What Kevin said about teams going waa waa about the tether angered me out of all of this, specifically because I stated earlier i was dissappointed about the rules issue.


To clear up my origional statement.
The statesments made on the FIRST tech board during the opening weeks were clear about the tethers. If it poses a risk, than it's illegal. Someone previously posted an example from the board. I have email digests from the board with many more.



I can't help the fact at this point, after our robot has been built and completed, that we chose not to build a mouse. I can and will still say I wish we had the time to explore some avenues in that area. As for our team going with a telescoping pole? We based our decision on the numerous posts regarding tethers and the negative responses from FIRST about them at the time. We spent the first week planning out or robot and then commenced to building it from the second week on. The posts on the board regarding tethers at the time was still discouraging. Besides, we needed all the time we had up until we shipped for our other main components. We never figured, lets allot time down the road to build a mouse because FIRST is going to lighten up on the tether issue. We went with a telescoping pole because we had done a number of expirements last year. Last year we had a two stage arm that was used to pick up the "big ball". It was something we already knew how to do and it was just all about adapting that knowledge from last years robot to this current years'.

So..
Good for you (and that's not sarcastic either) if your team had the time, money, and willingness to try something that could have just aswell ended up being a futile endevour. That's great. Not every does those sort of things.


As for the mice?
Now it just adds a little to the complexity of the game. When we went up against teams with mice, we had to figure that into our game plan. How could we stop it? How can we still manage to be on top even if they deploy and score their send home device? SO now if it comes down to just whether you get entangled on the field, fine. I applaud the teams that came up with slick designs that you can't easily get entangled on.



Just to fully state my stance on this:
I feel that the whole Goal Grabber or Ball Grabber entanglement is a different issue. There's a difference to me when two robots within a couple inches get accidentaly hooked up on one another as opposed to a robot who gets stuck on a non structural piece of a robot 10 feet or so away from the actual main body of the other robot. Obviously they are both cases of entanglement. Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt about that. It's just that I feel they are two different scenarios that must be treated differently. There are ways to unhook one's robot from another should they become hooked. I know our robot has five wheels and four feet and a couple of arms. The feet actually manage to raise the entire a robot off the ground a couple inches and flapping goal grabbing arms can possibly free our robot. When a robot's mouse becomes entangled inside another robot, there isn't much one can do. You wrap what ever wires and cables around your axel and it will most likely stay there until the end of the match when you have to pry it's dead cold clutches from your drivetrain.



And of course, one last thing:
I recall when the tech board said you can have only 7 cylinders on your robot. Well, I believe it's a correct statement. The FRCTech didnot need to appologize or anything. People just misunderstood it.

Here's how i remember understanding it at the time:
2 cylindrical acumulators + 5 cylindrical pistons = 7 MAX cylinders
(Note the bold faced type)



So there, that's my rant and rave's worth of two cents on everything.

Now I know someone is bound to disagree with one part or another, but you know what? I say 'Whatever!' because there isn't anything any of us can really do about all this in the end. Let's just hope we have all learned from the expirience and will be more prepared for the next time around. As i stated in me previous post i am only disappointed that's all. I'm not saying ban all mice or blah blah blah FIRST should do this or do that. So things changed -- oh well. It's all in the game, and the game of course, isn't the point of FIRST anyways.