**FIRST EMAIL**/Advance Material List for the 2005 Competition Now Available!

[Eric Brummer]

Maybe the color of the paint doesn't matter at all. FIRST talked with Behr paints and they decided on an "ugly" color most likely to be found and under used by normal painting. OK so we know FIRST is calculated enough that the color would matter.

[MikeDubreuil]

There's 100 feet of 1 1/4 in. Sch. 40 Electrical Conduit. Hmm... with all this pipe- anyone thinking of Ladder Logic?

[Joel J]

Originally Posted by Rickertsen2

The Pipe couplings indicate that the pipe will be used in lengths larger than 10ft.

EDIT::
NEvermind.... The couplings are a different size

I doubt this is the case, but it would be really cool if the magned was embedded in the floor and we had to use HAL sensors to figure out when we are over a certian point on the field.

It looks like there will be a raised platform but not a high one judging from the lack of support material. I picture the plywood supported by the 1x3s and 2x 3s layed on their side.

There will definately be something moving.

Judging by the aount of small hardware there willbe something small but complex.

I don't think the second thinner sheet of plywood will be supporting weight.

lol. the entire field is raised a few inches, and there is a pit in the middle.. "ramp down."

[ebmonon36]

Originally Posted by DucktapeRaptor

Maybe the color of the paint doesn't matter at all. FIRST talked with Behr paints and they decided on an "ugly" color most likely to be found and under used by normal painting. OK so we know FIRST is calculated enough that the color would matter.

I don't think that the color being the most ugly would matter. Most of the paint at Home Depot is mixed when you go to buy it.
Eric

[Will Hanashiro]

we're playin paintball: robot style!!!

the robots are going to be runnin around... throwin paint on eachother, and we pre-spray our robots with the grease to make sure the paint rubs off easily at the end. hehee

imagine each team havin a different color paint to use... then we'd have some wildstang colored bots drivin around


just kiddin guys.

[Hinkel Y.]

The paint is a flat paint, which won't reflect IR light like glossy. Last year there was a big problem with the light reflecting everywhere at competitions.

Originally Posted by Will Hanashiro

imagine each team havin a different color paint to use...

In that case, our team wants to reserve white and red paint

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil

There's 100 feet of 1 1/4 in. Sch. 40 Electrical Conduit. Hmm... with all this pipe- anyone thinking of Ladder Logic?

24 PVC end caps sized for the ten pieces of conduit and and only 1 coupling? No elbows that I can see listed. I don't think we'll have much more than straight runs unless they have conduit elbows in the kit which seems unlikely.

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Dzdconfusd

24 PVC end caps sized for the ten pieces of conduit and and only 1 coupling? No elbows that I can see listed. I don't think we'll have much more than straight runs unless they have conduit elbows in the kit which seems unlikely.

Yeah, but by your same argument; what are the other 8 pipes connected to- nothing? I'd have to presume either many parts are in the kit or a revised field parts list is coming out.

I'm no expert in building materials but I would assume that 10ft sections of pipe are the largest that the average person can easily transport. I'm guessing they won't stay that size and the field blueprints will require teams to cut up the 10ft sections into something smaller.

[Joshua May]

In addition to such strange items as the 35 ANSI chain link connector, the magnet, and the project box, I'm especially intrigued by the paint and the square foot of Lexan. As far as the paint, I'm mostly interested in the fact that only 1 quart is listed, that's a fairly small amount, I think. And this square foot of Lexan, that's smaller than the footprints of the robots (for previous years anyways). In comparison to the field (at least from 2003 and 2004) that's pretty small in size.

Oh, I just can't wait until Saturday.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Joshua May

As far as the paint, I'm mostly interested in the fact that only 1 quart is listed, that's a fairly small amount, I think.

One quart of paint will cover about 96 square feet, on a non-porous surface.

[phrontist]

That square foot of lexan is going to be a base, as in baseball. Robots will have to "tag" the base magnetically, or maybe they can detect when they are on the base through a Hall Effect sensor or Reed switch.

[Joe Ross]

What part did Dave Lavery see when he first walked into Home Depot?

[Aignam]

A few thoughts:

Has FIRST ever thrown in "decoy" parts like some people are hypothesizing? It doesn't sound like it would be a terribly intelligent idea to just throw away money like that for the sole purpose of deceiving us...

Perhaps there is more to the necessary parts that has yet to be revealed? Maybe one robot will have to tag the base which triggers something else on the field (perhaps involving the chain?), which their alliance partner must handle? Or we could see robots that could do both? The return of the mini-bot (think 2002) perhaps?

[Adam Y.]

I really hope the project light isn't for an infrared beacon. I remember reading somewhere that radioshack project boxes are actually transparent to infrared light despite being opaque to visible light.

The paint is a flat paint, which won't reflect IR light like glossy. Last year there was a big problem with the light reflecting everywhere at competitions.

Yeah but the paint isn't going to help. I can get my infared remote control to reflect of of flat paint walls.

[Max Lobovsky]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

I really hope the project light isn't for an infrared beacon. I remember reading somewhere that radioshack project boxes are actually transparent to infrared light despite being opaque to visible light.

If there were multiple boxes in the BOM, and that was true, that would add a lot of weight to the robots-distinguish-between-objects-indistinguishable-by-eye theory.