2009 Finger Lakes Regional!!!!

[Josh Goodman]

By the way, does anyone from 340 or 316 have that awesome picture of our alliance teams at the end? If so, could you email me one/them? Thanks a bunch!

[1t5h1e1o]

Yeah that was a pretty epic alliance. Who would have thought that 7 meets 1 in the finals.

I have to say that 340's PS was pretty awesome with last-minute super cells. Much of our strategy depended on that and he didn't disappoint.

I hope that we get another chance to work with both 316 and 340 next year at FLR if not later this year at the championship!

Thanks for making my first event as a driver (operator last year) an unforgettable one!

[Shelbo]

Thanks guys!!!
It was wonderful being able to work with 340 and 1511.

~I have a few pictures of the drive teams...I can check with the rest of the team because i'm sure someone has the picture of everyone.

Congratulations to all teams!!!

[AndrewMorrison]

This year was a big turn around for team 229.
On behalf of our team I would like to thank 1241 and 1626 for being amazing alliance partners. We would love to run with you guys again in the future, we had a blast.

Now this thread is full of congratulations and thank you's, so I feel bad having to lodge the first complaint, but I feel it is necessary.
This entire weekend it seemed like the only thing that mattered to the referees, FTA, and scoring table was staying on time.
They refused (until the very end) to believe that there could be anything wrong with the field. They refused to let 1241 link with the field in one match, and in the same match when the field stopped working with 2-3 seconds left they still almost said that the scores would stand(even though human players kept going because the buzzer never went off). We actually took the rule book to them, and showed them the rule about replaying the match whenever there was a field error. It still took them a 10 minute conference and the stands to start chanting "re-do, re-do" before they finally agreed.
We all know what happened in week one, and all the field errors that went on then, but they completely disregarded that this could even be a possibility. Now I can understand that some problems were because of a jostled wire or some code issue, but they blamed absolutely everything on the teams. It wasn't until the finals when they started to truly acknowledge field problems. After quite a bit of complaints.

Now this is all after the competition has ended, but who knows how many problems actually happened during qualifications? the rankings could have changed, and the outcome could have been completely different. (absolutely no disrespect to the winning alliance, you had a phenomenal alliance).
Speaking for my team, we were all very disappointed in how the field was ran.

[Gaurav27]

Originally Posted by AndrewMorrison

This year was a big turn around for team 229.
On behalf of our team I would like to thank 1241 and 1626 for being amazing alliance partners. We would love to run with you guys again in the future, we had a blast.

This entire weekend it seemed like the only thing that mattered to the referees, FTA, and scoring table was staying on time.
They refused (until the very end) to believe that there could be anything wrong with the field. They refused to let 1241 link with the field in one match, and in the same match when the field stopped working with 2-3 seconds left they still almost said that the scores would stand(even though human players kept going because the buzzer never went off). We actually took the rule book to them, and showed them the rule about replaying the match whenever there was a field error. It still took them a 10 minute conference and the stands to start chanting "re-do, re-do" before they finally agreed.
We all know what happened in week one, and all the field errors that went on then, but they completely disregarded that this could even be a possibility. Now I can understand that some problems were because of a jostled wire or some code issue, but they blamed absolutely everything on the teams. It wasn't until the finals when they started to truly acknowledge field problems. After quite a bit of complaints.

Now this is all after the competition has ended, but who knows how many problems actually happened during qualifications? the rankings could have changed, and the outcome could have been completely different. (absolutely no disrespect to the winning alliance, you had a phenomenal alliance).
Speaking for my team, we were all very disappointed in how the field was ran.

I definitely agree with Andrew Morrison on the points he has made.
I hope these issues are solved as soon as possible.

On behalf of Theory6, Team 1241, i would also like to thank team 229 (division by zero) and team 1626 (falcon robotics) for being our alliance partners and becoming semi finalists! We would love to work with you in the future. Good Luck to both teams at Chesapeake!

At the same time, I would like to thank all volunteers and organizers who made this regional amazing! John Darr and Karthik were a truely amazing team that kept this regional thrilling all weekend!

Congratulations to Teams 188, 1507 and 174 on their regional win! The semi finals between ours and your alliance were intense and very competitive!

