at BMR!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Since we are eating in Ford we could move a few pickup games into the quad, plenty of open area there.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

And Team 100010010101 will gladly meet Team 10111011101 there!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

And team 000000101101 will gladly meet team 100010010101 there!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Wildstang will be there with tie dye on. I will also be inspecting robots, so please be ready with all the latest software loaded, and your gaming adapter wired to the dedicated PD output not a 20 amp breaker.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

OK, Eric. Your team's number clearly has the most leading zeroes in its binary representation. But Kil-A-Bytes 010000000000 have the most trailing zeroes, and the most zeroes overall.

Q: Which BMR team's binary representation has the most ones? Which has the most consecutive ones?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

2783 (0000101011011111)

2040 (0000011111111000)

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Here is the total list in case anyone else wants to know their teams binary representation.

45 0000000000101101
111 0000000001101111
135 0000000010000111
234 0000000011101010
292 0000000100100100
393 0000000110001001
447 0000000110111111
451 0000000111000011
461 0000000111001101
554 0000001000101010
829 0000001100111101
868 0000001101100100
1000 0000001111101000
1018 0000001111111010
1024 0000010000000000
1327 0000010100101111
1501 0000010111011101
1529 0000010111111001
1555 0000011000010011
1646 0000011001101110
1720 0000011010111000
1741 0000011011001101
1747 0000011011010011
1760 0000011011100000
2040 0000011111111000
2081 0000100000100001
2171 0000100001111011
2197 0000100010010101
2360 0000100100111000
2368 0000100101000000
2749 0000101010111101
2783 0000101011011111
2856 0000101100101000
2867 0000101100110011
2909 0000101101011101

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

There was a day, not too long ago, when every team had to know its own binary number. It was set on the driver station.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

No matter how you spell it 111 still has a lot of ones.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

hey baker, this implies that 234 is 1 up on 45 ....

you gonna take that?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

man, 1024 Kil-a-Bytes had it easy (10000000000)

...so does 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048 (idk if all those teams exist)
they all have only 1 "1" in their Binary numbers

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Team 135 will be bringing their winning robot, 2009 Midwest Regional Runners up!!!


Also we will be bringing a younger team that ever before. Previously our team has been solely seniors, this year we will have juniors and seniors, with a junior driving the bot!

Cannot wait to get to the regional and see all of my fellow Indiana teams as well as the visitors from other states!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Hey, that's my line! :ahh:

I was going to say our team has the least number of ones because it's a straight power of 2... but, well looks like you have to be quick around here.

As far as which exist, I know 1 exists (Jugg-A-Pult last year), 4 is team Element that's for sure, 16 is of course Bomb Squad, 256 I've heard of, then we'll skip to 1024 which I hear is rumored to exist... :rolleyes:

See you all at BMR. I won't be able to make it any day but Saturday, but I'll be there!

-q

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

For some reason i was counting the powers of two and the exact words that went through my head were "OMG Kil-a-Bytes" and I ran to my computer and posted...

PS. 1501 will "bring the ding"

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Here's another reason to attend Boilermaker.
Team 1501 (my team :) ) will be having their annual Count-theRivets contest. If you can guess how many rivets were used on Skyhawk, without going over, you will win a 1 gig iPod Shuffle donated by Elston Enterprises.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Only 3 days and 5 hours left! :yikes: It's gonna be fun!

See ya there everybody!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

yes... 1024 be coming to BMR this year, and for those of you wondering what we're going to change this time.... well... you'll just have to wait and find out :D

See everybody there!!!!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I just wanted to remind everyone about the parking situation...there should be plenty of parking in the garage caddy-corner from the Armory, but there are a few places you *shouldn't* park, particularly those not marked for an "A" pass (not having an "A" pass will be okay for the regional).

More details are available here:

• Parking Information
• Team Pit Equipment Load-in and Load-out

Also, unique to the Boilermaker Regional are several campus tours. This is a great opportunity to see the Purdue campus, as well as the nuclear reactor, nanotechnology, aeronautical labs, nanotechnology, computer-integrated manufacturing and more. Be sure to check this out!

