Interesting Q/A's

[Andrew Blair]

Yes.

It makes it sound like only an open, gravity fed hopper is permissable. I doubt my fears however; even in a gravity hopper, it would be somewhat difficult to count all the balls from a distance.

Looks like we'll have to buy some Lexan!

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

It makes it sound like only an open, gravity fed hopper is permissable. I doubt my fears however; even in a gravity hopper, it would be somewhat difficult to count all the balls from a distance.

Not quite, a conveyor system with lexan side walls or a perforated conveyor material would be legal, provided there was a manual handle or crank you could use to manually advance it when the robot is powered down.

[Jon K.]

http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=182 That one is great, it asks about the end of auto, and the GDC answered for the end of the match. Very wierd.

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by Jon K.

http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=182 That one is great, it asks about the end of auto, and the GDC answered for the end of the match. Very wierd.

Originally Posted by GDC

The scoring system has been designed with this situation in mind. The counting system for the Corner Goals will be turned off as the buzzer sounds and the period ends. Balls that have not entered the Corner Goal when the period ends will not be counted. Balls thrown at the Center Goal will be counted if they have been released from the robot at the end of the period, and are in flight or in the goal as the buzzer sounds.

They seem to have answered the question for all four of the periods, including autonomous.


I think that the "no flopping bots" rule is quite interesting, a la 2005 HOT and 2002 Hammond.

Originally Posted by G17

<G17> ROBOT Orientation - ROBOTs must maintain their vertical orientation with respect to their starting
position throughout the match. ROBOTs may not intentionally tip over onto one of their initially vertical
sides and operate with this side parallel to the ground. If a ROBOT is accidentally or intentionally tipped
over onto its side, it cannot score any balls in any goals from this orientation.

[rees2001]

I was a little confused by this question...

Definition of midnight
Please clarify the definition of midnight in the robot ship rule:
Quote:
6.6.1.1 Crate Shipment Deadline and Requirement
ALL team crates must leave the team's hands or be delivered to the team’s initial event’s drayage warehouse
by midnight local time February 21, 2006.
Is midnight one minute after 11:59 pm, or is it one minute before 12:01 am?
Reply With Quote

answer.....
Re: Definition of midnight
If you ship at any time on February 21, 2006 you will be in compliance with the "by midnight local time" rule.

Oh thanks, that really helps.

(please lets not start a discussion on when a day starts or ends)

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by rees2001

I was a little confused by this question...

Definition of midnight
Please clarify the definition of midnight in the robot ship rule:
Quote:
6.6.1.1 Crate Shipment Deadline and Requirement
ALL team crates must leave the team's hands or be delivered to the team’s initial event’s drayage warehouse
by midnight local time February 21, 2006.
Is midnight one minute after 11:59 pm, or is it one minute before 12:01 am?
Reply With Quote

answer.....
Re: Definition of midnight
If you ship at any time on February 21, 2006 you will be in compliance with the "by midnight local time" rule.

Oh thanks, that really helps.

(please lets not start a discussion on when a day starts or ends)

OK, I'm a new mentor for FRC, and the main mentor asked me to check into shipping rules. Other deadlines (such as Chairman's) specify 11:59 pm. I didn't want our team to get Cinderella'd because there was a misunderstanding in regard to which day midnight belonged to - that's all.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by GaryV1188

OK, I'm a new mentor for FRC, and the main mentor asked me to check into shipping rules. Other deadlines (such as Chairman's) specify 11:59 pm. I didn't want our team to get Cinderella'd because there was a misunderstanding in regard to which day midnight belonged to - that's all.

Don't worry so much about it. I would just plan a pick up sometime in the afternoon and you will be fine. I really doubt you could get a fedex truck to be at your facility at midnight anyway.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

Don't worry so much about it. I would just plan a pick up sometime in the afternoon and you will be fine. I really doubt you could get a fedex truck to be at your facility at midnight anyway.

No, but I wouldn't want FedEx to show up at 5:00 pm Tuesday, only then find out because of the way midnight was defined, we were 17 hours too late!

[Greg Needel]

i understand. Just ship it mid day on tuesday and you will be fine.

[AmyPrib]

Back to Q/A's......

I wouldn't have thought about this one:

Question:
A team we are mentoring has a 16 year old dropout that has already received her GED. Would she be eligible to compete as a pre-college student?

Answer:
If the team member already has a GED, then by definition they have graduated. Unless they are currently enrolled in another pre-college academic program (e.g. college prep school, vocational school, etc.), they are no longer a student and would not be eligible to be either a HUMAN PLAYER or DRIVER. The member can still be involved in EVERY other aspect of a team - design, build, pit area, PR, scouting, and so on - there are MANY roles on a team.

[Rombus]

Originally Posted by ahecht

Not quite, a conveyor system with lexan side walls or a perforated conveyor material would be legal, provided there was a manual handle or crank you could use to manually advance it when the robot is powered down.

GMTA! Me and my team were discussing this a few days ago, Would be funny to go out there with a model-t crank to unload our bot!

In any case, im thinking it would be alot simpler to use some hinges and latches and create a opening section of lexan to load/unload our bot

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Rombus

In any case, im thinking it would be a lot simpler to use some hinges and latches and create a opening section of lexan to load/unload our bot

Velcro!

[dubious elise]

I read through this a few times and I'm still slightly mystified.
On one hand, we have this ...

Question: It's my understanding that the scoring system counts balls as they go through the goal slots. If they are using a beam break sensor, which seems the most obvious, will it get confused and/or miscount if a large amount of balls is dumped in a corner goal at once (ie. dumptruck style)?

Answer: Balls are scored using a combination of real-time ball counters. Balls scored in the Corner Goals are counted by a vision system as they pass over a lighted strip as they enter the corrals. Balls scored in the Center Goal are counted using a photoswitch as they enter the return tube. Additional photoswitches detect balls scored in the Center Goal, but not yet counted at the end of a period, to tell the scoring system to wait 5 seconds to be sure all balls are counted.

yet in another thread, I found this

Question: This line of questions deals with the timing of scored balls in the center goal (section 4.3.3). If team A gets 10 balls into the goal in auton, but only 7 make it to the detector by the end of auton, how many count for auton, 7 or 10? If the answer above is 7 and team A ends up going on defense first, what happens to the 3 balls that went in the goal, but not past the detector? If the answer is 10, is there a delay before the second period starts in order to count the balls?

Answer: The scoring system has been designed with this situation in mind. The counting system for the Corner Goals will be turned off as the buzzer sounds and the period ends. Balls that have not entered the Corner Goal when the period ends will not be counted. Balls thrown at the Center Goal will be counted if they have been released from the robot at the end of the period, and are in flight or in the goal as the buzzer sounds.

Any thoughts, or are these two rulings relating to totally separate parts of the game?

[KenWittlief]

it sounds like there must be a pause for the counters to register, between the end of auton mode and the next phase of the game?

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by dubious elise

Any thoughts, or are these two rulings relating to totally separate parts of the game?

I'm not exactly sure what the questions is, but it sounds like there will be a 5sec grace period for balls to be counted at the end of automode. However, if they are to count balls that are in the air as the buzzer sounds, but aren't yet in the center goal, will it still tell the scoring system to make a 5sec delay? Bottom line, is there a 5sec pause no matter what at the end of automode?

I suggest submitting a followup to FIRST Q/A if there are concerns, or please continue this discussion in the other "how are balls scored" threads.