I would also like to thank the programmers from Team 1511 Rolling Thunder for helping us with LabView problems we were facing. Congratulations to team 1511 on the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship and Regional Finalist Awards!

Teams Attending the Greater Toronto Regional, See you there!

[Zuhaib Ali]

Team 188 had not won a regional since 2003, and that finally changed yesterday after earning the title of the 2009 Finger Lakes Regional Champions. Thank you to our alliance partners 1507, and 174 for their great attitude and performance on and off the field.

1507: from the start, you were one of the teams we wanted to be with. You guys had amazing match strategies which really impressed us. When we were asked to join your alliance, we were more than thrilled. You guys had an awesome robot and definetly showed it especially when you won a 3 on 2 match. We knew we could count on you! Good luck at philadelphia and perhaps atlanta!

174: we were not dissappointed to have you on the alliance. We loved your willingness to go out there and do what you were told. Your team did an awesome job and contributed greatly to our alliances success. No regrets at all! Good luck an hope to see you at atlanta!

340: A little while back, i stumbled upon your website and went through alot of the content. Just by looking at your previous chariman's submissions, i said to myself that your actions definetly can't go unrewarded, and they didn't. Your team deserved the chairman's award and you guys set a marvelous example!

Another group of people who we can't thank enough for their contributions are the team 188 alumni. As i mentioned above, team 188 has not won a regional since 2003 and our alumni, despite little success on the field have been around for a while. Alumni truly understand that FIRST is not about robots and winning, its so much more which can't be simply explained! We thank you for playing an important role and using your experience to prevent us from making the same mistakes twice. Thank you greatly for your underground support!

Finally, i'd like to thank everybody who made the finger lakes regional possible. This was by far the most fun i've had at a regional and i owe that to you guys!

[rjmah]

It was 1246's first time at FLR. It is such an well run event. Field problems aside, everything from lunch catering, pit admin, queuing and pit area just went smoothly. It was a pleasure to attend.

Congrats to team 188, 1507, and 174. After seeing 188 on their practice field before shipping, it felt like they had a winner.

Karthik did his usual great energetic job. I really liked the way John never let there be any dead air time. Whether it was pointing out people in the audience, highlighting robot features or providing visitors with a better understanding of the game, he kept everything interesting.

Great Job!

[Karthik]

The 2009 Finger Lakes Regional was definitely a great time. Special thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to put this event together and keep it running smoothly. I met a lot of new people who each impressed me with their dedication to FIRST. They've definitely got something good going on in Rochester. Working with JonDarr was an absolute blast. He's definitely one of the best announcers in FIRST, and I'd love to hear him announcing a division in Atlanta.

I said it a few times during the event, but 340 deserves a lot of recognition for everything they've done in the Rochester community. After talking with their team, and hearing about their efforts I think they're on the short list of contenders for a Championship Chairman's Award. To me it's not a matter of if, rather a matter of when.

There were lots of amazing teams on the field, but none impressed me more than 1507 and 188. 1507 played well and more importantly played smart all weekend long. They'll be a force in Atlanta. As for 188, they're one of the top 3 robots that I've seen all season long. A ridiculously fast turreted shooter, which rarely missed. Shooters like 1114 and 217 had a lot of problems with accuracy in Week 1, but 188's drive team were stone cold marksmen, rarely missing shots despite not using active camera tracking. They'll be one of the favorites come mid-April in the Georgia Dome. Congratulations to all the amazing students and mentors who put that robot together.

A special congratulations to Team 1547 on a well deserved Engineering Inspiration Award. They were gracious enough to take me in as a guest this weekend, and remind me what FIRST is all about. It was a pleasure and honor to travel with the team. They're a team who really does "get it".

[Justin Montois]

Originally Posted by Shelbo

Thanks guys!!!
It was wonderful being able to work with 340 and 1511.

~I have a few pictures of the drive teams...I can check with the rest of the team because i'm sure someone has the picture of everyone.

Congratulations to all teams!!!

When you get a hold of one, please post it on CD-Media! Thanks!

It was awesome playing with you guys.