• Enrichment Activities

I think that's it...be sure to check out the website for more details. See you Thursday!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Are there any plans to webcast the Boilmaker Regional this year?

It looks to be a very strong set of competitors this year and since the number of teams attending is small, we should see some great matchups.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Cold front moving through tonight, lots of rain and a few storms. Once it gets through we will have nice sunny sky's for the rest of the weekend.

Almost perfect weather, just a little chilly with highs in the high 40's to low 50's. Bring a light jacket or hoodie and enjoy a nice Indiana weekend.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Hey!

This is our team's rookie year and first competition, so we're excited to get there! It sounds like it's going to be fun!

~2867

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I should be ok, dressed in layers. :)

AB

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

You could make a habit out of it.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Indiana weather changes so fast that people have died, from heat exhaution, trying to shed extra layers quickly enough :D

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

so excited i cant sleep!:D See you al there.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Hopefully, I'll keep you posted.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

http://regional.purduefirst.org/index.php?page=webcast

Thats all I found and its a dead link. Hope they fix it soon.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I'm sure Greg is working on it :] There shouldn't be any problems, we always manage to get it up and running at some point on Thursday.

Can't wait to see all the teams tomorrow and Saturday, Boiler Up!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Indeed :]

Information on the Boilermaker Regional webcast is available here. Let me know how it looks...you might need the latest version of Windows Media Player (11).

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Looks great! I have been watching for about 90 minutes now.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Good luck to all this weekend! 1038 will have a small scout crew there on Saturday to check out the action at our near and dearly missed Boilermaker.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Feel free to stop by the 1747 pit :) we'd be glad to see you guys again!!!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it, but our on the field coach and drive team will be there along with one of our CAD students.

Good Luck! I'll be watching.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Woo 1038 FTW!!! :D

-q

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I wonder if the field crew found their little golden memento from the Pitt. field crew yet?

Good luck teams!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

BMR just lost all power! 2 seconds after a match ended the whole venue went dead.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Oops! :ahh:

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Apparently we blew a 400 amp (!) breaker.. Power's back but now they're trying to get the field going again. Seems like FMS might be having issues. I'm surprised they don't have a UPS on that.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

They can't get the scoring system running again so we're done with matches for the day.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

So, I've been watching this thing on webcast for the last 45 minutes... why'd they have to Rick Roll us at the end?
Oh well. I'm coming up to watch tomorrow though. Should be fun.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I have been watching on and off for most of today and just came back to see what was going on ......thanks for the info! Tomorrow should be a fun one to watch! Good Luck all!:D

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

That happened during our match!
Now we get to try again. We sat in the drivers station for the better part of a half hour.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

What was the last thing heard before the power outage?
-
-
-
-
Dude, what does this switch do?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

A_Reed, yes we found the memento you left us, it actually came in handy this morning when we had a small water spill on the announcer table.

As far as the power outage, yes we blew a 400amp breaker and during the restart process we had some minor communication issues between the FMS software and some field elements. Of course as soon as we sent the teams over to the awards ceremony next door we got it back up and running.

Looking to still finish within a half hour of where we should finish today, watch and learn how fast matches can be run.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Hmm, disrespecting the towel + power outage...must be the Cope curse. Cincinnati, Tennessee and Arizona have learned of it's power, will you?

Just kidding, how many matches behind are you guys anyways? Good luck catching up!

(p.s. I only put my name on it, the other guys at the table thought it was a sign of good will and peace!...lol)

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Talk about an upset, whoa
congrats to 1024, 868, 292

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

When you score a SC on your own alliance it has a tendency to sway a match..

congrats to all teams in the finals, those were some great matches.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

the fact they were close enough for the supercell to make the jump still speaks for their alliance

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Congratulations to teams 868, 1024, and 292. Great matches, looking forward to seeing you in Atlanta. Thanks to our alliance partners 45 and 234 for the great alliance, hope you all get to Einstein.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Those were some amazing matches today.

