Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

Not 2005--the only lines on the field were marking the Home Zone for start/endgame. There were marker lines, but those marked Vision Tetra positions.

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

I count:
#1a - http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...your-week.html
#1b - http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/press...inect-for-2012
#1c - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alfredth/arc...the-robot.aspx
#2 - http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...-creaking.html
#3 - http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...me-hint-1.html

IMHO more useful info released above pre-season than any previous 'hints'

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

But 1c is not an actual FIRST sponsored hint...

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

From "Hint #2" we know this year's game will involve Legos :) (look up "200 Bedford Street Manchester, NH 03101" in google and click on the first link for the see science center their main exhibit is a Lego thing) and its the 25th anniversity of the science center

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

Using NXTs? I hope it's not minibots again...

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

If it is minibots, I hope it's a true autonomous, NXT-brick-controlled situation wherein one must design for something other than all-out speed.

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

Making FLL-ish bots would be sort of neat, not too expensive, not too hard to make, and they wouldn't require us to burn out thousands (talking all of FRC teams here) of $30 motors............

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

I really don't want to be forced to build 30 minibots again to be competitive all season. It was too expensive, too much time and too little advantage when as soon as teams saw our minibot, 40's, and 190's deployment week 2 last year everyone else copied them and didn't run through the same development iterations we did but were able to capitalize on our work.

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

Disclaimer: I disliked minibots as I felt it was a drain on resources for many teams. I'm just playing devils advocate.

<devils advocate>
How is this any different than what happened in 2010 with the collectors? Or has happened in the years since the early 2000's with the copying of 254/60's drive system? Or since 2003 with the TechnoKats transmissions? Point is that a lot of engineering is stealing from the best.
</devils advocate>

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

In the case of minibots the rules were written in a way to encourage copying of someone elses design during the build season. Mini-bots were specifically excluded from the witholding allowance to encourage bringing many of them so they wouldn't count against your robot witholding allowance.

In the case of the 2010 collectors you had to trade a new collector with other upgrade parts more carefully because of the weight of the system, but it is generally the same.

As for copying WCD most teams can't do that in the middle of build season and comply with witholding rules, and when WCD was introduced you really couldn't carry something like that in pre-made because the spare/replacement parts rules were far more restrictive.

The T-kats shifter they published the design for all to use after the season. Again you couldn't walk in to a regional with the parts pre-made slap them on and go.

The minibot you could see a few pictures and know most of the stuff we tested endlessly to figure out.

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

Anyone else note that in 1a, Bill spells "peek" meaning "look behind something" as "peak" meaning "High point of a field"?
Forgive me if someone already noted this, in either this or another thread.

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

I hope they get rid of minibots completely. I'd much rather have a challenge like building a hanging mechanism or climbing on top of another robot than play around with an nxt like I did 4 years ago.

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

me too but i guess minibots are the "future" of FIRST Robotics :/

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

I think Minibots were amazing, aside from their extreme regulations.
They seemed to be a really crowd pleaser for the spectators.

On topic: Still no hint?? I really hope there's one tomorrow. I want something (new) to speculate on!

Re: Will we ever get a hint #2?
 

Patience, grasshopper.