What we learned from week 1

[robochick862]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

That is the single best camera angle that I've ever seen for an FRC video. It's better than the live camera operators at worlds... you can see EVERYTHING. It's just like being there, but with the added benefit of being able to rewind and rewatch parts that you missed.

Whoever mounted that camera... well done!

Oh, yeah... the robots did a pretty good job, too... but did I see human players throwing frisbees at the end of the match? I thought that got outlawed.

<goes off to re-read the rules and updates>

Jason

THey changed the rule that only COLORED discs may be thrown at the end. THere were human players making it into goals with their throws. None in the top of the pyramid I dont remember. Did anyone see any shots in the pyramid?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by sircedric4

I learned a lot this weekend and all of it just makes me sick to my stomach. Looks like this year will be a very good year for lessons learned for our team bible.

1) The GDC did an awesome job this year building a trap. Let's call the game Ultimate Ascent and introduce this awesome pyramid and impossible top target and then it turns out to be a waste of a season to defeat the obstacle. We and only a few others conquered the very difficult only to watch EVERYONE (hyperbole!) outscore our top end.

I hope the lesson is to properly evaluate all the scoring options.

[Jaxom]

Originally Posted by robochick862

THey changed the rule that only COLORED discs may be thrown at the end. THere were human players making it into goals with their throws. None in the top of the pyramid I dont remember. Did anyone see any shots in the pyramid?

We had 2 or 3 in Hub City. Human players might have been scoring 1 of 20-25 into either the 2- or 3-point goals in the matches I saw.

[itsjustmrb]

I believe 2848 was the first team at Hub City to shoot a frisbee in the pyramid goal and 4063 did it a match or 2 later. Also, one of the team from Mexico had a human player make one in the pyramid.

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Here is a useful tactic:
Human players can stack four frisbees on top of their slots in preparation to load their Robot.

You can see 610 doing it in this video at (0:50) & (1:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YMPCUb2gCc

Our shooter was also jammed for auton and the first half of that match. That's why we weren't running cycles.

4124 also had a great method of loading 4 discs quickly, they held 4 at once in a stack and quickly pushed the bottom one into the slot. It's hard to explain, I'll try and find some video of it later.

But running cycles is all about efficiency, how quickly you get back and setup to load, how quick your human player is at feeding, and being very quick to get aligned and get your shots off. I think in one match our great drive team was able to run 7 cycles with a 10 point hang.

[robochick862]

Any other teams human players have problems with the colored covers of the feeder slots falling off? Happened a few times at kettering.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by robochick862

THey changed the rule that only COLORED discs may be thrown at the end. THere were human players making it into goals with their throws. None in the top of the pyramid I dont remember. Did anyone see any shots in the pyramid?

3003 did it from the floor with their robot on many occasions at FLR.

[IKE]

Make sure you get re-inspected after you make modifications...

[PVCpirate]

Something I just learned 5 minutes ago from the Central Valley webcast: Teams who make a major change to their robot(like adding a tall screen for blocking shots during eliminations) must be reinspected before their next match. The whole alliance of 973, 1323 and 4135 were just DQ'd from semifinal 2-1, which they had won. Let this be a lesson to all alliance captains suggesting an alliance member should make a similar change.

EDIT: Ike beat me to it

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

Something I just learned 5 minutes ago from the Central Valley webcast: Teams who make a major change to their robot(like adding a tall screen for blocking shots during eliminations) must be reinspected before their next match. The whole alliance of 973, 1323 and 4135 were just DQ'd from semifinal 2-1, which they had won. Let this be a lesson to all alliance captains suggesting an alliance member should make a similar change.

EDIT: Ike beat me to it

This rule has always been in effect for any change, major or minor, at any time in the event. Nothing new.

[PVCpirate]

I figured that, but I thought it was significant because of all the talk about adding blocking screens to robots in eliminations.

[PayneTrain]

^^We both know that rule doesn't see as much use as it should, but you're right.

Coming from a team on an alliance that got knocked out from a red card in 2011, teams, READ THE RULES BEFORE YOU SHOW UP. So many people don't do that. It blows my mind.

[Dr. Shocker]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

I figured that, but I thought it was significant because of all the talk about adding blocking screens to robots in eliminations.

There was something we wanted to add to our bot in case we were against certain bots, so we got inspected with them and took them off if they weren't in that match.

[NotaJoke]

Originally Posted by Jaxom

We had 2 or 3 in Hub City. Human players might have been scoring 1 of 20-25 into either the 2- or 3-point goals in the matches I saw.

At the Traverse City district event, there was a human player who was extremely consistent, making around 4/6 of the disks each time. Any well trained and well practiced human player could do the same... Until the disks start going into the pyramid goals regularly! Also, I assume human players like him/her were another reason for the rule change.

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

This rule has always been in effect for any change, major or minor, at any time in the event. Nothing new.

I don't think anyone objects to reinspection for major modification such as adding a mechanism (active or passive) per rule T11, but it is impractical to reinspect for every modification. If you follow the letter rather than the spirit of the rules, which of these would *not* require a reinspection?

1. Filing down a corner to give better clearance between parts
2. Replacing a nut with a locknut
3. replacing a faulty motor
4. ziptie several wires together
5. updating a timeout in the code
6. adding an accelerometer sensor