To me though, the number one surprise team for this was team 1000. When I first saw it, I didn't know what to think. It just seemed too simple to be effective. However, they did manage to be one of the least scored on teams and a reliable empty cell herder. Not to mention they could push with the best of them. I never could figure out though, what was their secret? Was it the fact that their weight was so low? Was it just that their driver was awesome at dodging? Anyone know if there was a secret or what it was?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

PantherTech would love to thank our alliance partners 868 for picking us and 1024 for also working with us! Man was that a fun alliance to watch and be apart of. Can't wait to see you guys in Atlanta.

We would also like to congratulate 234, 45, and 461 for three awesome matches. You all have very effective robots.

Thanks to the Regional committee members for putting on the regional, as always the team had a blast and enjoyed participating in an event close to home.

Also a shout out to 451 Cat Attack for cheering with us during the elimination rounds. Thanks you guys! I cheered with you a couple of years ago when you won the West Michigan Regional, and I guess things circle back!

Congrats all teams! We'll see you at the Championships!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

First I wanted to say thanks to all for everything! I had a blast.
With that said, the TechnoKats were haging out in the parking lot for almost an hour after the awards, and we noticed a laptop case with a corporate laptop, a purse, and a hoodie left in the parking lot. If this is yours, I dono the contact process, but we submitted it to the regional lost and found.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I can honestly say "I never expected that to happen".

I was in awe that 1024 was picked since their rank was extremely low, but they got everything fixed and when game time came they showed everyone what they can do and how well they can do it. (ps that means they got their A-game going!)

BMR was full of upsets including the 8th alliance defeating the 1st alliance, and the 4th alliance beating the 2nd alliance. It was a very unpredictable turnout!

Congrats to the winning alliance, and good luck in Atlanta! Show them that Indianas got game!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

From 2867,

I'll say that it was an awesome rookie year experience! It was really cool to work with the teams there, and some of the stats that other teams kept up were amazing. One team even predicted fairly accurately how much we would win by....

The brackets were fun to watch, and the final matches were the most exciting.

Good job to everyone who was there, and thanks for making it a great end to our season. Looking forward to next year!!!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

God, great regional.
We were dissappointed since this was our only competition this year, first time that 2081 hasn't qualified for nationals :(. We were hoping to get the engineering inspiration award again but w/e. 2081 is going to be a powerhouse soon, when they were talking about the "team of only a few years that seems to be established as the rest of them" while regarding the chairman's I'm pretty sure they were talking about us. I expect a chairman's award in our near future.
Good job to 135 1000 and 829! as well as the Winners

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

This is a great year for Indiana teams. With teams on the winning alliances at Buckeye (1747), DC (45, 234) Boilermaker (868, 292, 1024), St. Louis (71) as well as the Finalists at Buckeye (868, 1018), Midwest (135), and Boilermaker (45, 234, 461) among other great competitors, I think Indiana ought to give some teams up north *cough* *Michigan* *cough* a run for their money (yes I'm aware of the repeats and I may have missed a couple).

Also keep in mind that the seeding system is not perfect. I was actually surprised that 1024 was not picked earlier. Despite their ranking by seed, their performance was actually pretty good. However, the upsets in the eliminations were quite epic (even though I was on the uhhh... more undesirable side of one of them). Hope everybody's gearing up for the Championship, because I'm looking forward to seeing Indiana teams in Einstein.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Congratulations to 868, 292 and 1024 for the Regional Win.

Congratulations to 45 for the Regional Chairmans.

Congratulations to all of the award winners - the judges made great choices!

Thank you to the Planning committee and all of the staff and volunteers for another awesome Boilermaker Regional.

And, thank you to all of the teams that made this such a great, competitive event. What an awesome 2 days of matches!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

thank you everyone for a great final regional of my final year (as a student:D )
a big thanks to 1747 2360 and 554 for every thing.

also congrats to my boys at 868 great job you guys earned it.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

How are you going to forget 829?! Lol.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Wow, what a Saturday. I laughed, I cried, I kissed three bucks goodbye. :]

I'm really glad to see my team finally getting the robot dialed in. It always looked like it had the potential to score but just had a few missing touches. Congratulations to all the team members and mentors that made this possible!

1501: Never got to ask what was up with the shooter, but you guys stay classy. I've never seen such an aura about a robot before... beautiful piece of work.

