First Official 2012 Game Hint

[Zstack836]

This was just posted on Bill's Blog:

Good Morning Teams,

Rockwell Automation has again agreed to generously donate components we need for the 2012 FRC season. Check it out. You may find it very interesting.



Taken From -
http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011...me-hint-1.html

Thoughts?

[iblis432]

I can see a lot of that is stuff that is always on the field. Would anyone who knows the field in detail be kind enough to separate the new from the old?

[thefro526]

For those of you stuck behind firewalls:

Originally Posted by Bill's Blog

Good Morning Teams,

Rockwell Automation has again agreed to generously donate components we need for the 2012 FRC season. Check it out. You may find it very interesting.



36 days until Kickoff
See you then!

[Jared Russell]

Very High Speed Counter, you say?

I think I like where this is going.

[Josh Drake]

My thoughts:
-It's getting close to kickoff!
-This list will be analized extensively by the CD comminity.
-There will 1001 ideas on how the items will be used on the playing field.

One observation:
They are not waterproof, so no watergame this year

[Ross3098]

Blue lights Amber lights Green Lights and Red Lights...

Red blue green for FMS but the Amber Light???

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Jared341

Very High Speed Counter, you say?

I think I like where this is going.

252 of them, at that.

Would equate to 10-12 per field, depending on how many spares kept on hand.

Brings back memories of the good 'ol days of jamming goals with balls...

[Hallry]

That PHOTOSWITCH Photoeletric Sensor is interesting...infrared? Hmm...

[linuxboy]

Originally Posted by Ross3098

Blue lights Amber lights Green Lights and Red Lights...

Red blue green for FMS but the Amber Light???

If I remember correctly there are amber lights at the bottom of all the team stack lights, they are just never turned on. I say that because of their outside color, I haven't actually checked the inside of the amber section. Although, the differences in quantity seem to say that they are not for the same purpose. Stacklights seem to break pretty easily though, I can't imagine they would have them where the robot could hit it.

[O'Sancheski]

Hmmm. Intriguing.

[Steve Howland]

Originally Posted by Ross3098

Blue lights Amber lights Green Lights and Red Lights...

Red blue green for FMS but the Amber Light???

There's also 14 amber lights and only 4 of the each red/blue/green, of that style. But there's another set of exclusively red and blue lights so I think we're remaining at two alliances.

Lights are tricky... they could be an integral part of the game (poor example: king of the hill! race to the lit-up amber section!), or FIRST could have decided to turn on some amber lights during the end-game period to make it more obvious to everyone watching.

[Hallry]

The quantities of each item are also quite interesting...

[Ross3098]

Originally Posted by Hallry

That PHOTOSWITCH Photoeletric Sensor is interesting...infrared? Hmm...

That got my attention too at first glance.

Have they been used in the past? If so what was the use?

500 all together I wonder why so many..

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Hallry

That PHOTOSWITCH Photoeletric Sensor is interesting...infrared? Hmm...

Originally Posted by Ross3098

That got my attention too at first glance.

Have they been used in the past? If so what was the use?

500 all together I wonder why so many..

A photo switch can be used in conjunction with software as a scoring counter. Every time the beam is broken, you'd add a count.

500 Sensors equates to ~26 per field, which isn't all that many.

Edit, just reread the list, and it's only 250 complete counter assemblies (13 per field). One sensor sends an IR beam and the other receives it.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by thefro526

500 Sensors equates to ~26 per field, which isn't all that many.

And many will be spares.