Karthik: Thanks for the kind words in your post above and throughout the competition. It means a lot and we will have to see what happens at Championship but hearing people like you say that about our team means more then any award could. Thanks again.

[Vince lau]

Congratulations to all teams that attended FLR, you all have amazing robots and gracious professionalism throughout the whole event.

1507,188,174 - you guys played amazing during the elimination rounds, congrats on the regional win.

1547 - from your start in 2005 your team has shown that you really "Get it", from your 2005 Championship Rookie Inspiration Award, 2006 NH Engineering Inspiration Award, 2007 NJ Imagery, 2008 ON Regional Chairman's Award and 2009 FLR Engineering Inspiration Award. I know your first regional win will come soon good luck at GTR.

610, 1511, 340, and all the other teams that help get our robot running thanks for your help.

340 - Congratulations on the Chairmans award

and to my team 2624 - you girls never gave up all weekend and kept working hard, it was a pleasure mentoring a group of such talented girls

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by AndrewMorrison

Now this is all after the competition has ended, but who knows how many problems actually happened during qualifications? the rankings could have changed, and the outcome could have been completely different. (absolutely no disrespect to the winning alliance, you had a phenomenal alliance).
Speaking for my team, we were all very disappointed in how the field was ran.

This is something that should be discussed. Why do we always have to be happy and show smiles when there were some obvious issues?

18 problems during qualifications, actually. I was recording them. And yes, the rankings would be different if there wasn't a single problem. 18 problems is almost 1/3rd the matches.

I was working one of the computers that shows what is working or not working with both the field and the robots. The robots weren't connecting to the system because of something that was wrong with the robots, not the field. If there was a problem with the field being unable to link to the robots, we would have seen that it was the field that was in error.

Most all the robots that started with problems kept having those problems. It wasn't random. If it was a field problem then why would the same robots have trouble getting into the system?

1241 had their problem for that one elimination match. After it was called the match would be replayed, the FTA's took the robot and fixed their robot. It took about 4 minutes but we got it fixed. The robot worked for the replay. Robot problem, not field problem.

The field problem that match was different. First off...remember the official time is the time on the field clocks, which what I was told did hit 0. Meaning that the match was over and would have counted. The official time is not kept by buzzers or the clock on the scoring screen, but the clock on the field. I can't speak too much about this because I didn't see the field clock, but I can say that the reason why there was such a long conference was to determine the reason why the field went nuts.

The field crew did everything they could. None of us just tossed over teams and said 'whatever'. We were up to what was happening and if we could end up fixing it we halted gameplay and solved the issue.

Just as much as you can say that the entire regional would have changed if we didn't have those problems, the regional would have been much different with more problems or fewer. There would be different results if it was week one or week 5. And there would be different results if the field was swapped out with new regolith after each match. We can't solve everything but if we can solve it we will do it.

[Kims Robot]

What an amazingly fun event. I love the Rochester teams, how well we know eachother and how much everyone loves to help everyone out. To me, Rochester teams define GP

I will add a few more thanks/congrats to the list...

Congratulations to 2999, our favorite Rookie team for making it out there and putting on a great show!! We are so happy your kids had so much fun, and it was truly an honor to work side by side with your team this year. It was inspirational to our students to see a team that was so green, and see the excitement as everything was so new!!

An incredible heart-felt thank you to 191, for the card that showed so much amazing support to our team that it brought tears to all of our eyes. And to 340 and 316 for wearing our armbands in support as well.

HUGE thank you to all of the volunteers and staff that really made this regional run so well. Liz - you are an awesome FTA!! Pete, thanks for coming up and for all the help & great conversation! Dante - thanks for doing the tough job!! John Darr - thanks for visiting us once again, we are so happy you had a great time (& thanks for lunch!!).

Big thanks to 340 for selecting us and 316 for being great alliance partners!! It was so much fun to go through the event with such great partners, all working so hard, but all having such positive and amazing attitudes!! It was so exciting!!

And as a mentor, I would like to congratulate our drive team: Josh, Theo, Brenton & Shauna for an amazing performance and thank our AMAZING scouting team for all the hard work they did pouring over all the data!!

