[Bill's Blog] 4/18/12: Are you excited yet?

[JaneYoung]

I'm glad they are adding the extra wooden practice fields for shooting hoops. That's going to help the main practice fields run smoothly. Good call.

Jane

Speaking of input, Microsoft is looking for information about if and how teams used Kinect this season. If you’re going to the Championship, have used Kinect this season, and would like to share your feedback, please contact Alfred from Microsoft at Alfred.Thompson@microsoft.com.

I've got feedback: Don't.

I like the kinect, and love the idea of controlling the robot that way, but my code is more accurate and faster, and there are not enough weeks in the build season to practice with it. I know Bill mentioned that "the Kinect will play a bigger role next year", but I honestly hope it does not. I think if it stayed as an optional hybrid-period mode, it'd be useful to some teams, but any "bigger" role may ruin things.

Just my $.02.

[Debbie]

Originally Posted by jblay

This is going to be a problem. Maybe some teams will ship their bridge from home?

We joked about bringing our bridge, but ruled it out when we figured there would be no where to put it.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Does this work?

Almost. There's an option somewhere to make it both fillable and saveable in Acrobat Reader. Select that option, then send it to FIRST.

Also, might want to advise them that they can even deploy a version of that form with a "submit by e-mail" button, if they're so inclined. (That's another built-in Acrobat feature.)

[rachelholladay]

In our team's case, the use of the practice field might speed up when we can get to inspection. I wished they would at least let you use practice field Wednesday once you have been inspected. That would be very lovely.

Our pit is built to fit 10x10 and because wood frames and metal bars dont really compress well (or at all) it would be difficult for us to adjust for smaller..

After beta testing with the Kinect and using it in competition I have a lot of feedback to give. I wrote about 2 pages and will send it in as well as post it to CD once i have finalized it.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Almost. There's an option somewhere to make it both fillable and saveable in Acrobat Reader. Select that option, then send it to FIRST.

Also, might want to advise them that they can even deploy a version of that form with a "submit by e-mail" button, if they're so inclined. (That's another built-in Acrobat feature.)

Ok, I'll look into it when I get home this afternoon.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

I've got feedback: Don't.

I like the kinect, and love the idea of controlling the robot that way, but my code is more accurate and faster, and there are not enough weeks in the build season to practice with it. I know Bill mentioned that "the Kinect will play a bigger role next year", but I honestly hope it does not. I think if it stayed as an optional hybrid-period mode, it'd be useful to some teams, but any "bigger" role may ruin things.

Just my $.02.

It's usefulness this year was constrained by the game. If you have a game where you can interact with the other alliance during hybrid, then it could become far more useful to provide direction to the robot. It just wasn't needed for this years game.

Wetzel

[Carol]

A lot of regionals have set the pit area to 9 x 9 in the past, so teams should have been aware of the possibility at STL and not be surprised.

[Mark McLeod]

Here's the Media document converted to Word

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Carol

A lot of regionals have set the pit area to 9 x 9 in the past, so teams should have been aware of the possibility at STL and not be surprised.

Ok, I'm going to object to that line of reasoning. What if a team has been fortunate to only be at regionals where the pit size has always been 10'x10'x10'? You expect those teams who have never experienced the pit size contraction to be aware of other regionals' pit sizes?

I'm fully aware of the administrative manual stating the pit size may be smaller, and to plan accordingly. There is no mention of a minimum pit dimension, which I think would be nice (as an engineer, I like to bound my requirements). I do appreciate the heads up from Bill, because I'm sure there are many teams who aren't aware that the pit size could be smaller than 10'x10'x10'

[Siri]

Do we/when will we know how many practice slots we get per day? Or does anyone remember the common practice? The difficulty of triple balance practice is also very unfortunate. You basically have to coordinate and devote a practice slot to it, or put your trust in the filler line.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

I'm glad they are adding the extra wooden practice fields for shooting hoops. That's going to help the main practice fields run smoothly. Good call.

Jane

I definitely agree!

Also, is anyone else thinking that with ~60 more FRC teams at Championships, the added wooden practice fields (smaller than the standard field, quite likely), the lack of mention of the "Half-Time Show/Awards" on Friday night, that all the fields will be returning to the dome full time?! I'm honestly very excited about that prospect! After how FIRST had implied that change was to stay, I was worried... Perhaps I'm just getting my hopes up though!

Nathan

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

I definitely agree!

Also, is anyone else thinking that with ~60 more FRC teams at Championships, the added wooden practice fields (smaller than the standard field, quite likely), the lack of mention of the "Half-Time Show/Awards" on Friday night, that all the fields will be returning to the dome full time?! I'm honestly very excited about that prospect! After how FIRST had implied that change was to stay, I was worried... Perhaps I'm just getting my hopes up though!

Nathan

They are.

Originally Posted by Bill's Blog:The Biggest and Best Championship Ever (5 April 2012)

...Having all the FRC competition fields in the Dome gives us more floor space for the added pits...

And the wooden setups are just of the hoops.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Almost. There's an option somewhere to make it both fillable and saveable in Acrobat Reader.

This should do it.

Team Profile Form.pdf