the E-Stop

[Greg Needel]

See Team Update #7. The driver may not use the e-stop button for any reason other than to stop the robot. The robot will not be able to be restarted until the Autonomous period is over.

I take this to belive that if people don't like they way that the autonomous mode is going they can stop the robot for almost no reason........which means we will be seeing alot of "emergency" stops??

[Gadget470]

Sounds like a smart move. E-Stop, however yes, the E means emergency, but it's there so for safety. What if the program says.. go left, then up the ramp. But they are on the left side (needing to go right) and forgot to flip their switch the right way. That's not an emergency, but it can cost them the match if they drive the wrong way and get stuck on the side barrier.

It doesn't take much to disable a bot if it's caught on the side, we noticed this last year in the finals at GLR. After Truck Town blew a motor, we went with us (247) and 274. 274 had a small piece of sheet metal get jammed on the barrier when going for balls. That put us against 2 powerful teams, and thus a loss.

[Ian W.]

the E-Stop button does not disable you for the match!

last year, pushing it down disabled you. to re-enable yourself, you would twist the button, and it would pop back up. then, you could drive around again. useful for almost nothing last year, very important this year.

if you hit the E-Stop button, your robot light shuts off, and your player station light blinks (i believe). when you twist and release the E-Stop button, both should come on solid again.

keep in mind, the referees will disable you if you aren't quick enough to do it yourself, and from what i've seen, they don't re-enable you.

[Lee]

According to update #9, if a team member presses the E-Stop button, the autonomous period is stopped and driver operated play is suspended for 30 seconds. According to a FIRST question I posed, if the referee stops the robot during autonomous period, AND, if there is no evidence of further damage to the field, etc, the robot will restart during driver operated mode with no delay. This means using the E-Stop button for convenience will definitely hurt your match.

[Swampdude]

How did this work out at the regionals? Were people using the buttons to manage Auto mode? Did the refs dissable you for 15 seconds into manual? Or were you able to pop it into manual as soon as you could reach the button (jump 3' to controls, twist, pull and go)? Seems like the ruling switched from it's earlier 30 second penalty..???

[Mark McLeod]

At the BAE Regional we (358) used the E-Stop several times during the practice rounds on Thursday during autonomous mode to stop the robot from shoving against a wall for the entire 15 sec. The E-Stop kept us from driving for 30 sec., so the autonomous period was long over by the time we got moving again.

[David Lantz]

Team 45 also used their E-stop several times throughout the practice sessions and they payed for it with a 30 sec time out. We personally never used it because we knew what the consequenses of doing that during a quallifying round could be.

[Cory]

At Sac many teams disabled their autonomy in practice. I can remember a single instance in which this happened t=during real play though.

Cory

[Billius]

I only used the E-Stop in a practice round. Our auton program went crazy and attacked the spectators (seriously, it LEFT THE PLAYING FIELD, would have been cooler if it went after the judges, lol j/k). However, since our robot coasts very wheel, it was a good couple more seconds before it actually stopped.

Anyway, back to the point of this thread, make sure that you twist the E-Stop button all the way in and then make sure that you release it by twisting it the other direction (there are arrows on the button). If you don't release the button, you can be disabled for the whole match.

[Wetzel]

Originally posted by Billius

make sure that you twist the E-Stop button all the way in and then make sure that you release it by twisting it the other direction (there are arrows on the button).

You do not need to twist it down, just slap it.
Twist to release.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~
Safety is easy.

[jonathan lall]

Yeah... in one match in WMR, the bracket for our radio fell on the E-stop, and disabled us. It doesn't take much to kill your robot...