[imjustmatthew]

GregT is right, the Gyro without a custom board is a PAIN. Our core loop runs at about 33Hz and we got reasonably good data of the gyro (at least enough to work with). We simply "smoothed" the gyro data by averaging the last three values we recieved. However Greg is wrong that it doesn't help with dead reckoning, granted without some $@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@# stuff I don't know how to make our robot can't recover from an impact, we can tell the robot to stop, or shove hard, depending on where it is in operation. We originally had a second gyro, from last years kit, and VCU Regional didn't catch it, but apparently they cost more then $200 each and violate the rules. We were using the second one to detect pitch changes, so like other teams we could detect the spike associated with hitting the top of the ramp. This created a problem with our low sampling rate, until we noticed that the gyro is sensitive enough to get just a little "hang time" after it hits the top at full speed and we can use this to ensure we don't have a false reading. We also got the "Leadership in Control" Award, at VCU regional. Good Luck to all from 638, Operation Oxidation, of the Galileo Divison.