Ok, I'll come out and say it. The biggest negative I have for 2010 is... The Control System.
Netbook boot times were slow but tolerable.
Issues with the PSOC boards not working were irritating but there were other options.
The single biggest cause of alarm for me involves the disable switch. They were flimsy, when someone is killing an out of control robot they should NOT have to worry about breaking the disable switch. Additionally, at one point in time we tried to disable the robot... I say tried because it never disabled. The netbook was so slow that it took longer to recognize the disable switch had been pressed than it took for someone to reach in and kill power to the robot. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. No, it isn't a pet peeve. It isn't a bother. It is a safety hazard. When I hit disable there is a reason I hit disable and it $@#$@#$@#$@# better kill that robot.
There are too many parts to this control system. You have a netbook, a router, a wireless bridge, a CRIO, a digital sidecar, a handful of breakout boards, a PD board... when you can't get a speed controller to work what is it? Is it your code? Is it that your comms are down? Is it that your joystick is busted? Is it a breakout board? Is everything getting enough power? Is it your wiring? Is it a bad ESC? Who do I call for support? My question mark key just stopped working... I know FIRST really likes their suppliers, I appreciate everything they do, but we REALLY need to cut the number of points of failure down. Look at the IFI system, single vendor solution. If something broke I knew who to call. Simplifying would cut weight, costs, and energy requirements. Why is the system so complex?
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Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri
The safety award.
I feel the original intent of the award has been lost, and now has just become a competition for who can yell "ROBOT!" the loudest while walking through the pits.
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Or waste the most paper putting up flyers... I always wonder, do the teams that put them up take them down too? Do they recycle them? Or waste the most of my time by explaining to me how to use MY safety equipment... or where the fire exits are... I could go on with all the common sense things these teams insisted on wasting my time telling me. Instead of focusing on telling me how to be safe focus on making your team safe and let me worry about my team. Although, having the UL guys there is pretty freaking cool. I loved talking to them at Kettering.