First, let me address the discrepancy issue between red/blue alliances: what a joke! Whether you are on the red/blue alliance makes no difference, everything comes down to who your alliance partners are and how well you play the game. I was on the field for nearly every match (practice, qualification, and elimination) at the NASA/VCU Regional. We had the same amount of problems with communication not syncing on both the red and blue alliances, but the difference was that we did our best to fix them. Read on...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bongle
I think that if a team puts a robot on the field that doesn't have its radio plugged in, it is their own fault, and it isn't the FTA's job to make sure they have it right.
Then there are the logistics issues if the FTA allowed them to plug it in once they detected an unplugged radio:
-What if a team's radio is located in a relatively inaccessible location on the robot?
-Would they delay the match by 2 minutes while the team digs out the radio and plugs it in?
-Will they only allow teams with accessible radios to plug them in?
-Who would decide what is an accessible radio versus an inaccessible radio?
-What if they accidentily discover (or cause) another wiring bug like unplugged cables? Will they be allowed to put those back in?
-If not, how would you enforce the "only plug in your radio and nothing else" rule?
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At VCU, we did everything possible on field to get every team's communication linked. If their radio was unplugged, the field crew plugged it in. If the robot's power needed to by cycled, we did. We made every effort to have every team play in every match (Just ask the 3rd seeded alliance of 612, 2068, and 1908). If there was an issue other than the radio, we bypassed the robot for that match and directed the team first to inspection to have their game adapter checked for proper configuration, and then to the NI representative. After reprogramming, teams that dropped communication randomly during the match had further problems (ask 2108, 1222).
Even after all the problems with unplugged radios and taking the time to fix them, we still finished Friday
ahead of schedule!
The majority of teams that were bypassed had either reset their game adapter, or had a programming issue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnBoucher
Is this by direction of the GDC or a local decision?
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It was a local decision by that regional to bypass the teams with unplugged radios. As I said above, at VCU we made every effort to ensure communication.
We even allowed teams that never practiced on Thursday to come onto the field and check communication before the pits closed at 8 P.M.