Practice field at regionals??
 

okay- so I thought maybe, this should go in the regional discussion forum, but I was'nt sure:confused:

anyways.....

I couldent find anything saying otherwise....but, does anyone know weather or not their is going to be a small practice field(like maybe 6-8 sheets or something)like previous years somewhere at the regionals( never saw this brought up so I figured I should
ask:confused:)


generally speaking for all the regionals.......

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

There's one at BAE.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

There was a full field at DC. I don't know why there wouldn't be at all of them. What regional are you at?

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

There is a very small one at Buckeye. Probably about 25% of the full crater.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

florida(UCF) all we had last year was the overpass in the middle of like 40 feet of carpet(outside)

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

I think DC is using Goddard Space Flight Center's/Robot Alliance Project's field.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

BAE has a field under the stands with about 15-20 sheets, never bothered to count, in an odd configuration but it is enough to have sufficient practice space. They had two official trailers with vision targets, but we are required to bring our own balls to practice with so be prepared.

Also MAYHEM has 6 4x8 sheets to practice with and it is considerably small so i do not believe that all/most of the practice fields will be that small.

But you never know, this is LUNACY!!:)

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

There will be half a field at Vegas, along with an "air lock" / corner piece.

-Keaton

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

We have a nice practice field in NJ by the machine shop, don't know what condition it's in today but it looked nice yesterday :P

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

At midwest there is small amount of regolith and a fueling station

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

Most regionals do not have the space for a full practice field.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

Thats pretty much what they have at NJ. It's probably about a 10'x20' piece of "Regolith", a Fueling Station and an Outpost thingy.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

Proably the more important question would be if the Regional will have a Wifi setup on the practice field.

At BAE early yesterday, there was no Wifi on the practice field, and we had to wrangle around a large length of CAT5, that we had fortunately thought to bring. Other teams weren't so lucky, and had to beg and borrow.

So today we were surprised when we showed up at the practice field again, to find they were conveniently providing a wireless router and game adapter (that you just swapped out on your robot. Made it much nicer for practice.

I imagine that at later regionals this will more likely be the standard practice, unless perhaps the practice field is relative close to the real playing field. There is still some concern about Wifi interference, and today at competition it almost became a mantra to:
1. Keep your robot off at all times while in queuing and while taking the field.
2. Power up your driver station and make sure you have the field connection, and..
3. Then, and only then, power up your robot.

There seem to still be some issues with interference from additional powered robots in the field vicinity.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

DC is tether only everywhere but the field.

When you go back to the field, make sure that the game adapter is properly connected via ethernet to the cRIO. We had dozens of teams that we had to connect the radio for them after they put it on the field and left it.

Wetzel

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

And just to make sure teams obide by the tether only rule, Teams caught not using the tether will be subject to FTA discipline which could be almost anything. Like in the past when IFI was around, NI Technology allows the FTA(A) to monitor all signals being sent / recieved from ANY wifi device.

In short, I know its inconveient for teams who want to test wirelessly but it's alot safer and alot better for everyone to use the provided tether wherever they are except on the field.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

referring to Florida(UCF) last year they were forced to put everything in the main arena. This year, i believe, the pits should be in the old arena, with the playing field in the new arena. I would imagine they would be able to find a place in one or the other to fit even half a field. They are wanting to eventually have 2 fields with about 80 teams so seeing as there are only 53 this year there will be extra room.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

You are correct, but in this instance they were having field troubles / space and communications problems... You can read it on the first forums... So in this case they were given permission. Usually though, I wouldn't try this.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

At NJ yesterday our team was having strange problems with the FMS (Field Management System) and the FTA and NI Guy let us remove the encryption from our Gaming Adapter on the Robot to test wirelessly on the practice field.

Re: Practice field at regionals??
 

Kansas City had portions of three practice fields. Most of the practice materials were loaned by teams/schools that had purchased the "Regolith".

Used by teams and spectators alike. Moonrocks were flying everywhere.

We were also a tether everywhere except the actual field.