Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*
 

Bump.

Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*
 

Alex,

We have a video of the awards ceremony that we took from the upper seats in the arena. It is not the FIRST video feed because they wouldn't let us hook into their system as we requested. Let me know if you'd like a copy of it and we'll find a way to transfer it to you. Contact me directly at matt.wilbur@menchvillerobotics.org.

Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*
 

Here's an exciting tidbit. We bought some Mecanum wheels to play with two days ago:) were looking to have some bases built to be prepared for next year. Do you guys know of your own teams pre-building bases? And another thing I found last night were 4, 2 speed CIM transmissions know if these are pretty useful? I seem to remember 343 having 2 speed transmissions on their tanktreads during breakaway.

Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*
 

I guess a lot of teams do the pre season build. I was part of 343 for the past 4 years, and the only time I think they prepared for that was for Rack & Roll back in 2007. The base was drawn up, and after the kick-off they put it together pretty quickly. This past summer I (part of 343) was prototyping a swerve module, but after I left, I guess they went a different route for this year.
The 2 speed transmissions are definately worth keeping. They cost too much to get rid of. We had them last year and they were good for pushing if needed. The key is getting the drivers time to feel good about using them, otherwise it's wasted weight.

Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*
 

Many teams do some pre-season prototyping--just be mindful of next season's rules when going back to what you've already built either for design or for grabbing parts. Testing a mecanum drive before using it in competition will be especially helpful, either for driving practice or for realizing it's absolutely not for you! (It does take a certain style of driving--1293 used mecanums in 2008 and swore them off almost immediately.) The two-speeds (AndyMark shifters, I assume) are quite valuable (about $330 a pop); if you don't use them yourself, you can probably trade with another team for something of pretty good value.

If you feel like putting them to the test, throw some bumpers on 'em and bring it to SCRIW this fall. Nothing like the heat of competition to see where something works....and while we're looking to give it that big-time feel, I know the stakes are much lower at SCRIW compared to Palmetto :)

Re: 2011 Palmetto Reigional *New Location*
 

What Billfred said (about prototypes used in season).

We build a drivetrain every year for practice (in building drivetrains that is). Sometimes it's helpful during build, sometimes not. I'd like to build some coaxial swerve modules and figure out the programming some day - obviously a team would have to figure this out well before build season, unless they are masochists.