2012 Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional

[JackS]

I'm sure that 118 can give a more detailed answer for their specific issue, however I want to clarify some of the dead robot scenarios. There were 3 consecutive matches in which a robot(s) was/were dead for all or part of the match. (Not including finals.)

SF2 for 1 seed - 118 - Red Alliance station 3 - Dead whole match
SF2 for 2 seed - 177 - Red Alliance station 3 - Dead whole match
SF2 for 2 seed - 228 - Red Alliance station 2 - Dead part of match
SF3 for 1 seed - 118 - Red Alliance Station 2 - Dead whole match

While FIRST says the issue was on the robot end, I find it hard to believe that in three consecutive matches, robots that worked fine previously, suddenly did not work. I find it unfortunate that the MC announced to the audience that the teams were at fault for the issue, particularly when the FTA said after the regional that he had no idea what was causing the problems. I can also say that 118 worked in the pits both before and after the match using a tether.

Moving on to the rest of the regional. Our driver station refused to connect to the field on Friday morning and we spent 4 matches working with the FTA trying to correct the issue. We would really like to thank him for being patient and working with us to solve all of those issues with us, even staying through lunch to help us troubleshoot, we appreciate it, even though it never ended up working. Your spare classmate saved our regional.

Then on Saturday morning, the drive motor issues from BAE resurfaced. It took all morning to troubleshoot the issue, and we finally put the robot together after sitting dead for our first three matches on Saturday. I will come back and elaborate more on the issues so we can troubleshoot the issue more, but we ended up replacing almost every component on our electronics board before the morning was through. We would like to thank the FTA again, another volunteer named Oliver, and two mentors from 1511 for helping us troubleshoot the issue all morning. You made our eliminations possible.

I would also like to say to 177, 6 years on Einstein was a fantastic run and it's unfortunate it had to come to an end because of control system issues. It's a feat likely never to be seen again.

Lastly, I would like to thanks 2168 and 118 for picking us for eliminations. We know you took a huge leap of faith in doing so, but we were able to triple balance twice on the practice field and twice in matches and it was a lot of fun. We're disappointed that control system issues on 118 ended the regional for us, especially after control issues cost us BAE and 2168 NYC. We wish 118 luck next week in trying to qualify for championship. That robot is a work of art and it would be a loss for it not to be in St. Louis. I am also amazed we won the Creativity award for our drive train and you did not win that award for your innovative coopertition balancing system. That was totally cool.