What we learned from week 1

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brim

Do you have a specific measurement for the height of the first bar? Or at least a ballpark value?

We measured ~28 1/4" from the floor to the bottom of the first bar (+/- 1/4" depending on which rung and which pyramid).

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Jared341

We measured ~28 1/4" from the floor to the bottom of the first bar (+/- 1/4" depending on which rung and which pyramid).

How are they that far out of spec? That is completely unacceptable.

[TD78]

Originally Posted by Jared341

We measured ~28 1/4" from the floor to the bottom of the first bar (+/- 1/4" depending on which rung and which pyramid).

We were going with 29-1/4" that we measured at NH.

We believe it was from the 1/2" plywood base + carpet lining + carpet underneath the pyramid. So the 30" from the actual floor the bots drive around on is 30"...but then you need to take into account the 3/4" of base underneath the pyramid.

The practice field didn't have the plywood base, so it threw my team all off until late Friday afternoon. Our hanger still didn't work as well as we would have hoped...but we didn't expect that curveball.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by TD78

The practice field didn't have the plywood base, so it threw my team all off until late Friday afternoon. Our hanger still didn't work as well as we would have hoped...but we didn't expect that curveball.

For us, the measured difference between an arbitrary rung on the practice field and competition field was more than 1 inch.

Measuring the field and adjust-ability in your hanging mechanism are both mandatory this year, I'm afraid.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by TD78

We were going with 29-1/4" that we measured at NH.

We believe it was from the 1/2" plywood base + carpet lining + carpet underneath the pyramid. So the 30" from the actual floor the bots drive around on is 30"...but then you need to take into account the 3/4" of base underneath the pyramid.

The practice field didn't have the plywood base, so it threw my team all off until late Friday afternoon. Our hanger still didn't work as well as we would have hoped...but we didn't expect that curveball.

The problem is that the prints, the manual, and the official field tour videos, show the 30 inches(center) from the floor to be from where the pyramid connects to the floor which is technically on top of the .5in steel, or in the case of districts plywood. So if we follow that correctly when measured from the floor and not the top of the base plate the 1st rung should be 30.5 in(center) or 29.75(bottom) from the floor. So the 28.25" that Jared measured is out of spec by 1.25 inches if measured from the floor or .75 inches if measured to the base plate. I would hope that FIRST wouldn't have put the tolerance of the pyramids in the "the field can be out of spec by 4 inches" specification as the pyramid is such an integral part of the game that it would be a slap in the face to all the teams who designed climbers or robots they thought were short enough to go under the bar but might not be able to at every competition they go to.

[TD78]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

The problem is that the prints, the manual, and the official field tour videos, show the 30 inches(center) from the floor to be from where the pyramid connects to the floor which is technically on top of the .5in steel, or in the case of districts plywood. So if we follow that correctly when measured from the floor and not the top of the base plate the 1st rung should be 30.5 in(center) or 29.75(bottom) from the floor. So the 28.25" that Jared measured is out of spec by 1.25 inches if measured from the floor or .75 inches if measured to the base plate. I would hope that FIRST wouldn't have put the tolerance of the pyramids in the "the field can be out of spec by 4 inches" specification as the pyramid is such an integral part of the game that it would be a slap in the face to all the teams who designed climbers or robots they thought were short enough to go under the bar but might not be able to at every competition they go to.

Trust me, I'm just as confused and frustrated!!! I originally thought the 30" was to the top of the first bar as well (in the game manual). Then I looked at a later rev of the game manual and the dimension looked to be in the center of the bar. In the end, my team attempted to make our static hanger adjustable. I say attempt because I still had to spend 45 minutes at the regional machine shop getting the slots elongated (thank you to the machinist who helped me out!!). So with the full adjusted hanger that *should* have worked on the actually field (we had moved the hanger down based on the drive team's observations), the nose of the hanger was hitting the center of the bar on the practice field (which was measured at ~30" to the center of the first bar from the carpet)... A lot of head scratching until the field bar was measured and we started using 29-1/4". Heard a lot of other teams at BAE were having problems with the bar too.

[Woolly]

Also, on the subject of the pyramid, robots are standing up to falls better than anticipated. There was damage from falls, but I didn't see anything that really messed up a robot unless it flipped off the pyramid and landed directly on a mechanism.