Is your team going to use a beacon tracker?

[hay4man]

Mr. Watson,

Our team tried for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th weeks to get the trackers to work. During this time, all the mistakes as far as documentation provided by FIRST were discovered, in specific, the mistakes concerning the wiring of the beacon, AS WELL AS, the wiring of the sensors. I felt that I could trust FIRST's documentation, but now that trust has been lost. After all the aggravation caused by the situation with the documentation, we finally had it so that the sensors could see the beacon when we ran "Tracker".

Then came the tough part of putting the heat shrink on the sensors and attaching the sensors to the servos, which we did. They did not work, so we finally decided to give up. I eventually ended up with the idea somehow, that we may have over-heated the IR sensors by blow drying the heat shrink. If so, then the sensors are too sensitive. Another reason for giving up, is that we did not want to have to deal with the hassle of mounting the servos 44 inches off the ground, which is double the height of our tallest tier. I just felt like I couldn't trust the trackers. I am interested to see how dependable they are during actual game time.

If IR sensing is required in future FIRST competitions, I honestly believe that FIRST should get its documentation straight, and that FIRST should supply specific instructions (and warnings about over-heating using a blow dryer) that will work every time. It would also be helpful if the beacons were to be mounted at heights ranging from maybe 12-24 inches.

Alexander Hayman