And I have to thank/congratulate our amazing programming mentors: Larry, Eric & Jeff were called on all weekend to help numerous teams all over the event with everything from Labview issues, to field control issues, to reprogramming relay code and more. We rarely saw any of the three of them in our pits as they were always being dragged off somewhere to help, and seemed to have a blast doing it!!

And last, thanks to all the teams that came and made FLR so much fun this year, it was great to have such broad competition, and we are so honored to be a part of the Rochester community. Thanks for a great event!!

[esquared]

Originally Posted by Ellery

Thanks to our Alliance partners 1503, 173 - I think we would have gone farther if we were not succumbed to the intermittent field issue. This issue was not acknowledged till the final match and the root cause, as I was told by the field crew, was an "intermittent Emergency Stop Switch" at the Red Center Driver Station and NOT a "cRIO Powercycling failure on your robot or static causing communication drops" as 639, 211, 1503 were told initially. I hope they documented this issue and junked the part that was replaced. This was probably a continuation of the issues seen at BAE in week #1. I'd hate to see what happened here repeat once more for the remainder of the competition season where outcomes may have been different because of this.

1503's Robot Signal light would go fully out, then blink fast, then come solid again. Once they began to try driving again, the RSL would go out, blink fast, then solid again over a period of roughly 30-45 seconds. While they were located at what was eventually found to be a faulty console location, the robot symptoms they experienced are not possible if the robot was being E-Stopped intermittently. If that was occurring, their RSL would be solid, then go to a slow blink, then solid. If it was an intermittent radio communication issue, the RSL would have gone into a fast-blink mode if the bridge lost contact, then come back solid once regained. I spoke with 1503 immediately following that match, and their drivers agreed that the RSL was doing precisely as I explained above. We then powered up their robot, and showed them the process the RSL light goes through after a reboot. While the robot was on, I showed them what would happen if the radio modem power/ethernet was pulled loose/plugged back in, and the process was also as described above. They seemed satisfied that the symptoms of their robot out on the field matched a poweroff/poweron rather than an E-Stop.

To the robot, the E-Stop button is a disable/enable condition no different than using the dongle normally attached to the competition port. This was evident from the match in finals where the faulty E-Stop was diagnosed. Team 188's robot would sit with their RSL light slowly blinking. This indicates a successful link with the Driver Station, either through the field or when tethered. If the E-Stop was rapidly toggled/intermittent, 1503's robot would have been going in/out of enable mode, thus the RSL would be solid/slow blinking.

I regret not having the chance to follow up with 1503 to determine exactly what their situation was once they were in the pits. If anyone from 1503 could contact me/post if you found anything specifically wrong with your robot following that finals match it would be appreciated. I can add your situation to a list of common robot 'gotchas' being compiled.

[Jeremytice]

Originally Posted by AndrewMorrison

This year was a big turn around for team 229.

Now this thread is full of congratulations and thank you's, so I feel bad having to lodge the first complaint, but I feel it is necessary.
This entire weekend it seemed like the only thing that mattered to the referees, FTA, and scoring table was staying on time.
They refused (until the very end) to believe that there could be anything wrong with the field. They refused to let 1241 link with the field in one match, and in the same match when the field stopped working with 2-3 seconds left they still almost said that the scores would stand(even though human players kept going because the buzzer never went off). We actually took the rule book to them, and showed them the rule about replaying the match whenever there was a field error. It still took them a 10 minute conference and the stands to start chanting "re-do, re-do" before they finally agreed.
We all know what happened in week one, and all the field errors that went on then, but they completely disregarded that this could even be a possibility. Now I can understand that some problems were because of a jostled wire or some code issue, but they blamed absolutely everything on the teams. It wasn't until the finals when they started to truly acknowledge field problems. After quite a bit of complaints.

Now this is all after the competition has ended, but who knows how many problems actually happened during qualifications? the rankings could have changed, and the outcome could have been completely different. (absolutely no disrespect to the winning alliance, you had a phenomenal alliance).
Speaking for my team, we were all very disappointed in how the field was ran.

Hey guys! Thanks again for all teams for coming to FLR and congrats to all the teams. You all did a fantastic job. I would also like to comment on some of the issues that were mentioned.

