Intermittent Loss of Communications During Play

[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

Which is inexcusable...

Pat,

Excuse me but it is very excusable...

FIRST makes it hard when they have us measuring the stroke width of team numbers instead of concentrating on wiring issues...

The events make it harder when inspectors are not allowed in the playing field area to gather info on problems teams are having...

The teams make it harder still when they wait until the last moment to even start inspection on Thursday...

All of those things are inexcusable...

Bottom line: I would suggest that you walk a mile in our shoes and volunteer to be an inspector at your next event...

Regards,

Mike

[Fletch1373]

I agree Mike. I've worked with you for the last 2 years and have seen first hand what inspectors go through. This year, I was FTAA at WPI so I was able to troubleshoot issues from the field side, giving me a fairly unique perspective on the issue. Luckily for us, we had an inspector or 2 on the field that we could dispatch to teams needing assistance with rule questions or just in general. I must say, overall, the WPI regional went very smoothly from all sides(barring a few minor issues early Thursday), and I'm very grateful to all the inspectors there that helped get the teams legal and in working order to make my job easier.

In a few weeks, I'll be inspecting at the Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional(or whatever it's called these days) and I hope that event is able to run as smoothly, if not more so, than WPI did.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Mike Betts

The events make it harder when inspectors are not allowed in the playing field area to gather info on problems teams are having...

Mike,
All events should allow at least the LRI and on ocassion any RI to observe from behind the table. The FTA cabinet is a great area from which to be close to robot displays while watching for issues during match play. During finals, I recommend two inspection people watch for issues so that teams do not get penalized for things like loose robot parts, bumpers out of the zone and frame perimeter issues. The lead needs to be present for any questions from the head ref or FTA.

[Mike Betts]

Al,

Although this has not been a big issue at events I have attended in the past, it was an issue at Florida this year. I had not really intended to air this issue on this forum but rather to focus my input to the RPC for next year.

Mike

[Greg McKaskle]

When I was pointing out issues that were also causing robots to be immobile in NJ, I wasn't attempting to associate any blame. I volunteered in week one to observe, collect common issues, diagnostics, and solutions. These were communicated to teams and to FIRST so that the various checklists and training could be improved. I wasn't a robot inspector, but was instead helping the CSA role, and Mark McCleod was doing the same.

Thanks for bringing very specific and helpful data on the connector to light. I didn't see it as often as other issues, but it may very well be because I didn't know to look.

I wasn't at an event this weekend. Is the mobility of robots improving? Are the issues getting resolved early? Is the field still catching blame for all sorts of mysterious stuff?

Greg McKaskle

[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by Greg McKaskle

When I was pointing out issues that were also causing robots to be immobile in NJ, I wasn't attempting to associate any blame...

Greg,

I never thought you were pointing fingers...

We caught a number of PD wiring errors in FL as well. This was largely due to having a large number of rookies and FIRST not emphasizing the importance of the power distribution diagram in the rules as they have in the past...

I would have hoped that the PD issue would br mitigated by Friday but I can understand how it might be overlooked...

Mike

[Al Skierkiewicz]

In reviewing some old email, I came across the references to the power saving mode on the Classmate being a problem. Is this loss of communications related to the power saving mode by any chance?

[Mark McLeod]

I haven't seen the same issues teams experienced last year with the Classmate XP sleep mode, but that can be due to the increase in laptop diversity making it less likely statistically.

With sleep mode there is a possibility that the USB joysticks/Cypress can get resorted and is something to check/verify when you wake it up.
Swapped controls can appear to the driver to be a lack of robot control.

I have also seen the problem from last year of overloading USB hubs with too many power hungry devices.
The devices either don't show up on the Setup tab or they show up but don't respond (they will turn blue when you press a button if they are working correctly).