Interesting Q/A's

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by FlyingDutchman

I am having trouble with posting a thread can you help me

Repeated for emphasis:

Originally Posted by AmyPrib

You must be a mentor and team main contact to receive the login required to post on the FIRST Q/A system.

Your Main Contact should have received a username and password for this purpose. If you lost it for whatever reason, contact FIRST.

[FlyingDutchman]

hey thanks and what reginal are you at my team is at Denver and Portland

[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.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

Q:[/b] 6.3.5 states "FIRST will allow you to keep all of your robot controls ...to continue to work on your programming.

+

A:The Robot Controller ... must be shipped with the robot

[Spock][raise eyebrow] Highly illogical! [/raise eyebrow] [/Spock]

Ken, read the entire section you removed from your quote. Mainly the one I've bolded below.



Q: 6.3.5 states "FIRST will allow you to keep all of your robot controls (Operator Interface, OI power supply, joysticks, etc.) and not ship them with your robot on Tuesday, 2/21/2006. This will allow you to continue to work on your programming. If you decide not to ship controls with your robot, please rememberyour initial competition. FIRST does not have replacement controls."

Just to be sure, does the Robot Controller fall under the "etc." mentioned in 6.3.5?

A:The Robot Controller is considered part of the robot, not part of the operator interface. As such, it must be shipped with the robot prior to the shipping deadline.

I don't see any confusion here.

[KenWittlief]

The confusion?!

The code is loaded into the robot controller, not the user interface.

If you dont hang onto the robot controller you will have nothing to load your code into, so you cant test it, work on it, debug it - nothing?

what can you do with the user interface if you dont have the robot controller? Nothing!

So whats the point of keeping half the control system? Teams that have money can buy a second robot controller. Teams that dont get to sit on their hands for 4 weeks.

[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

[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.

[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!