pic: Buckeye Regional Pits

[KTorak]

Those look pretty spacious compared to say GLR's pit setup...

[Sean Marks]

lots more room there then at NJ this year.

[Koko Ed]

I am ot happy with how FIRS set up the pits this year with the high/low number setup. It's very hard to find teams. If they do this at the championship it will be near impossible to find teams and make scouting very very difficult.
I must also say Buckeye's pits were more spread out than FLR's pits which were for some reason all squished together even though there was like 50 feet of empty space to the south towards the shop.

[Gene Williams]

Before I say anything too much about pits I must say that I truely enjoyed the Buckeye venue. I like this Regional. It is well run and the town has some great things going for it. I also like the fact that there is a Team Social for all to enjoy! Kudos to the planning committee and all those that helped.

About pit size, dimensions and room (or lack of): At Buckeye we had a corner pit and had more room (or so it seemed) than we did at GLR. I don't know if FIRST has a "standard" for pit dimensions, but I'd like to see it increased if they do. If we preach so much about safety...then to insure that we are not tripping over everything (safety hazard) we need to come up with a solution to allow easy movement in our pits (both inside the pit as well as the isles). After GLR I went out this past week and purchased some shelving and a new tool box to help consolidate pit "clutter" which drives me absolutely crazy! I will continue to try to maximize on the minimum that we get for our pits. We are working on solutions to make the compact size of pits work to our advantage. As you look around and see the vast amount of stuff we drag in to support our robots it truly becomes necessary to give some thought to this subject.

As far as team number placement, yes it becomes very difficult to locate teams BUT I understand that we need to mix low number teams (older teams with experience) with those high number teams (newer team still learning) so as to be able to offer help and guidance. Just think if we had such a rigid system that place teams in the same numeric order at every Regional. We could easily find each other but then we'd never have new pit neighbors to meet and become friends with.

My 2 cents

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Gene Williams

Before I say anything too much about pits I must say that I truely enjoyed the Buckeye venue. I like this Regional. It is well run and the town has some great things going for it. I also like the fact that there is a Team Social for all to enjoy! Kudos to the planning committee and all those that helped.

About pit size, dimensions and room (or lack of): At Buckeye we had a corner pit and had more room (or so it seemed) than we did at GLR. I don't know if FIRST has a "standard" for pit dimensions, but I'd like to see it increased if they do. If we preach so much about safety...then to insure that we are not tripping over everything (safety hazard) we need to come up with a solution to allow easy movement in our pits (both inside the pit as well as the isles). After GLR I went out this past week and purchased some shelving and a new tool box to help consolidate pit "clutter" which drives me absolutely crazy! I will continue to try to maximize on the minimum that we get for our pits. We are working on solutions to make the compact size of pits work to our advantage. As you look around and see the vast amount of stuff we drag in to support our robots it truly becomes necessary to give some thought to this subject.

As far as team number placement, yes it becomes very difficult to locate teams BUT I understand that we need to mix low number teams (older teams with experience) with those high number teams (newer team still learning) so as to be able to offer help and guidance. Just think if we had such a rigid system that place teams in the same numeric order at every Regional. We could easily find each other but then we'd never have new pit neighbors to meet and become friends with.

My 2 cents

Well if we were never next to 1714 Jeff Huspen would never have been as available to help them fix their robot just like he may not as been as available to help 1765 in FLR in 2006 if they weren't next to us. It's easier to notice you neighbors problems when you are witnessing them firsthand all day long then on the other side of the pits (it also helps to have a robot that doesn't require alot of reapirs).

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I am ot happy with how FIRS set up the pits this year with the high/low number setup. It's very hard to find teams. If they do this at the championship it will be near impossible to find teams and make scouting very very difficult.
I must also say Buckeye's pits were more spread out than FLR's pits which were for some reason all squished together even though there was like 50 feet of empty space to the south towards the shop.

They did that last year at Las Vegas and this year at UTC. The only reason I can see for this is that the rookies have much easier access to some veterans who can help them with any problems they have. It would also allow them to share resources much easier. Instead of going across the pits to borrow a tool that may have been left at home or to grab a programmer, they just need to lean over into the neighboring pit and tap someone on the shoulder.

I agree, though, it does make it hard to find teams sometimes. At NJ, they stuck with just doing highest->lowest.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by AtalanteStar25

They did that last year at Las Vegas and this year at UTC. The only reason I can see for this is that the rookies have much easier access to some veterans who can help them with any problems they have. It would also allow them to share resources much easier. Instead of going across the pits to borrow a tool that may have been left at home or to grab a programmer, they just need to lean over into the neighboring pit and tap someone on the shoulder.

I agree, though, it does make it hard to find teams sometimes. At NJ, they stuck with just doing highest->lowest.

Chesapeake, IMHO, had the best pit layout I'd seen, roof leaks notwithstanding. You'd have a whole row of teams in numerical order, then shuffle the rows around until you had a proper mix. So if, say, I was looking for 75, I knew they'd be in the same row as 007--same if I was looking for a rookie team (they'd be in the high-numbered row). It was the perfect blend of mixing the rookies with the veterans and having a layout where you could actually find folks.

[robostangs548]

It may look like there was more room, but compared to GLR there is about half of the room..... It was very cramped, but due to having all of the pits in the actual stadium the ventilation was much better, and you could at least breathe, and not have your goggles fog up. I think that overall this was an amazing, and I know that our team will definitely be back.

[Josh Murphy]

Man I wish there was room like this at every regional. Detroit was pretty bad as it usually is. I hope West Michigan is a little bit more spacious than it was last year.

[Koko Ed]

The place with the most room is the championships.
Compared to the regionals it's like a highway down there.

[Josh Murphy]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

The place with the most room is the championships.
Compared to the regionals it's like a highway down there.

I second that one.

[Michael Corsetto]

PNW had tons of space. The aisles between the pits were big enough to fit another row of pits We also had a complete practice field, which helps when its everyone's first regional.

[Jeremiah H]

I thought the pits at Buckeye were quite roomy, compared with other set-ups we've had. I will say, though, that whatever team(s) your pit is next to makes a big difference in how large or small a pit feels. When one of your neighbors doesn't mind your team spilling into theirs during a rushed time between matches, it really helps when there are multiple things that need to get done in a short amount of time, and it somehow makes the pit space seem bigger.

JH

[DonRotolo]

Buckeye was definitely roomier than NJ, probably owing to the lack of a hockey rink wall. I also did like seeing the rookies next to the veterans, there was considerable value there.

The venues for Buckeye and NJ are remarkably similar. Buckeye is a bit cleaner, and they have real faucets on their simks (not those hokey 'press and get 5 seconds of water' thinguies), but access to the floor from the stands could be improved.

The aisles at Buckeye were definitely wider than NJ. But, that photo is misleading, the pits were almost empty at the time.

Don