2013 Pine Tree Regional

[Brandon Zalinsky]

Does anyone have the match videos from eliminations?

[Andrew Bates]

Does anyone know if the webcast was archived? I can't even find a link to where it was on the Pine Tree Regional website.

[BrendanB]

Based on what we were told, 2386 was not allowed to use the compressor on their cart because it was not controlled by the robot's battery (even though it was the same thing). Before finals match 2 they were asked to remove their pre-charge air and use the compressor on their robot to charge their tanks.

In the process, one of the cables to power their sidecar came unplugged and due to how much time was used to sort out the pnuematics issue they were asked to leave the field to start the match. So the reason 2386 didn't move in finals match 2 was not because of an illegal component it was due to an electrical problem we didn't have time to fix. Between finals match 2 and 3 2386 quickly fixed the problem and they were back up and running for match 3.

[Todd]

From the Q and A:

Q574
Q. Can separate off-board compressor system be used to pre-charge our unpowered robot's pneumatic system?This off-board compressor would be a FIRST-compliant compressor system, incl. battery, compressor, relief valve, spike w/20A breaker, pressure switch, digital side car, computer and storage taank
FRC0175 on 2013-03-13 | 3 Followers
A. No, per [R80].

Q473
Q. Can we begin the match with pre-charged air resevoirs (i.e. 120 psig "stored" and 60psig "working" pressure) as long as the robot control system and battery (and in our case, the on-board air compressor) was used to pre-charge the resevoirs?
FRC3293 on 2013-02-12 | 4 Followers
A. Yes.

and from The Robot section of the Game Manual

R37
Non-electrical sources of energy used by the ROBOT, (i.e., stored at the start of a MATCH), shall come only from the following sources:

compressed air stored in the pneumatic system,
a change in the altitude of the ROBOT center of gravity, and
storage achieved by deformation of ROBOT parts.

R80
Compressed air on the ROBOT must be provided by one and only one compressor. Compressor specifications may not exceed nominal 12VDC, 1.05 cfm flow rate. Off-board compressors must be controlled and powered by the ROBOT.

BLUE BLOCK:
The intent of this rule is to permit teams to take advantage of the weight savings associated with keeping the compressor off-board. However, using the compressor off-board of the ROBOT does NOT permit non-compliance with any other applicable rules.

The compressor may be mounted on the ROBOT, or it may be left off the ROBOT and used to pre-charge compressed air in storage tanks on the ROBOT prior to bringing the ROBOT onto the FIELD.

It does seem that the correct interpretation of the rules (especially after noting the text in the informative block under R80) is to allow only the onboard compressor to charge tanks, if an onboard compressor is utilized.

If the call was made that the same battery must be used to pre charge the tanks as was used during the match, however, I don't see justification for that rule in the Game Manual. It may have been based off the phrasing of question Q473. Another Q and A question to clarify Q473 to see if the same battery MUST be used to precharge the compressor would be required to get a real answer. Unfortunately I don't have access to our teams Q and A account at the moment, or I'd post one myself.

[Todd]

All of the above said,

This was one of the most fun regionals I've been to. The atmosphere at the event was truly kind and professional, projected by the event staff and all of the teams present.

As our team was in a well enough state of affairs to allow me a lot of extra time this weekend, and there were rumblings of slight short staffing on the number of volunteers at the event I volunteered at the spare parts table and I can say that all the volunteers I worked with were also kind and professional and treated well during the event.

Overall it was a great pleasure to attend the inaugural Maine Regional, and I'd be happy to do it all over again.

[maddog175]

Originally Posted by kstl99

After 1 day of competition I must say this is the best regional I have attended.

Congratulations to rookie team 4793, the Gobotics from Old Orchid Beach. Maine. They have a mostly wooden robot that looks really nice, drives well, has a 1 point dumper, a 10 point climber and plays good defense. It was built by 2 students and one mentor, although they are up to 3 students now. Their entire team is on the field during their matches. I was very happy to see them win the Rookie Inspiration award.

Inspiring.

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by Flak-Bait

Does anyone have the match videos from eliminations?

Originally Posted by Andrew Bates

Does anyone know if the webcast was archived? I can't even find a link to where it was on the Pine Tree Regional website.

