Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

It was a fairly strange thing to see from in the stands!

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

Very odd for this to happened! :eek:

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

I remember seeing this happen. When i was behind the driver station, I looked up to see a ball jammed in the return rack. I looked at the sight in awe, and tried to ignore it. Hehehe. That was a great match none-the-less.

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

HAHA, that would have been epic in Curie match 100 if right when most of the balls were in cycle one got stuck causing them all to stop at the bottom. :D

After watching the video it seems as though if the trident player had sent the balls down faster they could have made it over the ball and onto the field. He banged the ball return a few times, but he still let the balls gently roll down the return instead of pushing them down with speed which may have allowed them to get onto the field.

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

In one of our practice matches on Thursday morning, a ball our robot kicked ended up hanging in the chains in the goal until the end of the match. I'll see if we have pictures of that...

Noel

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

In Curie match 103, team 1540 somehow managed to tear the chains out of one of the goals. (The match was not replayed).

All in all, a very strange year for field malfunctions.

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

I'll say.

254's Onslaught was so deadly it tore the memory foam padding out of one of their goals in a quals match at Vegas. :ahh:
http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/match/2010nv_qm56

They were shown winning in real-time scoring, but TBA has them losing the match 3-0. I guess they were red-carded? I wasn't there, I was watching the webcast.

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

This would not have made a difference. The distance the ball rolls is far to long for the initial speed to make a difference. After the first balls became stuck at the end, no amount of pushing with the trident would have dislodged them.

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

Yes, there is distance from the beginning to the end, but there are balls that are given extra shoves when placed on the return, and some that don't. From watching these in the stands, balls with the extra shove move faster off the end of the return than others. If the second ball had been given enough of an extra push, I could see the first ball possibly coming out, but with no guarantees. I don't think anyone would know the exact answer as this might be the first time a ball was stuck on the end. :rolleyes:

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

a) The slow ball speeds were caused by the stuck ball slowing them down mid-way, which would have happened no matter how you pushed it. b) You can only push a ball so hard without risking pushing it off the track and incurring penalties. Trident operators were trained to be careful. c) This is all a moot point because the stuck balls were not noticed by the drive team until they had already started accumulating. He banged on the rails after two balls were already accumulated, which was beyond the point of doing anything about it. d) No way of knowing what would have been allowed or penalized in the way of banging or shaking the rails. Drive teams are trained to be careful with such things. e) Probably not fair to criticize the actions of the trident operator in a fluke situation that no one has ever faced or anticipated, and that you can't really judge without experiencing it yourself.

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

That beats our driver accidentally using the high power setting at Michigan State Championship so a guy waiting around to load the robot on the next match not watching the field got hit in the upper torso area :p

Re: pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck
 

We had that happen and West Michigan. I accidentally hit a robot into the goal and when they tried to get out the chains were tangled with them and they ripped them off. They had to disable the robot because the chains were still stuck on them. That match was not replayed either.