Quote:
Originally Posted by dellagd
I've thought about implementing things like this on my own team, and the possibility of having it between alliance partners in the past, and honestly I've always thought that it wouldn't help at all.
First of all, I've personally never had my drivers tell me that they can't hear me well nor have I seen the effects of this. These are loud events, so you talk loudly to your drivers. I don't know, there just isn't a problem with it. I mean you are right behind them the majority of the time (accounting for jumping over to say something to another team's coach).
That being said, if there were a communication device, I'd also have to be able to count on it 100%. As a coach, if I want to tell my partners something, I need to be absolutely sure that they are aware of what I told them. For this, generally I look for some sort of visual signal that they understood (like a thumbs up or a waive), I mean they're occupied with coaching their own team too. If I had a headset, I personally wouldn't feel really comfortable trusting it, and to be sure I'd probably want a 'roger' (or a QSL for those hams out there) confirmation. But I mean, people are going to forget to respond, and I really don't want to be in the position to nag another coach during a match.
Bottom line, communicating in person just feels like a more foolproof option. I already have 6 robots on the field I have to worry about, I don't want a radio (that I didn't even set up) to be on top of that.
That's my take on it. People can talk loudly, and your all only a few feet from each other. It's not broken, I don't need it fixed.
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Of course, it's not a question of an issue. There's nothing per se wrong with the regular talking behind the glass between the coaches. But it is a question of whether or not we can make it better. Right now, there is a bit of hierarchy (at least in my experience) where the drive coaches are communicating the strategy between each other and then relaying it down to the drivers at the controls. What if you could make it more seamless by having direct communication between the coaches and drive teams on a single channel without ever having to look up from the controls or robot, for both the coach and drivers?
In the end, I don't see why it couldn't be optional for teams to use if the alliance isn't comfortable with it. Having used headsets to communicate in competitive games myself, I can see the potential in an FRC application - communication is the most important thing to implementing effective strategy, and as we know, effective strategy wins matches.