TOWER Malfunctions since Week 3

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Jared341

At Philly, both 365 and 1403 deployed minibots that failed to trigger the tower (despite a very loud THUD at the top).

Watching the webcast on Friday (Thanks to Team 1517, the Lumberjacks), in their second match, the MOE minibot went up the pole twice and struck the plate both times. I assumed this was a deliberate change to the program to ensure no repeat of a field issue as in match #1. I found out later it was not planned, but when the minibot went back to the bottom of the tower the impact reset it. So it climbed and scored a second time.

Not a bad strategy though if you have field issues and a very fast minibot.

[Akash Rastogi]

Eventhough there is nothing we can do about it, here is the video of the tower malfunction that cost 11's alliance a spot in the finals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUwW...e_gdata_player

Very disappointing to watch. 11 first then 1676 then 25. Final score without malfunction was 92-91. Two regionals of being the 2nd overall Pick. Two regionals of taking the semis to 3 matches. Two straight regionals of very bad luck.

[Chris is me]

The weird thing was that 25 and 1676 lit up for second and third place, which indicates that the FMS correctly scored 11's tower as first place.

[EricDrost]

Not only did 1676 and 25 trigger as 2nd place and 3rd place, at the end of the match they were changed to 1st and 2nd place respectively, even though our minibot must have timestamped to display the other towers as 2nd and 3rd.

[Akash Rastogi]

Also, all the latest revisions of EWCP minibots were not large enough to hit the bolts. Otherwise 1477, 1323, 816 and 2415 would have all reported the same issues.

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Eventhough there is nothing we can do about it, here is the video of the tower malfunction that cost 11's alliance a spot in the finals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUwW...e_gdata_player

Very disappointing to watch. 11 first then 1676 then 25. Final score without malfunction was 92-91. Two regionals of being the 2nd overall Pick. Two regionals of taking the semis to 3 matches. Two straight regionals of very bad luck.

Originally Posted by Chris is me

The weird thing was that 25 and 1676 lit up for second and third place, which indicates that the FMS correctly scored 11's tower as first place.

The video never shows the lights on the top of the tower that we, 25, scored on. (Chris, are you basing your statement on the linked video or something seen on the webcast?) I'm not trying to argue the outcome of the match or debate any rulings, I'm just pointing out what can be seen from the video. What's interesting is that 25 drives past 11's tower on the way back from deploying before 1676 even deploys their minibot, which had registered as second place (3 green lights). That means our minibot was already up the pole and registered as 1st place, since the blue alliance was awarded the 50 bonus points. So we can agree that regardless of how the match was scored, 1676's minibot was the last one up the pole since they were the last to deploy. Had MORT's tower functioned properly and the red alliance awarded a minibot bonus of any amount, it would have come down to the winner of the minibot race between 25 and 11. If 11 came in 2nd, then the score would have been 92-101 in favor of blue. If 11 came in 1st, Akash is correct that the final score would have been 92-91 in favor of red.

It was an extremely close match and truly could have gone either way. 25 wishes 11 nothing but the best of luck in St. Louis, both on the field and competing for the Chairman's Award. MORT has proven themselves as more than worthy contenders this year and has a lot to be proud of. We hope to finally get the opportunity to play on the same side of the field this year, either at the championships or during the off season.

[EricDrost]

That is interesting. Now that you point it out 25's minibot had to have been first/second. I believe we have a picture of it triggered as third though. I will look.

[EricDrost]

No photo of the towers but I believe 1676 also has a match video, we can check there. It's fine that we lost but I want to get to the root of the problem with the towers.

As you said, it was a very close match -- congratulations to 25/1676/1522!

[ToddF]

Team 2363 also has video of all the matches. As soon as I can get my hands on the SD cards I'll get some up on youtube.

[FRC4ME]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

The weird thing was that 25 and 1676 lit up for second and third place, which indicates that the FMS correctly scored 11's tower as first place.

Are you sure that's true? I was a volunteer doing field reset and heard the conversation between five or six Team 11 students and the referees. As an alum of 339 I was interested in the outcome. No one mentioned that 25 and 1676 had registered as second place. Had someone mentioned that, I imagine the head ref would have ruled in red's favor, as that proves that the minibot must have triggered the sensor (although the lights malfunctioned).

I don't really remember now how many lights were on. It doesn't matter now, but I guess this might be a lesson that when things don't work as planned, be as observant as possible to determine what went wrong.