Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Before the season starts, we would like to take a moment and pass along a plea from practically all of the game designers, FRC leaders, lead mentors, lead team engineers, competition inspectors, referees, judges, and (most likely) your team mates.

Once it is released PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read the FRC Manual!

The Manual is packed full of important information that pretty much everyone on the team will need to know. While not everyone will need to know every chapter intimately (e.g. not everyone on the team will be involved with shipping the robot, so not all of them will need to study the "Robot Transportation" chapter), there are a few sections that all will need to know and understand. Everyone should be sure to read – and probably re-read –the "Arena," "Game," "Robot," and "Tournament" chapters.

If you do not become reasonably familiar with this material, you will have endless problems during the season. These can range from wasting your and other people’s time repeatedly asking questions that are clearly addressed in the Manual, to showing up at a competition with an illegal robot and not being allowed to compete. I can pretty much guarantee that if you get caught up in a rules violation during the season, trying to use "but I didn't read the rules, so I didn't know that" as an excuse absolutely will not work with the referees or inspectors at the competition events.

As has been mentioned so many times, a big part of FIRST is about exposing students to the standards and practices of the professional world. To do this many teams structure their operations to mimic the organization and procedures of a professional engineering project. The Manual is the "requirements document" for your project. In a professional environment, EVERYONE on a project is required to know the requirements, be conversant with the documentation, and be able to extract information from them. Those skills are critical and expected. As a member of your team, practicing those skills will be fundamental to your ability to positively contribute to the success of your team. As an entire team, this practice will be critical to your – and your alliance partners - success at the competitions.

The Manual is your friend. Read it. Know it. Use it.

-dave



-.--

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

*spys something at the end* omg - morse code

Anywho, good post. I shall share with the rest of my team.

-Tanner

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Can we have Dave's post "stickied" at the very top of the forum until about Jan 17?

Please?

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Done. And co-signed.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

or Feb 17th or so? maybe April 17th or so?

:)

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Thanks for posting this Dave and thanks for making it a Sticky Billfred.

As one of the frequent rules question responders I can definitely say that most rules questions I answer I pull right out of the manual. While I am more than happy to answer the questions, as it helps me drill the manual into my head, it would usually be easier and faster to look up the answer yourself.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I noticed the same thing, and it seems as though he's been including this little addition in a lot of his posts lately...but, Im probably thinking into it way too much...

And, this is indeed a very important post!

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling this thread might be the most linked to when build season comes along.

Instead of RTFM, we should just link this thread.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I have this as sticky note on my desktop. I'm going to blow in up a tad bit and print it out; then hang it in the meeting room. :D

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

And in some cases rules are unclear and need resolving from the GDC. Those questions should be posted in the FIRST Forums- http://forums.usfirst.org/index.php?

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

...and NOT HERE, since Chief Delphi is NOT the official forum of FIRST.

--

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

However, if you do post a reply to a question here, please quote the manual section in your reply. It saves time for everyone and keeps Dave's request to "Read the manual" upfront in everyone's mind.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Speaking of manual, I thought the encrypted manual was available for download, but I can't find it.:confused: I just don't want to try and download it on Saturday when the entire FRC community will be to.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Any time now. They will put out an email blast and I'm sure the email will be posted here minutes after it happens.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I have a couple of simple reccommendations to the team mentors reading this thread to help drive home why to read the manual to your teams:

1.) Put together a 10-15 question basic quiz for your teams to take in the first week of build. take the questions from the robot, game and arena sections of the manual primarily and give your team a pop quiz. - It will make you think about the rules more and encourage your students to read them if they are ashamed of poor performance on the quiz.

2.) Make simple lists while reading the rules as a team on day one.
Some examples:
a) How do we score points...
b) What could we be penalized for...
c) What can we do in auto mode...
d) What should the human player/robocoach/etc do during the game.

Doing things like this will help you think through the rules before asking questions and will be invaluble when forming a strategy.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

3) Please check the First website several times a week and download the Team Updates and check for document revisions. Inspectors and refs are required to know the changes and perform using the latest Team Updates and doc revisions at each event. The last robot section revision occurred as Rev K and the Team Updates went to 19 in 2009.

4) Check the Q&A every week as well.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

LINK TO MANUAL

Might help to provide a link to the manual for those who have trouble finding it.....????

http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=452

The encrypted manual is posted.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

The only thing I dislike more than piontless hints are people who don't understand or know the rules to the game each year! Thank you for making this thread. You can not stress enough how important it is to understand the game!


