Introducing: CowScout

[stundt1]

okay im trying now. I never went to beta site...

So the first person to add the team is the head scout correct?

[Jon Jack]

Originally Posted by stundt1

okay im trying now. I never went to beta site...

So the first person to add the team is the head scout correct?

Anyone can be the headscout, the person who creates a team is the admin user so they can invite users, approve users who have requested to join their team and change event settings for their team.

[jwfoss]

First of all, let me say thank you for opening this up to the public. This may very well replace the system we used last year, although we will likely still maintain some form of paper data as well.

That said, is there any chance you could provide "Match Prediction" based on OPR/average robot contribution (based on the scouting data input). We did this last year and provided us with a quick comparison of what we were up against, and where we currently stood with our partners and opponents.

Thanks again.

[Hallry]

I see that there is an option to add pictures to teams. Maybe we could use the pictures from the FRC-Designs slideshow of every robot for those?

[Jon Jack]

Originally Posted by Hallry

I see that there is an option to add pictures to teams. Maybe we could use the pictures from the FRC-Designs slideshow of every robot for those?

Teams are more than welcome to upload photos of your robot as well as others. If anyone from FRC-Designs would like to upload those photos, please feel free!

[stundt1]

I was gonna say There is a lot of photos from the FRC tracker app maybe you can somehow get a hold of those? I got like 600 from there by going in the app files... Though the pictures were a little small they still sufficed.

[Mastonevich]

Jon,

This option for scouting looks very promising.

Being a programmer myself, one of the things that concerns me about using it is our lack of ability to get bugs fixed quickly, especially since we would like to use it during a week 1 event. I saw that you had an email mechanism on your website to report bugs. Especially for teams during week 1, what happens if a problem arises? Also, I saw that you beta tested it. How long did you beta test this application?

I know someone is going to say beggars can't be choosers here as you are offering it for free and to everyone. For that I am very grateful, and want to get more information to help our decision to use this.

Great Job on this!

Andrew

[Wizzard of Izz]

I've really enjoyed using this. The picklist feature is going to save me a lot of explanations when I hand it to the drivers.

[CurseofDragon33]

This looks really well done. Thanks for sharing this. It will make my job easier at the events.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Mastonevich

Jon,

This option for scouting looks very promising.

Being a programmer myself, one of the things that concerns me about using it is our lack of ability to get bugs fixed quickly, especially since we would like to use it during a week 1 event. I saw that you had an email mechanism on your website to report bugs. Especially for teams during week 1, what happens if a problem arises? Also, I saw that you beta tested it. How long did you beta test this application?

I know someone is going to say beggars can't be choosers here as you are offering it for free and to everyone. For that I am very grateful, and want to get more information to help our decision to use this.

Great Job on this!

Andrew

I agree. Despite the past beta testing, it'd be nice to have at least some pre-week 1 functionality out of this. Maybe a test event of some sorts, especially for some of us that plan on utilizing this as a major aspect of their scouting database, and would love to see what specific match data is gonna be used for this season.

[Matthew Wang]

I've just learned about CowScout, so I have a few questions. I signed up an account on the new website (CowScout.com) but there doesn't seem to be any option for me to test out the system. I'm curious to learn how to use it and see how the whole things works. If it's something I can get hands on with, maybe my team can use it this year.

Where can I go to test it out?

[Jon Jack]

Sorry for the delayed response, folks build season has kept us pretty busy.

We will be releasing a Rebound Rumble update to CowScout after stop build day (probably Friday or Saturday). When we do this, we will also open a 2012 test event that will be open for a few weeks. This will give teams a chance to play with CowScout and see what data we will be collecting as well train scouts for the upcoming season.

[Cw1671]

i was wondering if we make our own scouting forms on cowscout or if you guys make them and we all just use the same form

[connor.worley]

Originally Posted by Cw1671

i was wondering if we make our own scouting forms on cowscout or if you guys make them and we all just use the same form

As of now, teams use the same scouting forms. Keep in mind, however, that we'll make sure that the form collects enough data to accurately represent score.

[DavidGitz]

CowScout looks like a great program! We are going to investigate using it at our next Regional. After looking at this for a bit, I have a few questions:
1. My team's (1208) are inaccurate in Cow Scout but are accurate on TBA, it looks like it is missing 2 of the matches we lost in Qualifications, 4 of the matches we won in Eliminations and the Finals are un-scored (0-0) resulting in ties. I also noticed that similar inaccuracies exist on our alliance partner, 1769.
2. I have seen people discuss the different graphs that are available, how do you get to these?
3. The Pick List function is interesting. It seems that during the manual choice portion of it, it selects teams out of order?
4. Is the Test Event still up? The main thing I am curious about is if the Pick List feature will pull data off the Scouting data as well as the OPR data if the Scouting data is available.
5. Will there be separate events for each Division at Championships? If not, how is that managed?
6. Is there a manual available anywhere? If not, what do these fields mean and how are they determined:
CCWM
Avg. Def Score
Avg. WM
+/-

Thanks guys, again this looks fantastic! Great job.