Quote:
Originally Posted by iPenguin
The problem with all those combined regionals is staffing. There aren't enough volunteers to meet the needed capacity. Plus, some volunteers (like myself) like to volunteer at both FRC and FTC events, and some like to do all three.
The other problem with combined regionals is WiFi traffic. When you have several dozen FRC bots and several dozen FTC bots in the same area, they do not play nice with each other. I know specifically during this past year at the Alamo Regional, they also ran one of their Texas State FTC Tournaments, and there were numerous problems on the field due to a high volume of WiFi traffic.
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Just wanted to follow up on this post from the early discussion in this thread. Staffing was and is always an issue. We were fortunate at the South Super-Regional to have many FTC heavy hitters from all across the South as well as strong support from the Texas and Oklahoma FTC partners. If you have the time and ability, I urge the FTC community to volunteer at the North, East, and/or West Super-Regional this year as FTC needs your support. Log into VIMS and sign up. I think a link was sent out recently. If I find it, I'll add a new post with just the links. Others who may have the links are welcome to post it before me if able.
In regards to wifi, we learned a lot from the previous three years of running the combined events here in San Antonio. This year was our best year in that regard. We were able to increase the number and types of technology we used to monitor, detect and decrease the amount of wifi traffic in the competition space. Three big efforts included: the use of Fluke meters with directional functionality to quickly locate hotspots, placing FTC fields in a ballroom with a physical wall separating the competition fields from all the FRC and FTC pits as well as the FRC fields, and more FTAs and a one man wifi sniffer supported by web-based monitoring equipment at HQ. The grand total of hotspots detected and shut down during 2 full days of competition was 50! One from a FRC coach in the stands of the FRC field who didn't understand why it was an issue. We also sent out a crack crew of veteran FRC teams to all of the FRC rookies on Thursday, FRC inspection day, to help the rookies understand what "bridge mode" is and how to set up their robot for competition. This would have been caught during FRC robot inspections, but rookies tend to be the last in that line so we wanted to catch that issue sooner rather than later.
End result, this year with more FTC teams and the same number of 64 FRC teams in the space, we ran our two division event without many replays due to technology. We consistently ran 12 matches per hour which averages to 5 minute turns. Not checking FTA post action reports and going from memory, I think our first technology related replay came during the elimination rounds and was due to a faulty joystick.
FRC and FTC can coexist but it takes more volunteers and more technology as well as some prudent logistics to make it work as well as we were able to this season at the Alamo FRC regional / FTC South Super-Regional Championship.