Petition: Scoring Display needs a TRUE CLOCK!!

[Justin]

Hi Everyone,

Post here or respond to the poll if you think that the new scoring display should have a CLOCK and not just a progress bar.

Justin

[Andy Baker]

Yes, I totally agree. The red numbered clock on the alliance station wall is small and difficult to see through the rack. It's hard for drive teams to determine how much time is left to go in the match. A clock on the big screen would help.

Andy B.

[BRosser314]

The new scoring bar does suck, if FIRST does decide to keep it atleast put a clock in the display too. it makes it easier to find the time then having to figure out the time remaining. Also I dont know if it was the lag of the webcast, but when I was watching VCU on Friday, the bar seemes to be either behind or too fast then when the actual match ended.

Change the bar to a clock

CLOCKS ALL THE WAY, ALSO THE BIG SPINNING LIGHTS FOR ROBOTS TOO, LOL

[Billfred]

Yes, please do add a clock. Location is unimportant, so long as we know where to look.

[haroony341]

it wouldnt be a bad idea to move the clocks on the driver stations to the middle of the field on top of the rack since there is already power there. it would be much easy to see for the drive teams

[freestylemotox]

i agree. The clocks ontop of the rack would work perfect. Then the drivers wouldnt have to be looking around for the time. Its highly unlikely for FIRST to do but its a good idea.

[Alexa Stott]

I think the clock needs to be on the screen. There is a giant contraption in the middle of the field with lots of shiny metal, which makes it really hard to see the other driver station from the opposite side of the field. Even in the stands, it's hard to see with the crowd, the robots, and the rack in the way.

I think George did a nice job at NJ, periodically announcing the remaining time.

[Koko Ed]

It's a nice visual but it's vauge as a guage to tell how much time is left in the match and teams that are strategy intensive (i.e. really good teams) really depend on knowing what time it is so they can plan out thier goals accordingly.

[Elgin Clock]

You all do realize that the progress bar changes color after one minute and then flashes during the last 20 seconds right?

It's a much better indicator for a quick glance than numbers IMHO.

Keep it.

If you really need a TRUE CLOCK at your events, then you should of signed up for NJ, Boston, Hartford & Atlanta where I will be.

[overlord]

Its not so much a problem halfway through the round or even during Autonomous. Its mostly towards the end game that its the problem. A True Clock is more accuarte on how much time is left but with the progress bar, its hard to tell just how many seconds you have left when it comes down to the last seconds of the round.

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

You all do realize that the progress bar changes color after one minute and then flashes during the last 20 seconds right?

It's a much better indicator for a quick glance than numbers IMHO.

So what if it changes color? I think it is much more useful to know exactly how much time is left without having to guess. I would rather see that there are 18 seconds left than have to process the fact that the progress bar is flashing yellow, meaning that there are no more than 20 seconds left, then try to make an estimation of what percentage of the bar is filled. Pretty, but useless. I'll take a plain old countdown clock any day.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

Yes, I totally agree. The red numbered clock on the alliance station wall is small and difficult to see through the rack. It's hard for drive teams to determine how much time is left to go in the match. A clock on the big screen would help.

Andy B.

I never even knew there was a clock on the alliance station wall.

[artdutra04]

If I had to choose between the progress bar and the clock, I would choose the latter. A clock is much better for forming an exact strategy, because then you know exactly how many seconds are left in the match.

But I have a solution that makes everyone happy.

As anyone who's familiar with iPods knows, they have both a progress bar and countdown clocks on the screen that are displayed when playing each song. A very similar concept can be adapted for use on the FRC scoreboard displays.

[Don Knight]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

You all do realize that the progress bar changes color after one minute and then flashes during the last 20 seconds right?

It's a much better indicator for a quick glance than numbers IMHO.

Keep it.

If you really need a TRUE CLOCK at your events, then you should of signed up for NJ, Boston, Hartford & Atlanta where I will be.

Elgin,
I have to agree with you, it's a great indicator.

For a 1st year scoring system, (it's a new company this year), if all teams have to complain about is having a clock vs a moving bar they've done a great job. You should be happy that the system worked so well in week one. I know its what you would expect, but it's not what has been deliverded the last few years. In the past years the scoring system still had "opportunities" past week two, three, four..... All that extra stuff that shows up on the screen this year via the scoring system is a BONUS to us all.

Teams you all have coaches and human players in your stations, they could place themselves to see the clock on the opposing teams wall. Also there are audiable warnings, plus generally the play-by-play announcer is also calling times remaining throughout the match.

Just one more man's opinion

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Don Knight

You should be happy that the system worked so well in week one.

It did? St. Louis was down for over an hour because it couldn't calculate rankings correctly. Sure, the match control went better (however, there was no automated scoring and no green light to turn on/off), so it's a step in the right direction, but not being able to calculate rankings correctly is quite literally a show-stopper defect.

Add me to the group that says there needs to be a timer on the screen. Along with that, I'd add that it would be nice to have the match number displayed on screen. This is something we've had before and I don't know why it wasn't included in the new system. It's so helpful when you pop your head out of the pits to take a look at what's going on to know which match is currently being played. Also it makes it a lot easier when reviewing recorded footage, which is what I'm doing now. Along those same lines, why are the eliminations displayed as "Match 1", "Match 2", etc? There's no way from looking at a recording of a match now to know which round (quarter's, semi's, etc) it came from, or which match it is within that round.

Two steps forward one step back I guess.