2007 Silicon Valley Regional

[Cory]

Originally Posted by DotCom

Oooh, I was meaning to ask team 488 how their ramps were able to keep lifting even after they cut the power. I never had a chance to ask, though. =[

They were actuated with gas springs.

[AznPrincess3089]

Originally Posted by DotCom

I think you did lift us once...second match of quarter-finals, I think? I remember driving onto your ramp with only 3/4 of our robot on your ramp and you still managed to lift us at least 4". =)

Oooh, I was meaning to ask team 488 how their ramps were able to keep lifting even after they cut the power. I never had a chance to ask, though. =[

I don't think we got the points for that. I was pretty sure that you guys acted as a counter balance to lift 254 up all the way even if they were on the blue (unsupported) side. Lol, everything was kind of a daze when we saw Raptor lifted.

[DotCom]

Originally Posted by AznPrincess3089

I don't think we got the points for that. I was pretty sure that you guys acted as a counter balance to lift 254 up all the way even if they were on the blue (unsupported) side. Lol, everything was kind of a daze when we saw Raptor lifted.

Really? I think that was in the first match when we were the counter balance. And then in the second match Raptor was pinned against the rack, so we got on the ramp...

[royal_robotix]

Originally Posted by DotCom

Really? I think that was in the first match when we were the counter balance. And then in the second match Raptor was pinned against the rack, so we got on the ramp...

we did get the points for lifting both bots but i dont think we got the full 60 pts

[JB987]

Team 987 would like to congratulate the winning alliance (and all of the other great teams that made this regional such an awesome experience for us). We were especially impressed with the friendliness of the folks at the regional and look forward to a return visit! We can't wait to see some of you again, at our regional and/or at Atlanta...

[Guy Davidson]

Team 8 would like to thank and congratulate:
The winning alliance, teams 190, 1280, and 1516 for their victory.
The finalists, teams 488, 766, and 852 for making it to the finals.
All teams that made eliminations, becuase it's something.
Everyone who fielded a robot, because that's what we were there to do.
Everyone who had fun, because what's the point if we didn't have fun?
Everyone who learned something, because learning is awesome.

For those of you we'll see again at Vegas, we can't wait. We plan to actually have an operational bot for Vegas, and hopefully put together a more impressive show. For everyone else, good luck in whatever regionals you go to, and at Championships if you go.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by 115inventorsam

So that's how we managed to get back on the field? Amazingly I never knew that, but anyways, thank you 488! You made the team pretty darn happy when El Toro X came back on the field.

It was our pleasure. We didn't use those gearboxes, but we knew they'd come in handy for other teams, so we brought them along with us to Portland and San Jose. We started with two; now we have none.

Originally Posted by DotCom

Oooh, I was meaning to ask team 488 how their ramps were able to keep lifting even after they cut the power. I never had a chance to ask, though. =[

As others have mentioned, we use two 125 lbf., closed-loop gas springs per side to lift robots. The gas springs are held closed by some steel hooks that are pulled loose by the Fisher Price motors coupled with a 256:1 Banebots transmission. We need only a fraction of a second of power to spin the FP motors and pull the hooks, then it's up, up and away.

[Gboehm]

Any video footage avalable yet?

[Lavapicker]

Thank you for the hospitality 488! Our Hawaii kids had fun with you and 368 on Thursday. We were real bummed about getting as high as 12th, being one away from alliance captain and then not getting picked up for the quarters. Can't be blamed since our arm showed nothing in our last match because we tied the tie-strap on backwards when we changed out our grips which made tubes fall out....Ouch! To get the all-star rookie award was a total shock! We are so thankful for the recognition and are going to try hard over the next two weeks to get enough money together to make it from Hilo to Atlanta. Our kids want to bring the "haka" there. Thank you to all the teams in regionals...especially McKinley (368) who helped us so much. I"ll return the electrical tape next year..... Aloha all...hope to see some of you in Atlanta if we make it.

[TKM.368]

AUGH! Being without an internet connection since the end of the SVR has delayed our being able to make proper thank you's.

Thank you first to Teams 1700 and 971 for picking us for the Eliminations. It was a valiant effort.

We would like to thank especially Team 488 for inviting ourselves and Team 2024 to get together on Thursday night. It was a blast - Line Charades is always a winner! We knew that we were in the company of an Engineering Inspiration as well as some All Stars even before Saturday's awards ceremony. It really broke our hearts when we found ourselves playing against you folks MULTIPLE TIMES and never together. Thanks for the memories you folks and best of luck to you in the Nationals!!

[Nick 568]

All of 568 had a great time, just being able to get out of the freezing temps and into the perfect CA weather was one of the best parts for us. This was my third FIRST event, second regional, and favorite regional yet. Ran much more smoothly than the Richmond-VCU regional IMO.

We had a fantastic time hanging out with 1351 on saturday and hope to see you all again next year. At the HI regional hopefully! Thanks as well for doing the whole light-swap with us. I still think it's stupid to go to that whole new light set-up... I mean what was the point? A pain to figure out how to wire, and tells you less info than last year's light...

[Joobacca]

hey everyone, i was wondering where i can find jason morrella's awesome "silicon valley regional 2007 movie". had lots of cool footage and was just a blast!

[burkechrs1]

does anyone have any footage? is SOAP ever going to make an SVR section? i need video of SVR...

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by burkechrs1

does anyone have any footage? is SOAP ever going to make an SVR section? i need video of SVR...

We recorded the raw stream of the event. One of our mentor volunteers is currently cutting up, compressing and uploading the footage from PNW and SVR. It takes hours and hours of work as he is doing it mostly via a portable usb drive (many gigs of raw footage). Be patient, we will get it to soap or somewhere else soon!