[FTC]: 2014-2015 Game Manual Part 1 Now Online

[safiq10]

Im having trouble finding these AM-2964 could someone post a link to it?

[MattRain]

A link has not been given yet.

[safiq10]

Alright that is reassuring I thought I was going crazy when I couldn't find the motor.

[ehochstein]

I spoke with an AndyMark rep - details will of course be posted on the website when it comes out but it sounds like the motor has the same speed and torque but the life span could be up to 2 times greater. We won't really know until the motor is released of course.

[CENTURION]

d. High traction wheels, eg. AM- 2256, that may damage the playing field are not allowed.

Noooooooooooooooo!

The 4" HiGrips are awesome!

[Nemo]

Overall, I'm pretty thrilled with the increased flexibility in this year's rules.

We'll need a long string of Q&A's to ask about legality of specific wheels.

I thought we'd see a weight limit this year. It seems weird to allow these robots to be 50 lbs, 70 lbs, etc.

My wish for 2016 is a completely new control system (brain, radio, motor controllers, motors). But mechanically, FTC is in a great place, and we should see some pretty sweet machines this year.

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by Nemo

My wish for 2016 is a completely new control system (brain, radio, motor controllers, motors). But mechanically, FTC is in a great place, and we should see some pretty sweet machines this year.

As soon as we see those RobotC bugs worked out for the eV3, I'm sure we will.

[MattRain]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

Noooooooooooooooo!

The 4" HiGrips are awesome!

They are awesome. But, as a team who loans their full field out, we hate them chewing up our mats.

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by MattRain

They are awesome. But, as a team who loans their full field out, we hate them chewing up our mats.

Huh, we ran them for one regional, two scrimmages (think slightly-smaller-regional), and a couple outreach events on our mats (actually, all those events were on the same mats, we provide two fields for the regional, and run the scrimmages), never had any damage.

I guess you'd see more damage if teams are running them without a dropped-center?

What kind of damage were you seeing? Do you know how the wheel caused it?

[MattRain]

Chucks or rips here and there. Part of it was probably the non dropped-center robots. We only had a little bit of damage, but we would like to get a few seasons out of one set of pads and we are on our third set now.

[Recondelta090]

From what I saw, previous rule, 2013-14 Game Manual Rule <R08>n.6 was not included in this year's game manual.

vi. The processor included in the Prototype Board may not be reprogrammed.

Although, it says nothing in the rules about it being allowed to be programmed either.
Also, I think it may be helpful in some cases that a 9V battery can be used to power the Prototype Board.

[ehochstein]

I grabbed some pictures from IRI of the new motor and a 2 speed shifting gearbox!

[CENTURION]

That's really cool and all, and I'd love to use it in a drivetrain just for cool factor. But holy whoah it's huge. Can you even fit two of those across from each other in a robot?

Honestly, with the size of the field, and the amount of stuff that's on it, I don't see a need for shifting. There's not enough space to really get up to speed anyway.

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

That's really cool and all, and I'd love to use it in a drivetrain just for cool factor. But holy whoah it's huge. Can you even fit two of those across from each other in a robot?

Honestly, with the size of the field, and the amount of stuff that's on it, I don't see a need for shifting. There's not enough space to really get up to speed anyway.

In my opinion, there is a place for shifters in FTC. A heavy FTC robot with decently grippy wheels (such as rubber lego tires) has to be geared really slow to be traction limited.

[safiq10]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

That's really cool and all, and I'd love to use it in a drivetrain just for cool factor. But holy whoah it's huge. Can you even fit two of those across from each other in a robot?

Honestly, with the size of the field, and the amount of stuff that's on it, I don't see a need for shifting. There's not enough space to really get up to speed anyway.

I also agree with you in that the field is too small for a shifter. But I can see it being used in mechanism designs. The most immediate design would be a winch system that FRC used this year.