Quote:
Originally Posted by purduephotog
Good Morning all-
We had a scrimmage last night hosted by Penfield Robotics Team. While there a number of issues became apparent with the OI and RC capabilities of the robot- so much so that I am writing this post to urge you to test them before you ship.
1) When unplugging the OI from the Robot tether the channel would reset to 40.
2) When unplugging the OI from the Robot Tether the OI would occasionally reboot, and then reset to channel 40.
3) The 'no data' red light would come up at least 15% of the match, even when everything was running correctly. Commands would lag and the system had horrible response time- you could just sit there and watch when all the Victors lost signal as the match would progress.
4) The default wheels and the carpet at the site generated tremendous amounts of static electricity- something new this year (I'm assuming they didn't build a totally new field). PLEASE BE CAREFUL when touching your electronic components.
5) As many people have said the default transmissions are not up to the level of quality that was expected. I'll supply a photo that looks like a pile of grease on a steel plate, when instead it's simply the faux-steel that has been mushroomed when the tranny sheared. Pathetic.
6) Not a single team I watched had an autonomous mode.
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1/2) With a real competition port interface, the OI will not have issues with channels/team numbers. Since IFI will not release the interface spec, and the few people who figured out the spec will not speak of it because of "GP", we were unable to provide competition control of the OI.
Last year, however, we did not see the OI channel # resetting at all when tethering/untethering.
3) The radio modem issue is becoming more apparent as teams have had the opportunity to drive their robots. There are numerous threads on failures and successes with the modems on the Control System board. The regionals that occur in the first week will really show us how bad it is going to get.
4) The carpet is from last year's competition, and the carpet + incredibly dry air definitely = static.
5) New transmission carrier plates will be available for teams at their first regional. I suspect the first night in the pits, and the NASA machine shop, will be VERY busy with these replacements.
6) Defensive autonomous modes get called for ramming depending on speed and the ref's. Driving across the field to interfere with your opponent is part of the game, as long as it does not do so in a hazardous or illegal method (such as hitting above the bumper line).
I'm not surprised about the lack of auto modes, most teams spent their time off the field getting their bots to work better/at all. The point of the event was to allow teams to try their bot out, drive against some opponents, work with other teams, and provide a nice spot to get your robot shipped out.
We also got the chance to get one of our neighbor team's bots up from a very unhappy state in the afternoon, to a driveable/workable state by the end of the evening. Regardless of all the rest of the problems during the day, helping a fellow FIRST team get up and working so they can compete at Finger Lakes made the day worth it.
--Eric