EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

This evening members of the East West Collaboration Group, (or EWCP for short) recorded a podcast discussing this year's championship event over a Skype conference call. Topics touched on include dome layout, individual division predictions, Chairman's predictions and other various topics. We were as impartial as we could be when we spoke about teams that are part of our collaboration group. We were also as objective as possible when speaking of other teams in general. This was not a live broadcast, it was simply recorded from our conference call. The small but opinionated panel included;

Akash Rastogi (FRC 3553, 11 alumnus)
Andrew Schreiber (FRC 27 alumnus)
Dustin Benedict (FRC 816)
Chris Picone (FRC 2791, 1714 alumnus)
James Tonthat (FRC 1477)
Nick Lawrence (FRC 1503)

We hope you enjoy. Here is the link: http://www.schreiaj.com/Brocast/2011...Discussion.mp3

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Pretty solid guys and Dustin's "bro-ness" still ceases to amaze me though.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

We decided to do this because we were having a lot of discussions about it and figured some other people might be interested in hearing them. I guess I need to give a heads up, there is a bit of coarse language and a lot of sarcasm but I think we tried to do our best to be objective and honest about the teams we mentioned.

If anyone has suggestions for software for doing this let us know. We just talked over Skype and Chris recorded it with [SOMETHING] and I think it turned out ok. I'm also looking for a better host. My webserver works ok but I know there are dedicated places for hosting mp3 files that do a lot more than just provide space.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

haha. great discussion guys. i would have loved to listen to your design
discussions.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

We'll be doing these in the offseason on different topics anyway, but if you guys actually like what we discuss we'll continue to record our discussions and toss them up online. Let us know what you think. Probably a Championship reflection discussion as well.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Made it through, you guys talk alot. Props for giving an honest and in depth assesment of who to look out for in each division. I'd be up for hearing you debate in the offseason on robot design related stuff.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Any way to download this? I'm thinking this would be a great soundtrack for my non-stop flight tomorrow morning!

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Pretty sure you can right-click and "save as" and it should download as an MP3.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Right-click save target as.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Gotta say, this was tons of fun. Look for more of these in the future.

-Nick

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Thanks, my computer can be a pain most of the time and it wasn't allowing me to download it or right click on the link and Norton wouldn't let me open it as it thought it was a virus.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I'm pretty sure it isn't unless Chris is playing a big prank on us all...

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I recorded the call with Call Graph, a really simple piece of software that records Skype calls. It mixes half the call into the left channel and half of the call into the right channel, so that you can do some editing later on. For this cast all I did was convert it to mono and upload it, but in the future I'd be willing to do some more extensive post production.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

No I'm pretty sure it is my computer! :rolleyes:

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

We are planning on recording a Day 1 recap while in St Louis sometime on Thursday night. Check here for that link.

Topics may include:

• Epic Matches
• Epic Meltdowns
• Dome Impressions

If there is interest I will attempt to put this into iTunes if that would make it easier for people.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Get in touch with me - it's pretty simple to make an XML file that iTunes will accept.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Great job guys. I really like the diversity you guys have. It helps to cover as many teams as possible with good information around the nation. Keep it up and I hope you guys do more. It was great to hear everyone's thoughts about the different teams and divisions. (and the field layout this year. lol)

And thanks to James for representing Texas!! :)

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

We lacked some information from the west coast because RC (1323) is a lazy bum and never logs on.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I have to say, I'm impressed with the depth of the field that you're talking about in this podcast. You offer insightful comments that scouters and drive teams can use at the Championship, and it'll be interesting to see what predictions come true this weekend. I think the level of knowledge that you bring to the table is significant, and I look forward to seeing what discussions you have next.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

You can now follow us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/RoBro...319846?sk=wall

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Hey guys, since I'll be somewhat team-less at the Championship, I'm hoping to keep all of those who are unable to go informed about what's going on. I'll be uploading videos throughout the day on the RoBroChat facebook page - if anyone's got any specific requests for a certain robot or match, feel free to comment on the page and I'll try my best to get it.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Id like to request 1114, 111, 525, 217, 1625, and 2056 to name a couple.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Robrocast? Someone deserves a reward for this name.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I am kind of curious about the concern teams have with amount of time allotted for calibrating on the fields.

