2015 Between-Match Delays

[Jared Russell]

mDNS can make establishing the connection to the robot take for-freaking-ever. If anything, the large number of game pieces and long robot setup times help to mask just how long the delay can be.

[MrTechCenter]

We ran into a similar issue at Central Valley in Week 2. We were behind schedule quite a bit, so we had teams unplug their driver stations immediately after the match ended and the next match would plug their stations in as quickly as possible. The driver stations for the next match would connect to the FMS, but the next match wouldn't be pre-started yet, so they wouldn't see communications with their robot yet. Most of the time, we had to have teams restart the driver station application. But even then, the delay wasn't huge.

I think the biggest delays come during eliminations, because alliances will face back-to-back situations and this requires a field timeout. Tack on a timeout or two and there's a slightly longer today. Still, most regionals are ending on time or earlier than expected.

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

mDNS can make establishing the connection to the robot take for-freaking-ever. If anything, the large number of game pieces and long robot setup times help to mask just how long the delay can be.

Once a good rhythm is established the various sources of delay tend to align, i.e. they all mask each other and it appears smooth and painless on the surface.
At a couple of my events we timed the inter-match delay and it was interesting to see how much perception and reality were uncorrelated.