Fix-it-window experience...

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Don Wright

If FIRST wants to limit the fix-it-window time, fine. But the whole "you have to cram it into two 5-hour sessions" doesn't work. Let us do 1 or two hour sessions and just say you can't spend more than 10 hours working on parts and programming.

Anyway, just another little rant after actually experiencing a fix-it-window.

You know, I'm thinking here. I'll give you a line or two to put on your protective gear.







Ready? Good. Consider the various teams in FIRST when it comes to fabrication. You've got teams with amazing fabrication abilities in their shops, you've got teams that can get access to pretty good fabrication abilities at odd hours, and you've got teams that have a hacksaw, a pop riveter, and lots of manpower. Each of these groups is going to need a different amount of time to get close to that 25-pound weight limit.

So, I'm going to make a few assumptions regarding FIRST's intent:
-Teams should have time to make some improvements to their robots after ship/a competition.
-Teams should be able to tweak software without having a Thursday Morning Frenzy.
-Teams should NOT be able to bring 1,293 pounds of robot parts to be able to replace the same part after every single match.

That said, suppose the 2007 manual read like this:

-Teams are encouraged to use the period between ship and a competition (or between competitions) to rest, scout, gather tools, et cetera.
-You get to bring 20 pounds of anything non-COTS to each event. COTS parts remain unlimited.
-Teams get ten hours per week to develop software and make non-cosmetic changes to their OI panel. The time can be divided how the team sees fit.

How does that sound?