2008 Davis Sacramento Regional

[Doug G]

Originally Posted by Andy L

I read somewhere here that someone was posting video on soap. I'm too tired right now to search for it, but I was wondering if I could get the uncut footage of the finals and the uncut footage of awards.

Please PM me if you have either of those

I was originally going to do the video - but my PC I use for recording and archiving went on the frits. Luckily Mike (PhatMike), from 1388, was all setup with their system and recorded as much as they could.

Thanks Mike!!

Congrats again to the FemBots for winning the Chairman's and their mentor Gary Blakesley for winning the Woodie Flowers Award. Your team is a big inspiration for many of us, keep up all the amazing things you do.

[Sam N.]

Forgive me for throwing a wrench into the post-Davis optimism.

I was utterly disgusted with the refereeing at that competition. Between not counting hurdles and calling very debatable <G22>s, our team was beset by constant headaches due to the referees.

Note that the head ref at Davis was the same ref that went into round four at SVR.

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by Sam N.

Forgive me for throwing a wrench into the post-Davis optimism.

I was utterly disgusted with the refereeing at that competition. Between not counting hurdles and calling very debatable <G22>s, our team was beset by constant headaches due to the referees.

Note that the head ref at Davis was the same ref that went into round four at SVR.

I think the head ref did fine, every time I had a question about the rules through SVR and Davis Andy would always answer the question exactly to the rule.

On the other hand there was a couple times where I would be standing behind our drivers see a team pull around FULL SPEED into our drivers station then go over a line backwards and NO PENALTY, no g22, no ramming, nothing. I look up to see the ref who's supposed to be watching our area looking across the field.

On the other hand I liked the MC and the Announcer, I think this was the first time doing mc or announcer for them.

[Steven S]

Originally Posted by Cleinhun

I had predicted we would end up in an alliance with 701. I think it was a good pick, you guys did great in both of our quarter final matches. It's too bad we stopped there. It was a fun regional anyway, and good luck to everyone at Atlanta.

yeah i do believe we all did well, our alliance just ran into a bit of bad luck both matches, oh well, it was fun anyways.
Hopefully see you at Nationals!

[Sam N.]

Originally Posted by Andy L

I think the head ref did fine, every time I had a question about the rules through SVR and Davis Andy would always answer the question exactly to the rule.

On the other hand there was a couple times where I would be standing behind our drivers see a team pull around FULL SPEED into our drivers station then go over a line backwards and NO PENALTY, no g22, no ramming, nothing. I look up to see the ref who's supposed to be watching our area looking across the field.

On the other hand I liked the MC and the Announcer, I think this was the first time doing mc or announcer for them.

I'm glad someone else caught the ridiculous call inconsistencies. The MC was great. Not as good as Mark Leon but still cool.

We were all sick of the disembodied voice by the end of Davis. (but that's just one team's opinion)

We're going to write a letter to FIRST to complain about how the refs can inadvertently carry one alliance to victory over another. The game this year had the potential to be great (I was very excited at kickoff) but between penalties and the referees, it turned into one big headache.

Despite my complaining and outright anger, the matches we played were honest-to-goodness fun. We all had a great time. Congratulations to all teams.

Sam

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by Sam N.

I'm glad someone else caught the ridiculous call inconsistencies. The MC was great. Not as good as Mark Leon but still cool.

We were all sick of the disembodied voice by the end of Davis. (but that's just one team's opinion)

We're going to write a letter to FIRST to complain about how the refs can inadvertently carry one alliance to victory over another. The game this year had the potential to be great (I was very excited at kickoff) but between penalties and the referees, it turned into one big headache.

Despite my complaining and outright anger, the matches we played were honest-to-goodness fun. We all had a great time. Congratulations to all teams.

Sam

I wouldn't blame the refs so much as the game itself. Remember that many of these refs have been reff-ing for many years. We never saw problems of this magnitude in 2006 or 2007.

As for the MC I thought he was... strange? Hilarious? lol . Some of his catch phrases:

"And now for 2 minutes of unadulterated fun and enthusiasm!"
"And now for 2 minutes of unbridled fun and excitement!"
"The zebras are huddling…"

[Bigflip2073]

I did find the MC pretty funny and I especially loved how when it go to the finals the "Unadulterared Excitment" turned into just "Pure passion and excitment"

[Daniel Bathgate]

Well that was a lot of fun!

A summary of the weekend for 2144:

On Thursday, we only sent 4 students and two mentors. We replaced our 12:1 gearboxes with 9:1s to increase our speed from about 13fps to around 17fps, and replaced our constantly bending Coolie Dualie omni wheels with AndyMark plastic omnis. We had no problems with our drivetrain for the whole competition, while we had to bend the old wheels back into shape after nearly every match at SVR.

On Friday, the rest of the team came and we began the qualifications. A PWM cable came out before the first match, causing us to have 3/4ths of a drivetrain. Our amazing driver was able to control our omnidrive like a tank by only using the good diagonal and made our robot look like it was still fully functional.

Once some hot glue on the PWMs made sure our robot could always drive with all the wheels, the autonomous was able to get three lines in a majority of the matches. We used IR to signal the turns, a simple solution that worked much better than the complicated ultrasonic based autonomous we had previously attempted. However, this did limit us to three lines as the IR would not work all the way across the field and through the plexiglass. We tried to use another alliance partner's robocoach to signal the last turn, but the angle to the IR receiver prevented this from working.

