Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I don't want to get into a "back in the day" discussion, but I wonder what the percentage vote would have been if they asked who wanted the IFI control system back...

(I would vote for it)

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I would vote for it too. With the way this system works where it just becomes a waiting game where 5 minutes can go by without connecting and without doing anything it will connect.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

It might be cool if they gave us wireless power for the router and Crio. i know it is unlikely to happen, but it would be cool if you could just leave it on all the time at competition, and not worry about changing batteries affecting your robot.

never going to happen, but it would still be awesome.

we got bypassed once this year, and it was because we didnt plug the router back in after a tether. annoying mistake.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

With this years router, you can tether to one of the open ports on the radio and not disconnect the cRio from the radio at all.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

i wish we had known that at our regional :mad:

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

Time burden or financial burden?

Three additional days to participate in a competition is most likely not the driving factor keeping teams from participating in a second regional.

Raising an additional $5K or more (registration, travel, and misc expenses) can be a deal-breaker for many teams.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I would take these percentages with a grain of salt. Sometimes, the blog doesn't seem as informative as it seems chatty. Transparency isn't necessarily about being chatty.

For example - making a decision to compete in a competition takes planning and money. Making decisions to compete in more than one competition takes more planning and money. It takes effort. How is 'burden' defined?

Chatty.

Jane

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I'm afraid I don't understand at all by what you mean "chatty." Please elaborate or clarify.

Akash

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I honestly believe that the statistics for the minibot and field connection time are backward and someone just made a mistake. I can't figure out how so many people are fine with missing a qual match because of NI problems.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I have been the Field Supervisor for the Bayou Regional for the last 5 years. One of the most frustrating parts of the game is to have six robots on the field, with one robot not connecting. This increases the cycle time between matches. I have another solution to the connection problem. Rather than bypassing a robot and starting the match with the robots that connect, give a fixed time (same one minute) that is started by the field supervisor after all robots are set and the players have left the field. All the robots that connect during that time will play normally. Any robot not connecting will still be allowed to connect to the field and start playing when it connects. You don’t connect you don’t play. You connect late you still play. I make my cycle times, you play more matches and the entire world is in harmony.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

With reagrd to the time it takes the robot to connect, I think it really depends. If it's the team's fault that they connect late, then they can reasonably be expected to speed up, or risk losing a match. The problem is, it isn't always the team's fault. I've been in the driver station in both scenarios. It's a tough decision. You pay $4,000 for a regional. On average you play ~10 qualification matches. That's $400 a match. I don't think it's fair to tell someone who's paying that much that they have to sit out a match because they were 15 seconds slow connecting. On the flip side, if you save time by not allowing people who connect late to play, you may be able to raise the average number of matches per regional.

Or we could switch back to the IFI control system and solve both problems...(I promise this is the last time I'll suggest it).

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I think the hidden assumption in the field connection question is that somebody else is being bypassed, not yourself. Bypass them, so that I can have more matches.

Likewise, the minibot is a lot more paletable once we have seen 'the solution' for this year's problem. I suspect the answers would have been different back on Feb 21.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

Sure Akash,

Just using the quote for examples:

This is Bill's first pass of the end of season survey. If it is his first pass, why do we need to know?

His comment about how soon another minibot might materialize. Why was that necessary? Either we'll have one or we won't and we'll find out in a timely fashion.

Why is 23.2% a surprise regarding the burden question? What is defined as a burden? Moving a team from point A to point B is a burden, whether we use donkeys, camels, buses, planes, trains, or automobiles. (See how easy it is to throw in a sly comment or one that I, the poster of opinion, think is sly?) The true comment regarding more than one competition should center around 'affordable' and 'manageable'.

What is pertinent in this blog post is that HQ is receiving applicants for the FRC engineer position and that they are changing their hours and team contacts should act accordingly with that shift. The rest, in my opinion, is chatter, based on his first pass statement and some of his commentary - perhaps to get more feedback/reaction directly or indirectly from us.

Jane

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

I wonder. The IFI radios were serial if I recall. The Crio has serial. Some laptops have serial. I'd be excited about a crio control system with a radio that connects in a couple seconds.....

This year's implementation of a minibot was a utter failure in my opinion. I don't want to see it again unless it's a programming/engineering challenge using an NXT controller and the NXT motors, with no modifications allowed.

I never want to touch another piece of tetrix.

Re: Bill's Blog 6/15/11: "What percent of viewers read the title?"
 

This is funny because it's many people's perception that the inclusion of the minibot was a political move to help out FTC. The funny thing is it backfired because now everyone in FRC views Tetrix as low quality garbage (I don't plan on attempting to start an FTC team with such poor quality parts).

The problem with the minibot was not the concept of a miniature robot performing a task, but rather the junk that they required us to use, and the strict limitations on extra parts we could use.