Time to the top...

[David.Cook]

MOE, if you are doubtful about auton bots getting to the stack in 2-3 seconds, then you didn't watch the Fla Regional. I think it was team 312 that did it consistently. I was totally amazed, but they did it several times (at least - I didn't see everything)

Regarding the possibility of slipping on the carpet, we had that difficulty in our testing before we shipped, so we created what we called "MotorSave" code. This is a special algorithm that runs in all modes. The last thing you do before you actually output a new motor command, is compare it to the previous motor command. Obviously, you must do each motor independently. You limit the maximum change in motor command to some value 10, 20, 30, 40, whatever you think is best.

The first thing we noticed when we did that is we didn't hurt our clutches nearly as much, so they last longer. The second thing is you can find the value that keeps your wheels from slipping on the carpet when you jam the joystick to full. Best of all, our driver says he has the best control he has ever had. (At first he was worried that the response was slow)

This goes a long way towards making auton work better. The other thing we do is change the battery between every match. Even in Elimination rounds we have the guys running to the pit to keep them charged.

Sparky takes ~4 seconds to get to the top and knock bins. I believe we could get there in 3 seconds given time to test things, but we do a couple things that slow us down.
First, we don't go full speed until we finish our turn and are heading up the ramp. Second, we slow down (yeah, that's right) just before we contact the bins. It yields a better bin-fall when you go slow. Third, we make a pretty wide turn. It took a lot of tweaking to get the turn radius the same in left and right-hand modes, so we won't be mucking around with that.

Final comment: Getting to the top of the ramp first does not guarantee a win. We have not been first in many matches we won. It is the remaining 1:45 that really makes the difference.

Final Final Comment: <rant> Why doesn't anyone really try to maximize the score by balancing the bin count on both sides?????
I mean, even if both teams have only a two stack left, you still really want to win with 20 bins on one side and 21 on the other - YOU GET WAY MORE QP THAT WAY. But every match I see the same thing, the team gets 95% of the bins on their side, and then make the ultimately unintelligent move of proceeding to clear the rest of the bins off the opponents side. Geez, those are 2-for-1 points you are losing. If you take out the 4x multiplier, you have divided you QP adder by 8! I really thought teams would understand that you absolutely WANT a close match. I am not talking about fixing matches - BOO! I just think before the drivers get caught up in the Battlebot mentality they should consider whether they want enough points to be able to pick their alliance at the end of the day. </rant>
Sorry if I drifted off topic a little *cheesy grin*.

[Disclaimer: the rant which preceded is not necessarily the view of Tucker HS or the rest of team Sparky, just the ravings of one slightly frustrated mentor.]