868: Thanks for making the pick, and 292 thanks for being a great alliance partner. I'm glad we could work together and win it. Wooo!

45: Awesome outfits. Jake, Elwood AND Mother Superior? Genius! There should be an award for great team themes. Sweet robot too, loved the 600w fan, very cool.

111: I can't get enough of watching your crab drive. It's about as smooth running as your drive team.

234: You've got one rapid fire machine there. Definitely a force to be reckoned with in Atlanta.

Great job teams for making this a FANTASTIC weekend for all in attendance.

Woo! :D

-q

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

my bad mills:ahh: also 829 for making it even more fun for us:cool:

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Who won the Technology award? The listed team didn't attend the regional. Also, 1501 won Imagery, correct? (Listed team--1510--wasn't there.)

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Congrats to 868, 292, and 1024 for winning the event.

Congrats to 45 for the Chairman's Award.

Thanks to 461, 829, 868, 1646, and 1741 for scouting with us at Boilermaker--it was a great help to have the best scouts of so many teams compiling data.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Thank you 868 & 292 for picking us to be your 3rd alliance member. A special thanks out to the coaches, drivers, operators, and human players for working so effectively together.

Congratulations to all of the teams that made the elimination rounds for all of the well played and exciting matches. Thank you to 45, 234, and 461 for some of the most exciting matches of the event in the finals. By the way, you three make for one tough alliance.

To all of the teams at the event, nice job on designing and building your robots.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

i would like to thank 868 for picking such a low sead team (us)... obviously our record said we weren't quite up to par but i believe we showed what FIRST is all about.. this game cannot be won by any one team, it takes lots of teamwork, perseverance, and confidence to win anything in the FIRST community....

again.. thanks you 868 and 292 for the awesome alliance partners.. we'll cya in A-TOWN

i would also like to congratulate 829(DIGITAL GOATS!!) on their gracious professional award.. i don't think there was anybody more deserving.. in case anybody wants to know how close the goats and Kil-a-Bytes are... we had two matches where we played against each other and everytime we we both joking and laughing with the other team about 'dumping on them'.. so yes.. Goats.. you guys rock! cya at IRI!!

and the Kil-a-Bytes will see everybody who's going in Atlanta!!!

P.S.- for those who were wondering what we changed at Purdue.. we changed drivers and we perfected our traction.

P.S.S- and for those who are keeping track of us.. we've changed something on our robot every regional.. and yes.. there will be yet another change for Atlanta :D CYA THERE!!!

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

What a great weekend, another fantastic regional put on by the BMR planning committee and the best crew in the business. Every regional should be run and officiated like this weekend.

Big congrats to winning alliance 868, 292, and 1024. Only way I could have been happier is if we won. Also congrats to the runners 45, 234 and 461. You guys were an amazing alliance, sorry I rooted against you guys but I had to root for the Indy teams and our old friends from Russiaville.

461, you guys are so deserving of a win. Thanks for letting us scout with you. I promise you will be on the top of my rooting list from now on until you get that win.

Congrats to 1529 for your first ever elimination appearance. The first of many to come.

1018, what a fantastic year for our old friends from the NW side. I love playing with you guys.

Congrats to the girls from 2360 for being an alliance captain for the first time and a great job picking your alliance partners. Few veterans could have picked so well.

Congrats to 45 on the Chairman's Award. It's well deserved. I know we wouldn't be the team we are without all of you help through the years.

Congrats to Ben for winning the Purdue scholarship.

Thanks to 1000 for picking us. When I first saw your robot I wasn't impressed but when you ran away from us like a scalded dog in practice my jaw dropped. Well done. And also a big thanks to 135 for being a great alliance partner. We came so close to being in the finals.

111 please come back to BMR every year, you guys raise the level of competition and make us all work harder.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Thanks, Qbranch. During practice day, I discovered that the camera just couldn't keep up with the really fast robots, possibly because it was lower on the bot than others. Therefore most shots after that were manually controlled (by me). Also, our robot handles the game pieces slowly, which made us an ineffectual scorer. So instead, we adapted and used strategies that our robot was not designed to do to win matches, making the most of the scorers on the alliance and helping them to score big. Although this got us far, there was some amazing robots out there competing against us and even though we lost to them, we lost because they were better and not because we didn't try our hardest.