The webcast was run by wsea.tv and I just heard that they will have the archived video available on their website Monday morning.

[AcesPease]

Congratulations to
78 on winning the Chairman's award
2648, 3467, and 2386 on their first win (we will be seeing many more from these teams!)

Huge thanks to our partners 125 and 63 on doing everything we asked in some of the most exciting matches we have participated in.

Huge thanks to the Pine Tree Planning committee for putting on such an excellent event. We look forward to next year.

[TedG]

Originally Posted by EricH

One and only one may supply air. That one may be located either on-board or off-board. If they had removed the on-board compressor from the system somehow, then I think they would have been perfectly fine (provided that R86 was met). If they did not, then there exists the possibility that it could turn on during the match, thus supplying air, thus having two compressors supplying air to the same system during the same match, though at two different times, thus potentially creating a rather nasty rules debate if the team gets called on violating a robot rule (and thus not passing inspection, see T06 for the aftermath).

I believe this is the correct intent of the rule. If you pre-charge a system before a match with a different compressor and have the ability to add compressed air during a match, that's an advantage over other teams.

Originally Posted by ehfeinberg

I am pretty sure this is the correct interpretation. In 2011, 449 had two identical (and both 100% legal) pneumatic systems, one on the robot and one off the robot. Before every match we would use our off-board pneumatic system to precharge the storage tanks on the robot. All the inspectors seemed fine with this, and we used this technique through 2 different competitions. The inspectors just required that they could inspect both boards to make sure that they would both be legal if they were on the robot.

However, the 2011 wording is different from the 2013 wording, and it is always up to the Inspector on whether you can or can't do this.

We never use pnumatics so I don't know all the rules, but I'm surprised they let you get away with that. What ever happened to the stored energy rule such as not having compressed springs, coils, surgical tubing? Isn't compressed air the same thing?

**Edit, just read more of the posts, apparently you can have a pre-charged air tank as long as it was filled by a compressor powered and controlled by the robot.

[TedG]

Originally Posted by Todd

All of the above said,

This was one of the most fun regionals I've been to. The atmosphere at the event was truly kind and professional, projected by the event staff and all of the teams present.

As our team was in a well enough state of affairs to allow me a lot of extra time this weekend, and there were rumblings of slight short staffing on the number of volunteers at the event I volunteered at the spare parts table and I can say that all the volunteers I worked with were also kind and professional and treated well during the event.

Overall it was a great pleasure to attend the inaugural Maine Regional, and I'd be happy to do it all over again.

Yes agreed! It was a well organized, fun and professional event.
Loved how smooth the field was loaded and unloaded.

BERT 133 had a blast!

It was the committee's first time running a regional competition, although some in the committee had organized off-season events, and all members have many, many years of FIRST experiance. They worked so hard all year long planning this.

We here in Maine were glad you all came, hope to see you next year!

Hope to see some of you at Beantown Blitz!

[mylesfilkin2386]

Does anyone have/know of any film from the finals matches at pine tree?

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by mylesfilkin2386

Does anyone have/know of any film from the finals matches at pine tree?

As I posted above, video of the competition is available at wsea.tv with the finals about 2 hours into the 3rd video.

[lanna.stars]

Originally Posted by MikeE

As I posted above, video of the competition is available at wsea.tv with the finals about 2 hours into the 3rd video.

One thing about living in Canada... things get blocked... Day 2 Part 2 of the PTR is blocked for viewing in Canada due to copyright laws....

[Kims Robot]

Pine Tree Regional Extended Previews are up!! These were easily some of the most excited teams & kids I've had the opportunity to photograph! They had tears in my eyes so often I'm surprised I didn't fog up my viewfinder!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimsrob...7633214226943/

More to come, but I am not sure how quickly since I need to get back to my CT photos also!

As always, please feel free to use/repost these... I just ask that you provide photo credit and/or leave my copyright symbol on them.

Thanks!!

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by lanna.stars

One thing about living in Canada... things get blocked... Day 2 Part 2 of the PTR is blocked for viewing in Canada due to copyright laws....

I think the videos were mislabeled on the WSEA.tv site and it's actually the Day 2 part 1 video which is blocked, presumably for music copyright.

Try this direct link to YouTube. Final matches start around the 2 hour mark.