Not being able to signal the robot past the third line became a huge problem when the lane was clear. One of the first times we got 3 lines, the robot got hung up on the center afterwards, coming to a nice stop. Another match, it bumped some other robots on the way and slowed down. But when the lane was clear, it accelerated over the entire length of the field and hit our own alliance's wall traveling at full speed. Even better was that our robot rammed our own driver's station, so we ended up destroying our own joystick and earning a disable for the match. I then changed the speed of robot after its second turn at to what I thought would be a nice leisurely amble across the third line... but the value I picked was reasonable with the old drivetrain. The robot dutifully accelerated to what appeared to observers as full speed and hit our alliance's wall once again, earning another disable and the gift of a yellow card. Our alliance still won that match by the points we earned in autonomous, proving that we couldn't afford to disable the hybrid mode altogether.

Later on Friday, we received the Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award for our omnidrive and use of the gyroscope in autonomous, a real surprise to our team.

On Friday, anxious not to be disqualified as we displayed our pretty yellow flag, we started our autonomous by stopping after two lines and slowly worked up to getting the third once again. Our driver continued to play great legal defense, keeping the ball away from hurdlers and decapping at the end of matches. We may have even blocked a hurdle from 1388 with our extended poker stick (whether it would have gone over is arguable, but seeing the ball bounce backwards was really something!)

We ended up the 12th seeded team, and captained the 7th alliance. Together with 1351 (TKO) and 852 (Athenian Robotics Collective), we put on a real fight in the finals. We lost the first match, but with a total of 4 lines in autonomous, defense, Mitty's great hurdling, and the Athenians helping ensure Mitty always had a trackball, we won our second quarterfinal match by a large margin. The third match ended with our alliance losing by a painfully close score of 58 to 56 after a penalty assessed on our alliance.

2551 and 1388 had truly impressive robots that we can't be ashamed to lose to despite as bitter a match ending as close as possible (especially with a penalty) can make someone. Eagle Robotics' hammer was amazing to watch, and the Penguin Empire's robot made their team number seem several thousand too high.

I would like to thank Mitty and the Athenians one more time for being on our alliance. There aren't two teams I would rather have the pleasure of working with. And lastly, congratulations again to 852 on winning the General Motors Industrial Design Award - us getting an award for our omnidrive just didn't feel right with yours in the same competition!

[Sam N.]

The finals were some great matches.

Our robot was the only hurdler but 2144 made sure we always ended hybrid mode with a points advantage. 852 was by far the best herder I have seen (a true testament to how effective a well-thought-out design is).

We hurdled as much as we could while trying to stay in the quadrant of the field closest to our alliance station wall. We had some awesome teamwork going as 852 would bring the trackballs around to the quadrant we were parked in so we could catapult them over the overpass one after another.

While I still think it was the penalties that determined that match, the other alliance was very admirable. 1388's catapult blotted out the sun and 2551 was a very reliable hurdler (not to mention a great hybrid routine).

Our season is over, so it's fitting to say: see you all next year!

[Gboehm]

To me there were 2 high points to the weekend. The first one was the first match of the quarter-finals, where we scored 40 points in autonomous and manage to beat the first ranked alliance, they went on to win the next two, but we made em work for it!

The seconed high point was 2390, a little backround to the story first. In my school district a new high school was created, for expansion and such. The former 1458 (Monte Vista, who is also in our district) mentor went over to Doherty Valley (2390) to start a robotics program. But this new high school is only freshmen and sophomores. With help from us and 1458 they made the "little box on wheels" (my favorite design!). We helped them program and get their autonomous going, and I helped them when a PWM cable caught fire patched it up. They ran tough and ranked 15th, but were not selected for the finals, but since they were the highest ranked non chosen. they were stuck in the back up spot for the finals. While 1516 and 1458 were watching the final matches we saw 2390 get qued up to go in and play in the finals. So Monte Vista (1458) and California High (1516) went down to cheer as hard as we could. and even though they didnt win, to see how nervous and how much fun they were having even when they lost almost brought a tear to my eye.

Yea... I enjoyed my first year as a mentor...

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by Gboehm

The former 1458

He means the former 1458 mentor went over to Dougherty

[MAD skills]

All of team 1388 is incredibly happy we made it to finals! thanks to our alliance teams, and a special thanks to team 2159, who graciously stepped down from their spot, which i belive was a leading factor in us getting as far as we did. that took lots of honesty, i think. thank you!

second place didnt get us to atlanta, but we werent bummed for to long- we got the eniginering inspiration award! thanks to all of our team members who were interviewed for the chairmans award, your interview got us to atlanta!!!

Congratulations to everyone who won anything! YOU GUYS ROCK!

HAmmertime says thanks for all the complements!

[MAD skills]

Originally Posted by Sam N.

Forgive me for throwing a wrench into the post-Davis optimism.

I was utterly disgusted with the refereeing at that competition. Between not counting hurdles and calling very debatable <G22>s, our team was beset by constant headaches due to the referees.

Note that the head ref at Davis was the same ref that went into round four at SVR.

i agree. there was several times that a certain ref seemed to pick on us, but everything turned out the best way. our drivers have been voted 'bad (donkey's)' because of their constant status in the complaint chair thing. it was really fun!!!!

[Gboehm]

Originally Posted by Andy L

He means the former 1458 mentor went over to Dougherty

Fixed it, thanks Andy

[C222]

Wooo! team 852 had a great time there. Thank you RADbot and TKO. Harker Robotics, Hammer Time, and Penguin empire sure gave us one heck of good quarterfinal round.


(full of unadulterated passion and excitement)