So thanks to all the teams that we played with, and also to the teams we competed against, for making it a great competition.

Yes we did. That was one of the great takeaways from BMR, winning two awards, the imagery award and the safety award.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

I gotta say gratz to the driver from killabytes. I dont remember his name but talk about best regional ever... (he won the regional AND the 15,000$ purdue scholarship!)

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

so what was the highlight of the event?

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

As a visitor on Saturday, there were a few bright spots. It was great to see so many of our IN friends who competed at Buckeye. I especially enjoyed watching 1747 (our Alliance Captain at Buckeye) team up with 1018 (the Alliance Captain of the Buckeye finalists). While it was unfortunate for 2360, it was even sweeter when our sister team from Kentucky, 554, was called in to play. Then, the three went on to win two matches against a very good number one alliance and advance.

I was also impressed with the strategy executed by 868, 292 and 1024 as they won the second Finals match and extended it to the rubber match. 45, 234 and 461 played great all trough the eliminations. Quite a finale.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Congratulations to 868, 292 and 1024 for winning the regional. Talk about a heck of a finale.

Also congrats to 234, 45, and 461 for playing some really great elimination matches.

45, you guys deserve the Chairman's Award so much. We were all ecstatic and will be pulling for you in Atlanta.

Thanks to 1741 and 2081 for picking us for the elimination rounds. I think Boilermaker showed just how relevant defense can be in this game.

I'd like to personally thank all the current and past Purdue FIRST members who came to this regional. It was a very special ten year anniversary weekend and shows exactly how your experiences in FIRST can continue at the college level. As was said during the awards ceremony, Purdue FIRST alone has impacted over 20,000 people since its inception.

It's a very rare thing found here in Indiana and I hope all of the students attending the regional look into Purdue University as an option for college after high school.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

Thanks dan. Yeah that was by far one of the best weekends of my life. I will definitely remember it for many years to come. I owe everything to my coaches, mentors, and teammates. Roboitcs has been pretty much the biggest part of my life throughout HS.

After the teams great success last season we had alot to prove this year. It wasnt as perfect as i had envisioned it at the first two regionals and even during qualifications at BMR but that all changed during what were by far the most exciting elimination matches i have ever expirenced. Im glad that we could pull out the win and qualify for Atlanta. What a way to go out as a senior.

Thanks to teams 45, 234, and 461 you guys were an amazing alliance and serious force to be reckoned with. You all have great robots and i cant wait to see all of you in Atlanta.

To teams 868 and 292. Thanks for letting us join you guys. It was seriously an amazing expirence for my team and for myself personally. I hope both of you are going to atlanta, i cant wait to see you guys again.

Finally to all of the other teams that attended BMR, and all of the volenteers and judges thanks for making it such an amazing experience. I can imagine all the hard work and dedication that it must have taken to pull of a regional like this and i cant wait untill next year when i can help in putting on this fantastic event.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

One thing to note: 234 and 45 had many very tough matches to even get to the finals. Despite them being the teams that everyone was watching, they had many worthy adversaries. Also, I'm glad that 45 got their fan working. I heard that they were having troubles with it on practice day and it would have been disappointing had they not got it working.

Re: 2009 Boilermaker Regional
 

We never did figure out what was going on with that.

In several early matches, the robot took off and went forward at full speed with the propeller running for the entire autonomous period -- but the code doesn't have an option to do that! Then, for the rest of the match, everything worked except the propeller. After it had happened several times, the drive team brought the robot back to the pit with it still powered on, to see if we could do some diagnostics and figure out the cause of the problem. We did determine that the propeller safety sensor was working electrically but the software was reporting it always active, even when it was physically disconnected from the Digital Sidecar, but that didn't explain the incorrect autonomous mode. After a remote reboot of the robot controller from the Driver Station, all was normal, so we are confident it wasn't a hardware issue.

The stuck safety sensor lights a specific LED on our operator console, so it was possible for the drive team to watch for it and reset the robot before the start of a match (though it might have delayed things a little). Fortunately, it never seemed to happen again.