Whenever there was a problem with the robot jumping in and out we would always go back to the FTAA computer and scoring table and check it out. With the FMS software that we are using we are always able to monitor the status of a robot. We are able to determine if it is a robot issue or a field issue. The software is very helpful and we had 2 certified FTA there as well as others that were trained on how the system ran. Second of all you should always go to the FTA if you have a question. Whenever you talk to someone on the field that is not an FTA or Head Ref...usually you get unreliable information that is incorrect which leads to more problems. Whenever there was an issue FTA checked it out and told the teams the issue. FTA is not just a random person...they are trained by FIRST on how to take care of the field and how to run the event. We never assumed it was a robot issue right away. We would always check it out first and communicated over the radios what was wrong and then would communicate with the teams.

Some things that I saw throughout the week was bad ports in the Driver Stations, bad wireless gaming adapters (light turned to orange meaning you can try resetting it to factory default settings and go through all the settings and set them again, and if that doesn't work it means it is a bad wireless gaming adapter), power issues (Robot not turning on or power issue of getting power to the wireless gaming adapter), and low batteries. Also please please plug in your wireless gaming adapters back into your CRio and make sure it's in the correct port. I can't tell you how many times this happened and once the field closes in qualification matches you are not allowed back out to fix that problem (You will see this change throughout the regionals depending on how the Ref calls that).

Alright now the issue about rushing teams. I do agree with you Andrew that we may have been rushing teams a little bit too fast. I will definitely bring that up in a follow up call this Monday and take care of that for you man and make sure that it's addressed. On Friday tho, regardless I really think the event ran very smoothly and we didn't have any field problems at all. Thank you teams for listening when to plug in and when to turn your robots on. This made it much easier to get the matches started.

Alright the issue with 1241. They had a issue with getting power to their wireless gaming adapter for one of the matches I believe. During that match was when the audience screen stayed at 1 sec. After that happened, FTA got together with the scoring table and we talked it over. We first talked about what could have happened to have that image freeze on the screen. Then FTA took it into their hands and talked to the refs to see if they had looked at the official clocks on the field to see if those had gone to 0. I remember that team 229 was told we might not replay that match but it was not told by FTA (as I remember). We then got the two alliance captains together to explain the problem. After talking to them we all agreed on replaying the match. Now what took so long after that was we had to determine what happened to the system and make sure that it would not happen again. We called FIRST and they told us to back up the system and restart the FMS software. After that we had to go through all our checks and make sure that they all worked. After making sure it was all up and running we got all the teams ready to go. ( I am sorry that it took so long but we wanted to make sure that we were taking the right steps to ensure this would not happen again). At that time we allowed teams to put new batteries in their robots.

Alright last issue that happened on the field. On the Red alliances side station #2 we did have a bad e-stop switch. Any matches before that were not effected by that though. In matches before that robots were working fine and any issues were to do with robots having power issues or code problems. We determined it was a bad e-stop switch since the robot was in autonomous mode but showed being disabled. After confirming this we changed it out and tested the field to make sure this was working correctly. After that we had no more problems and the event ran smoothly till the end!

I would like to thank all the teams for being patient throughout all of this. I just wanted to clear up some of the stuff as some people got relayed the wrong information. I also want to thank Ellery and Andrew for bringing this stuff up. When you guys give us feedback on the event and any issues you had, we like to make sure that other regional's are told about this so that their events run smoother.

I would like to thank both of our FTA's (Pete and Liz), and especially Liz Smith as this was her first year being FTA. I think she did a fantastic job at running the event regardless of some issues. I would also like to thank all the volunteers that were helping out. They make it possible for the FLR to run! Also I would like to thank John Darr and Karthik for doing an amazing job! We want you guys back for next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again thank you teams and congrats on all the award winners and regional winners and finalists. Thanks team 340 for all your support and Great job winning the Chairman's regional award. You guys deserve it!

Good Luck to all teams for the rest of season!

[lenny8]

Congrats to everyone at FLR it was a great regional to watch ( i only saw Saturday). also thanks Karthik for the updates and small chit chats on ustream.