2010 PEACHTREE REGIONAL

[Tanner]

*tired*

How about that social? I certainly had more fun, spite not singing in RockBand.

-Tanner

[ttldomination]

hm...

Well the social definitely was fun. I don't how other teams felt since we were kinda loose since it was our campus, but with everything to do, it was definitely poppin.

The regional is definitely going interesting.

The robots that seem to have success are the ones that can quickly run the ball to a goal, or push a ball into a goal. The seeding system is really weird, and don't count on the best robot walking away with the trophy. Defense is so heavy in this game, I wouldn't doubt that a couple of "ball pushers" walk away with the win.

[Dan Richardson]

Congrats to the winning alliance!! This regional was very entertaining to watch!

[ttldomination]

Well, here's my reply to P'tree.

We spent all of Friday trying to get our suction cups to work, and we got them working early Saturday, and we had a couple of really good matches. In finals, the precision it took to line up the cups proved to be too much as we were barely able to score when heavily defended.

I can also say that I was surprised by how the game ultimately turned out. Strong kickers like 1771 and a couple of others, were defeated by "plowers" with mecanum drives that would easily push balls into goals. (1466 and 34 mastered this move)

The above is a bit..."disappointing." Or, it definitely did not seem like it would go this way. Granted that pushers like 1466 did need kickers to kick balls back into the close zone, but scoring 4 balls in a qual. round is pretty good.

P'tree went well, and I guess I learned something about this game that my team will take into Palmetto.

- Sunny

[speedbuggy76]

Congratulations to Team 2415 - The WiredCats for winning the Peachtree Regional Chairman's Award! I'm proud to say I've worked with them in the past, and they are truly a great group of kids Go Cats!

[Chris is me]

34 not moving was a disappointment. Everyone on every side of the field wanted to play an even match, and 34 was the highlight of the opposing alliance. I think it's unfortunate that it happened, on the fourth match of best of 3.

That said, congratulations to the Red Alliance! 1771's doing pretty awesome so far!

[Lirki]

That was a tense finals. All the teams that made it were great. Lots of fun and hope to see ya'll again.

[Tanner]

Very long finals. Congratulations to both alliances. You both fought hard and well for several ties.

I'm not sure how the refs/crew came to the conclusion for the final match, but I do think it was unfair to the alliance. I don't know what they should've done, but I just think it was slightly unfair. 'Twas just a very special situation and yeah.

Congratulations to all the teams who won awards. And a little shout out to GSMST (3318) for winning Rookie All-Star, congrats.

-Tanner

[ebarker]

A couple of observations:

a) 1311 is sort of in the 'we are not worthy category' on the issue of being a finalist there. There are some really great teams out there.

b) The last game was so lopsided it would have been much nicer to 'lose' in a close exciting match than the circumstances there.

c) It was fun, it was great. We are thrilled to have had a chance to participate in the finals.

Congratulations to CA winner 2415. Congrats to all the regional winners !!! Congrats to the record number of rookie teams and we are looking forward to seeing you again next year.

[martin417]

As I told the teams on alliance 3, I was pleased with the outcome, but unhappy at the way it occurred. After being on the other end of eerily similar events last year in the quarterfinals, I can certainly sympathize with your frustration. I don't know why 34 didn't work the last match, any more than we knew why our alliance partner didn't work last year. It was ruled a robot fault in both instances. As the saying goes, sometimes the breaks go your way, sometimes they go against you. Fortunately, last year, the team took the loss as a challenge not a defeat, and raised $5,000 in less than two weeks to get into another regional, and won that regional. Disappointment and frustration can be very motivating.

Congratulations to alliance three on a hard fought battle, and we look forward to see all of you again, if not in Atlanta, then next year at Peachtree.

[goldenglove002]

In regards to the final match of the day, I can't say I'm happy with what happened. But it is what it is. Both alliances had great robots, and I wish we had gotten to see a real match occur in the end.

I was one of the team members in the question box, and this is what we were told by the refs and other staff. What happened to our robot was something of a "freak accident". The main breaker somehow slipped out of place by fractions of fractions of an inch. Never in my 3 years in FRC had I seen something like that occur. For team 34, they had 12 volts showing on their battery for the very beginning of the match. Then it died. It was a battery borrowed from the field, so we were all thinking there was something defective with the battery. The field staff said that because it had shown power at the begining it had to have been an issue on the robot. Would have been nice to let us check the voltage on the battery after the match to solve the mystery, but it'll just remain that way I guess. We could have gone on forever out there and never gotten anywhere, so thats that.

Anyways, congratulation to all the winners out there. It was a fun 3 days.

[rspurlin]

The Field management system keeps a log of data coming from the Drivers Station (classmate) and the robot. Those logs were reviewed for both teams that had issues in the final match. There was nothing in those logs that pointed to any kind of field error. Both robots had steady battery voltage throughout the match (all 135 seconds). The battery from 34 was later removed and tested. It still showed a full charge. What was relayed to me later was that it was apparently a failure of the main breaker. My own team has had some experience this year with the main breakers not actuating properly.

We do not have the luxury of rerunning matches until we get a result that has nothing whatsoever to do with robot parts failing. Would you also want to rerun a match when a robot breaks a chain 2 seconds into autonomous? Perhaps the biggest difference there is that no one would claim field failure when a mechanical part breaks.

For those that think that gracious professionalism should extend to the beneficiary of these failures calling for an extra match, where's the professionalism in not accepting the very best efforts of the volunteers who do their very best to run the event as fairly as possible? We'd all like to see every match decided with all robots performing at their best, but sometimes that doesn't happen and we have to accept it. Graciously.

[Ed Sparks]

Concerning the final match between alliance 1 and 3 ...........

The field did not fail. Unfortunately the main breaker on our robot did ......

I've seen this several times before concerning other teams, but this time it bit us. Our robot turned on just fine and connected properly to the FMS but one second into autonomus, communications was lost. The 120 Amp breaker opened up (not tripped) when the significant current started flowing (because we turn on our drive motors during autonomus).

I'm proud of our team, our robot, and especially our drive team. I would only change one thing if I could ............... that dang breaker.

This is a somewhat common problem so be warned. It could happen to you next time .......

Congrats to alliance #1. We'll meet again next year.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Ed,
Too late to check now, but the breaker does have a failure mode that that prevents high current flow but appears normal otherwise. As a test, if the red button is tapped lightly and the breaker opens or becomes intermittent, the internal contacts are out of alignment.
There are also issues if the mounting/frame should flex, small cracks in the case develop. I have seen cracks pull the internals out of alignment.

Do you still have the breaker?

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Ed,
Too late to check now, but the breaker does have a failure mode that that prevents high current flow but appears normal otherwise. As a test, if the red button is tapped lightly and the breaker opens or becomes intermittent, the internal contacts are out of alignment.
There are also issues if the mounting/frame should flex, small cracks in the case develop. I have seen cracks pull the internals out of alignment.

Do you still have the breaker?

Al, is this misalignment more likely to occur this year with the violent impacts caused by bump traversal?

I might be adding something to our pre-match checklist...