Before we start - PLEASE read the Manual!

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

And in some cases rules are unclear and need resolving from the GDC. Those questions should be posted in the FIRST Forums- http://forums.usfirst.org/index.php?

...and NOT HERE, since Chief Delphi is NOT the official forum of FIRST.

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[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

...and NOT HERE, since Chief Delphi is NOT the official forum of FIRST.

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However, if you do post a reply to a question here, please quote the manual section in your reply. It saves time for everyone and keeps Dave's request to "Read the manual" upfront in everyone's mind.

[hipsterjr]

Speaking of manual, I thought the encrypted manual was available for download, but I can't find it. I just don't want to try and download it on Saturday when the entire FRC community will be to.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by hipsterjr

Speaking of manual, I thought the encrypted manual was available for download, but I can't find it. I just don't want to try and download it on Saturday when the entire FRC community will be to.

Any time now. They will put out an email blast and I'm sure the email will be posted here minutes after it happens.

[Peter Matteson]

I have a couple of simple reccommendations to the team mentors reading this thread to help drive home why to read the manual to your teams:

1.) Put together a 10-15 question basic quiz for your teams to take in the first week of build. take the questions from the robot, game and arena sections of the manual primarily and give your team a pop quiz. - It will make you think about the rules more and encourage your students to read them if they are ashamed of poor performance on the quiz.

2.) Make simple lists while reading the rules as a team on day one.
Some examples:
a) How do we score points...
b) What could we be penalized for...
c) What can we do in auto mode...
d) What should the human player/robocoach/etc do during the game.

Doing things like this will help you think through the rules before asking questions and will be invaluble when forming a strategy.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

I have a couple of simple reccommendations to the team mentors reading this thread to help drive home why to read the manual to your teams:

3) Please check the First website several times a week and download the Team Updates and check for document revisions. Inspectors and refs are required to know the changes and perform using the latest Team Updates and doc revisions at each event. The last robot section revision occurred as Rev K and the Team Updates went to 19 in 2009.

4) Check the Q&A every week as well.

[MrForbes]

LINK TO MANUAL

Might help to provide a link to the manual for those who have trouble finding it.....????

http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=452

The encrypted manual is posted.

[Cyberphil]

The only thing I dislike more than piontless hints are people who don't understand or know the rules to the game each year! Thank you for making this thread. You can not stress enough how important it is to understand the game!


I love the quiz idea. We usually just talk about the game sooooooooooo much that it is burned in our minds.

[vic burg]

It also might be helpful to have certain sections (*Arena, Game, Robot*), printed out as a hard copy reference. That way you don't have to wait for the manual to load on the computer and then search for a certain rule. If you REALLY want to (though I do not recommend it) you can print the whole thing but I did that a few years ago for the team.... barely fit in a 3 inch binder.
I agree with Peter though; a quiz would be a very good idea.

[MrForbes]

I'm old, so I print out those sections of the manual, and keep them in my engineering notebook (a thick 3 ring binder). The fun begins when they start sending out the team updates, and the manual gets some changes....I print the updates and put them in the notebook. And occasionally print the revised manual pages.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by squirrel

The fun begins when they start sending out the team updates, and the manual gets some changes....I print the updates and put them in the notebook. And occasionally print the revised manual pages.

Please be sure that if you use this method, each update gets into the book when it is released. A team who had only added Team updates through 16 was being called on an issue that was posted in update 17 at the Champs. Big OOPS.

[DanDon]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Please be sure that if you use this method, each update gets into the book when it is released. A team who had only added Team updates through 16 was being called on an issue that was posted in update 17 at the Champs. Big OOPS.

I also like running a diff on the two files and comparing any changes....seems to help the changes sink in more than just going through the update or the revised section.

[terryo]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Please be sure that if you use this method, each update gets into the book when it is released. A team who had only added Team updates through 16 was being called on an issue that was posted in update 17 at the Champs. Big OOPS.

For those, like me, who must have it on paper...

Practice good documentation control for the sections that you keep on paper. (the students will need to do this when they enter the working world anyway)

1. One member 'owns' the Master copy (if many own it, then no one owns it)
2. That owner checks for updates daily
3. When an update is released, highlight the changes and share them with the team
4. Remove and file the old section, replace it with the new section- this includes the updated index

Electronic Manual reference should be taken directly from the FIRST site.

[vic burg]

Originally Posted by terryo

1. One member 'owns' the Master copy (if many own it, then no one owns it)
2. That owner checks for updates daily
3. When an update is released, highlight the changes and share them with the team
4. Remove and file the old section, replace it with the new section- this includes the updated index

That's what we did when I was in charge of it. Although, we rarely used the whole manual. Really only the updates once they started because at the time, that was all we were concerned about. Ended up breaking a rule that way *I think* or were close to it.

[EricH]

Folks, Dave has said this better than I can. He's said it more ways than I can come up with.

One thing I haven't seen yet in this thread: Most, if not all, PDF readers have a find function, often accessed by control-F. So if you want to know if CO2 can be used, or if you HAVE to have bumpers, or any one of a number of other answers to questions you have, you might try picking a key term or two (for the examples I gave, "CO2" and "bumper" would work), plugging it into the find function, and seeing what you find.

*gets ready to put the link to Dave's post in any thread that asks questions that are answered in the Manual*