[AdamHeard]

All right, here we go....

Around 1 PM on practice day we get all our mechanical changes done, tether and test a bunch in pit, and then go drive some on the practice field. We're loving it, it's just like practice bot (just without the shots being tuned the same yet).

We go to play our first real practice match and the driver complains of lag. We discuss with the FTA who shows that our trip time, battery voltage and cpu usage are all looking great. We play two more like this, same issue and now practice matches are over. Between each and every one of these matches we went to the practice field (on radio not tether) and it drove like a champ.

The actual symptoms weren't log, but rather three different states that rotated around during the match.

1) A several times a second jitter in all motor outputs, so if the driver was driving "full speed" the robot actually went about half.
2) Complete lack of control to motors.
3) Blissful moments of freedom that lasted a few seconds at best.

In our first qual match, we were unable to move the arm but were able to open the pneumatics so the ball was loose. We called an audible midmatch and asked 254 to ram us each time to knock the ball out and we ran 4-5 assist cycles this way.

We know switch into a calm panic mode, going down the logical list of items to try/test. I don’t remember what happened when exactly, but for the entire day the pit crew was operating with the same intensity as a timeout during elims. By the end of the day we had failed to perform in 8 consecutive matches, but remained hopeful that the NEXT fix will be the one that fixes it. We had been only changing a few things per match (new driverstation, new signal wiring, etc…) so that we could isolate the flaw, but now decided to shotgun fix as we were running out of quals to test in. In between nearly every match we drive in pit, and drive on the practice field (via radio) and it works GREAT. It’s not the same robot it seems like.

The final batch of fixes included replacing the PDB, along with some other details I’m forgetting. At this point every electrical component except the talons/victors had been replaced (some multiple times!)

Reading the above, I’m somewhat underselling how frustrating the problems were. The FTA was stumped, all of 254’s mentors and several other teams were stumped. We called experts from a far, they were stumped. Over 100 years of FRC mentor experience was working on our robot all day..We don’t know what fixed it, but we just took relief in that the problems are gone (once we worked, it worked flawlessly so we have faith we’re good to go. It’s also an not the same robot electrically in any way since we started).

Saturday night at the scouting meeting I give the option to the scouts to not make a picklist if they would rather go to bed, but despite us being 43rd (of 45th) at the time they decided that the team NEEDED to be ready for the moment when we work again, and ran one of the most thorough and informative scouting meetings we’ve ever run. Our list for 3rds matched nearly perfectly with 254’s, so that was cool to see.

Our first match sunday morning we work. Well, we drive around without issue at least! However, at this point our robot is tuned to make shots at all, so we can intake and truss toss at best. We decide to reduce shooter tension a huge amount to just do a soft truss shot and maybe a top goal. Our practice bot was reliably making 8-20’ shots driving and stationary without much lineup so this was a real bummer, but that late in quals we had to make such a decision. However, we’re now thinking (especially after watching 330 put on a show in San Diego) that we prefer this closer, softer shot.

Incredibly, the entire team was still in good spirits after this ordeal, and was ready to play. We just at the moment weren’t sure where we’d be in elims.

Full disclosure, we did practice with 254 prior to this event, but in no way was that collusion. We’ve practiced with them literally every season (except 2011, when we actually did win together!) and they have passed over picking us numerous times in the past (no hard feelings, better picks were there). 254 informed us they were looking for a team player with a solid intake that could run the ball up and down and do a soft truss shot, and since we were able to drive in our last 3 quals, had faith in our problems being gone. Our robot in elims was maybe 20% of our capability of our practice bots, so the team is excited for future events.

Here is something that will shock a lot of people. There were some great offensive robots there in 1671, 1323 and 696 but 254 didn’t want them. If we had been out comission, 254 would’ve used the #1 pick of the event to pick my favorite rookie EVER in 5136. A simple bot with a team JVN intake that also inbounded great. They ran assists better than anyone at the event and were great defenders. They almost beat the finalists alliance in quarters despite being thoroughly outgunned offensively in most peoples minds. These guys lost in elims, but won Rookie All Star and we are keeping in touch with them to make sure they go to champs. Awesome team, awesome robot.

This was the most difficult event for us in 973 history. It was a pressure cooker that would have wrecked most teams, and probably wrecked any single person on 973 but as a team we kept checking up on each other, covering each other when people needed breaks, and just toughing it out for the good of the team. It’s incredibly frustrating to run out of good ideas and have all your ideas yield no tangible results whatsoever. It’s tougher to then decide to shove you hand back in the fire to maybe not get burned again hoping that at some point it won’t burn you.

I am incredibly proud of all of the members of my team for making it happen. I’m also incredibly grateful that 254 believed in us and took that chance. 2135 was also a great 3rd that was an awesome team player that balanced inbounding and defense nicely. They also blended in just fine with the intensity that 254 and 973 bring to an eliminations alliance.

It is somewhat frustrating that many people assumed we were being disingenuous in what was really the proudest moment ever for our team, but we won’t let that affect us. We came through hell and won the event, no one can take that from my students. It was palpable that the entire event was cheering for us to lose in elims, but our entire alliance just ignored it and made it happen. I don’t understand how sandbagging makes sense if you’re shooting for the #1 pick of the event, but I’ll leave poor logic to the spineless who can’t stand behind their words.

Thanks again to everyone on other teams who killed themselves all day helping us, we could not have done it without you. Also thank you for the many people, both at the event and from a distance, who reached out to us and told us they believed in us, and knew that we played this right and any rumors of poor behaviour were thoroughly false.