Thread: Timeout!!
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Unread 11-01-2004, 11:33
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Time out could be very important if you use it wisely

Quote:
Originally Posted by matt111
what are u thinking about?how will u use this?
You may not realize it right now, but a time out can be extremely useful.

At year 2000, Silicon Valley Regional, GRT was playing in the semi finals 1st round. Everyone was going fine until suddenly a side of the drive train stop functioning. The robot was doing donuts and we had no idea what's going on. As soon as the match ended, we rushed to the robot, and realized the little tabs behind the drill motor that you solder the wire to was broken. We were down to our last 2 drill motors on the robot, and desperated needed to find replacement and time to fix the problem. That year we were given the option to call a time out.

If we called that time out, we might have been able to fix the robot in time, because we managed to borrow spare motors from another team the last minute. But it turns out the alliance captain decided not to, with good reasons (it takes a while to replace the broken drill motor that year), and went on with the finals with the 3rd partner. What both teams didn't know was that the 3rd partner's robot wasn't functioning neither.

So. Use your time out wisely. Make sure you made it clear to the FIRST field manager you know the existence of such a time, and that it is your right to call it if you need it.
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1999-2001: Team 192 Gunn Robotics Team
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2002-2004: Western Region Robotics Forum, Score Keeper @ Sac, Az, SVR, SC, CE, IRI, CalGames
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