Quote:
Originally Posted by rspurlin
If someone has some evidence of a problem I missed, I'd sure like to pass it back up the chain to improve future competitions.
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Our rookie team had a blast in the Galileo division. It was great to have them compete against Wildstang in their first qual match, get beaten, and then watch Wildstang and their alliance win the whole thing.
One disappointment was also for us when the robot didn't move at all in a match, even though it had communication with the field. It only happened once the whole season, and we couldn't find any problem with our robot afterward. I talked with 1646 (I think) and it happened to them twice and they couldn't find any cause either.
One of our coaches was talking with a veteran team who apparently knew about a bug where if you turn on the robot before the DS had booted that there's a race condition that can occasionally result in this symptom. If true, it might be what happened to us. Normally we turn on the DS first, but there was time pressure to get the bots going for that match, and someone might have turned the bot on early. It fits better than any other theory I have. It could also explain why the problem occurred more for some teams: They might just be in the habit of turning their robot on early.
I can't find any info or posts about this though. Does anyone know about it? Is it really a problem? Is there a source of info us rookies should learn about?
I know this isn't really a field issue, and the fields did work amazingly well. It would have been nice to know that we have to be careful about this problem, and for the field managers to know as well (if true), so that they don't urge the kids to turn their bots on without being sure the DS is on.
In any case, we'll have a more strict turn-on procedure next year!