Ri3D: The Doctor Will See You Now

[Joe Johnson]

Bag & Tag is just over two weeks away.

Have you got problems you could use another set of eyes looking at?

OF COURSE you do!

Well, I can't help all ya'll but I can see what I can do for at least one of you.

Here's the deal.

If you have a robot problem you want me to consult on, send me a PM via Chief Delphi outlining your problem (e.g. throwing chain, burning up motors, mechanism not working, ...) include links to videos & photos if you'd like.

I'll pick one or maybe two teams and we'll do an Ri3D Google Hangout together where I consult on your problem over webcams while the world watches.

In addition to the remote problem solving, I hope to have a handful of FIRST related Tips & Best Practices to share.

We are still working out the exact time of the Hangout -- but we are shooting for an evening early this coming week (1st week of Feb.)

It should be fun.

Dr. Joe

[tr6scott]

Great Idea Joe!

[Nick Lawrence]

Dr. Doom becomes Dr. Awesome!

Fantastic idea Joe!

-Nick

[Joe Johnson]

Plus also, Free BOOM DONE. T-shirt to the team(s) featured on the Hangout.

I can't wait to see what problems we can work on together...

Get your entries in sooner rather than later.

Dr. Joe

[Joe Johnson]

Sill time to apply to be my guinea pig, er ah, guest on the Hangout.

I have almost 20 years experience building of FIRST Robots and my day job is building robots too (this is my latest creation).

Free Advice, worth every penny.

Don't miss out. Apply by sending me a private message on this forum.

Cheers,
Dr. Joe

[Joe Johnson]

So... ...no takers. I guess I can deal with that.

Question. Is it that there are no teams that feel they need help or is it that folks don't want to air their dirty laundry in public?

Would there be takers if these were private meetings?

Dr. Joe

[geomapguy]

Joe,

We are using a design very similar to Boom Done's. We actually added pneumatics into our design before you encouraged it.

Anyways, are team was interested in using a photoelectric sensor to sense when the ball passes over it. This way we could stop collecting automatically once we get the ball.

Any help in how exactly we'd setup up the sensor to detect when the ball passes over it?

Thanks,
Graham

[Chris is me]

I think that a lot of teams who need the help haven't reached the point in the process where they've built enough of the robot to realize that they are stuck. That or they want to participate in events which require them not to broadcast robot features online.

[Joel Glidden]

Yep, I am betting that if you ran a poll, the top answer would be "Not far enough along yet to know we have a problem".

[Mark Sheridan]

I bet there would be a lot more interest after week 6, where teams finally have data about how good their robot is. Coupled with the panic of seeing the post build reveal videos. I am sure many would want to meet with the Dr. over the grief of seeing those videos.

I think most teams who are finishing early want to tinker more before they get help and are probably in a better position to begin with.

Maybe it does not have to be a problem? Perhaps it could be a team with a boom done style catapult that just wants to tune shots with you. I bet it would be nice to have a comparison between two motor driven catapults. I watch that, I think it's nice to see ideas go back and forth.

[jblay]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I think that a lot of teams who need the help haven't reached the point in the process where they've built enough of the robot to realize that they are stuck.

I agree, I know that in 3-5 days we will be at the point in the season where everything starts working incorrectly and we are going to need a robotics consultant.