While it is never explicitly stated what teams will be allowed to do I don't think expecting to run autonomous as you guys discussed is realistic. Bill's post allots time for teams to "Calibrate their sensors"; calibrating sensors would not include adjusting distances for dead reckoning. Calibrating sensors seems to suggest that teams that need to adjust settings or thresholds for line following or vision would be able to adjust them a competition equivalent lighting environment. I see the need for teams using vision and FIRST implemented a similar system in at least 2006 and 2007 and it worked fine. I don't see the need for line following robots as the color differences are obvious enough that loose thresholds should account for lighting variations, I guess teams may use the sensors in a way I wouldn't expect but my assumption is that it would be the exception, not the rule.

While there are 160 teams that could potentially need to calibrate on each pair of fields I would venture a guess that less than 10% of them have sensors that actually need to be calibrated.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

James I would agree to a certain extent about the calibration of sensors, but still, 45 minutes doesn't seem like very much time for teams to calibrate their sensors for both fields. That might just be our thinking though. Hope you liked the discussion.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I know many teams who have had issues with light sensors this year and the calibration values needed to get them to run properly event to event.

Also, calibrating distance values isn't necessarily for dead reckoning teams. Most teams use some sort of encoder in their drive system that allows them to drive a given distance. For placing these tubes and lining up, a couple inches can make a huge difference (compounded when you try to score 2, or even 3 ubertubes ;) ). Field to field variations have tripped up our autonomous and I know this is the case for other teams as well.

Flat out running autonomous modes would be impossible. However, I include in my definition of calibrating sensors, drive encoders and the like. That would entail measuring field dimensions etc., which is STRICTLY disallowed at every competition I have been to. I'd be interested to see if they allow teams to measure the fields during this calibration period.

-Brando

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Just wanted to clear something up about the name RoBroCast, a few people commented on it in messages to us.

The name isn't supposed to imply that no women will be involved with the discussions, it was really just a name we tossed up because its a fun name and because we're college kids with fratty discussions sometimes :p

If you would like to participate in future discussions or have suggestions for future topics, drop us a message on the facebook page. A couple people already have.

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!...10990662319846

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I just wanted to touch on this, we are working on making it more open to other people. For our next RoBroCast we brought in Richard Sisk to help fill the lack of knowledge from the west coast as well as bring the perspective of an inspector. We are doing our best to provide original content of as high quality as we can do. If there is interest in participating let us know and what you feel you would contribute (via the FB page is probably the best way) and we'll see what we can do to accommodate that.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

I approve!

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Thanks for that, it was way cool to be invited to be a part of the fun. Hanging out with the WiredCats, Dustin, Andrew, and Nick last night to record the podcast was a blast and I'm looking forward to doing it again. The topics were interesting and the discussion was lively.

Be sure to give last nights episode a listen and stay tuned for more.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Rich, you're more than welcome to "bro" with us anytime. It was a pleasure having you in the cast, even though it seems that we weren't able to post it. Thanks again for all you've done for me throughout the weekend.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Yeah, about posting it. I had some pretty bad issues with converting it to mp3 (it got all squeaky) as well as no internet access. If there is interest I will tinker with it but at 2am Friday morning I just passed out.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Give it to me and I'll make it work.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

Any plans for a post championship wrap-up RoBroCast?

You guys are really fun to listen to. Keep it up. I think you can really develop a following: insightful, informative, a lot of depth, and fun to listen to.

Re: EWCP RoBroChat Pre-Championship Podcast
 

A Championship wrap up cast is in the works, we're just waiting for a time that is good for everyone. Some of the College mentors have finals Today and Tomorrow so we want to give them some time to study.