I love the quiz idea. We usually just talk about the game sooooooooooo much that it is burned in our minds.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

It also might be helpful to have certain sections (*Arena, Game, Robot*), printed out as a hard copy reference. That way you don't have to wait for the manual to load on the computer and then search for a certain rule. If you REALLY want to (though I do not recommend it) you can print the whole thing but I did that a few years ago for the team.... barely fit in a 3 inch binder.
I agree with Peter though; a quiz would be a very good idea.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I'm old, so I print out those sections of the manual, and keep them in my engineering notebook (a thick 3 ring binder). The fun begins when they start sending out the team updates, and the manual gets some changes....I print the updates and put them in the notebook. And occasionally print the revised manual pages.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Please be sure that if you use this method, each update gets into the book when it is released. A team who had only added Team updates through 16 was being called on an issue that was posted in update 17 at the Champs. Big OOPS.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I also like running a diff on the two files and comparing any changes....seems to help the changes sink in more than just going through the update or the revised section.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

For those, like me, who must have it on paper...:cool:

Practice good documentation control for the sections that you keep on paper. (the students will need to do this when they enter the working world anyway)

1. One member 'owns' the Master copy (if many own it, then no one owns it)
2. That owner checks for updates daily
3. When an update is released, highlight the changes and share them with the team
4. Remove and file the old section, replace it with the new section- this includes the updated index

Electronic Manual reference should be taken directly from the FIRST site.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

That's what we did when I was in charge of it. Although, we rarely used the whole manual. Really only the updates once they started because at the time, that was all we were concerned about. Ended up breaking a rule that way *I think* or were close to it.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Folks, Dave has said this better than I can. He's said it more ways than I can come up with.

One thing I haven't seen yet in this thread: Most, if not all, PDF readers have a find function, often accessed by control-F. So if you want to know if CO2 can be used, or if you HAVE to have bumpers, or any one of a number of other answers to questions you have, you might try picking a key term or two (for the examples I gave, "CO2" and "bumper" would work), plugging it into the find function, and seeing what you find.

*gets ready to put the link to Dave's post in any thread that asks questions that are answered in the Manual*

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Everyone on team 116 (student or mentor) is required to take a rules test on the robot, game, arena, and tournament sections of the manual. You have three tries to pass the test and each time you take it, the test gets progressively harder. If you don't pass within 3 tries, you're off the team. The test starts out incredibly easy and it doesn't take a whole lot to pass, but failing multiple times picks out the students that are not serious and are showing no signs of commitment early on. Students who want to be on the team are ready when they take the test. This forces students to read the manual and it saves us a lot of time when designing and building.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Bravo

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I completly agree. In fact our team made a test on the manual and made it mandatory to retake it until you pass. Only 4 (out of 20) passed. They now have to retake it until they do pass.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

The same goes for our team; you have to take the test until you pass, making it obvious who hasn't read the rules. We actually have an assigned job on the team, the "Rules Guru." Their job is to know the rules by heart, and have the official, completely updated set of the rules that people can go to if they have a question.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Put together a 10-15 question basic quiz for your teams to take in the first week of build. take the questions from the robot, game and arena sections of the manual primarily and give your team a pop quiz. - It will make you think about the rules more and encourage your students to read them if they are ashamed of poor performance on the quiz.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

No, just download the encrypted one now.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Do what Andrew said, and then you might want to take a look at Dave's post about mirroring (and the posts that follow).

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

And while this thread is here:

Please, please, please, please read the thread title and the first post.

I know it seems faster to create a CD account and ask the question here (and have it given to you in 15 minutes or so), but it's not! It's much faster to use a PDF reader's "Find" feature to do a little bit of research in the Manual. Besides the facts that a) anything said on CD is not official and b) just asking without indicating that you've looked is likely to get you hit with either a "Read the Manual" or a "Search before you post--there are 47 threads on this topic already and it's answered in the Manual" as the default responses.

And, as a more personal note: If I don't see any sign of some rules-knowledge seeker having looked in the Manual, I tend to only give the rule number and a very short summary. If someone has actually looked, or rather gives some indication thereof, I'm much more likely to quote the rule, along with the reference and my interpretation.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

kickoffkickoffkickoffkickoffkickoffkickoffkickoffk ickoffkickoffkickoffkickoffkickoff

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

is there a way we can grab the entire manual in a downloadable pdf format that is not broken into parts? If there is one I can't find the link any where.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

1) Go to the entire manual web page (same path as before).
2) Select a section of the Game Manual (any section will do).
3) Click on the heading "Game" at the right side of the page.
4) Click the "Save as PDF" link at the top right.
5) Save the PDF that pops up.

Repeat as necessary for updates.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

I have read the game, the robot, and the tournament sections. I think thats a good start. :D

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

With the new season upon us yet again, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of this thread.

Please, please, please, read the 2013 FRC Game Manual before you come on here and create new threads! No one likes having several pages of new threads all asking the same basic questions that can be answered by the simply reading the game manual.

I would also like to remind everyone of FIRST's stance on mirroring the game manual documents - posts and threads that contain links to the mirrored manual will be deleted.

With that said, good luck in 2013!

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Bump for truth.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Bump for the CDers who still aren't reading the manual.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

After going through this year's build season and getting to competition, its actually astounding that there are teams that probably didn't read the manual at all. Hopefully everyone learns this lesson and does a little reading come next January.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Pranav,
I can tell you that maybe one team at each regional came in with a robot sized for last year. Midwest had three, they were sure dimensions would never change so they just skipped over that part.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

Besides Reading The FIRST Manual (RTFM) please read the Updates BEFORE you ask any questions.
I've seen several Q&A questions that the GDC refers to an update that was posted before the question was asked.

Re: Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!
 

^ Don't feed the troll. Just carry on and ignore it.