Hints and Observations from Breakaway - Week 1

[Ed Sparks]

Here are some random thoughts about what I observed at Peachtree during week 1 of "Breakaway".

1. Balls that rest in the intersection of the bumps and the outside perimeter of the playing field are G46 "Land Mines". Be very carefull when trying to retrieve these balls. Comming over the top of a bump to recover these balls just about guarantees a G46.

2. Fast mecanum "plows" are very effective in the scoring zone but are starved of balls rather quickley. It takes kickers to keep a supply of balls comming.

3. The Q&A indicates that it is ok to plow multiple balls as long as they are not possessing more than one. This was mis-understood at Peachtree.

4. There were far too many teams at Peachtree with the wrong cRIO and DS image. This caused great loss of practice time and some missed matches. You absolutely must have the latest versions or you will not connect to the FMS. Bring it with you if your not sure!

5. Bungee cords and surgical tubing are not effective in keeping balls from violating G46. You really need some sort of hardware that floats vertically and rests below the center of the ball when your not on the bump.

6. I stick with my opinion that a good plow-bot can score more points with balls then with hanging in the finale (If you can get the balls in the score zone before the finale).

7. The inspection process was longer this year. Don't wait until the last hour to get this done. At Peachtree, we only managed to pass about 55% of the teams at pit closing on Thursday night. The big ticket items were software versions, pneumatics, and bill-of-materials. The BOM process is different this year, take time now to get it right and be prepared. The inspection process requires that you submit your BOM electronicaly to the inspector's table where a copy is placed on a PC. There's a required format that's available from FIRST in the game documents page. One more thing, your suppost to break your BOM into components (including the kit parts). Don't bring a BOM that has something like "Quantity 1 - Frame ..... $100".

8. Charge your classmate every chance you get. There is a definate problem for teams that make it to the final 8 concerning this. At Peachtree, half of the classmates were just about to die when the last match was played (due to all of the delays and tie matches). Get a plan now, make someone responsible to manage this.

9. I observed the wierd main breaker issue again this year and it even bit our team in the finals. Make your field team aware of the possibility that the main breaker could open on it's own without actually tripping. If your robot "dies" for some unexplained reason during the match, have your team first notice if there's any power on the power distribution panel. If not, have them check the 120A main breaker to see if it's tripped. If it's not, then you too were bit by this and it's not the fault of the FMS. I'd like for all of us to watch for this and I'd like to know about it if you see it.

10. Bumper construction was better that I expected this year. The only significant issues I had were those who used bumper covers. Your still expected to be able to remove the bumpers for the inspection process. Some didn't expect to remove their bumpers and it was painful for them. The covers were also a bit of a problem beacuse they were often a loose fit and sagged down below the 10" lower bumper limit. If your in this camp, figure out a way to take up the slack.

11. I'll bet 75% of the teams this year used pneumatics (many for the first time). Be sure your using the FIRST supplied primary regulator(60psi). many teams don't realize that the last module on the cRIO can directly drive the solenoid valves. Many still think your required to use spikes. You can do either but using spikes adds weight and is unnecessary.

12. Too many robots came out of the box with kickers that could break the bumper perimeter plane. Inspection and referees are looking for this.

Hope this helps your team and good luck.

[Wildcat]

13. just cause you have an "anti-flip mechanism/design" doesn't mean it works

[David Brinza]

Thanks for your insights, Ed. Especially for those related to inspection. I hope in future regionals, teams come with their firmware properly updated and an electronic BOM ready to submit.

Congrats on the WFA!

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by Ed Sparks

4. There were far too many teams at Peachtree with the wrong cRIO and DS image. This caused great loss of practice time and some missed matches. You absolutely must have the latest versions or you will not connect to the FMS. Bring it with you if your not sure!

14. Make sure you've also had your encryption key set on the robot radio before getting to the field.

7. The inspection process was longer this year. Don't wait until the last hour to get this done. At Peachtree, we only managed to pass about 55% of the teams at pit closing on Thursday night. The big ticket items were software versions, pneumatics, and bill-of-materials. The BOM process is different this year, take time now to get it right and be prepared. The inspection process requires that you submit your BOM electronically to the inspector's table where a copy is placed on a PC. There's a required format that's available from FIRST in the game documents page. One more thing, you're supposed to break your BOM into components (including the kit parts). Don't bring a BOM that has something like "Quantity 1 - Frame ..... $100".

Amen. I was an inspector on Thursday at Kansas City. I believe we had about 6-8 robots that didn't pass inspection until Friday, and at least half of them were waiting on the BOM. That was the single most common difficulty all day (apart from the usual "sharp edge, please file" and robot diet issues).

[Kevin Ray]

Ed,
Thanks for the insight. Speaking of BOM, are they REQUIRING the weight or is that just there for your convenience?

[Karibou]

15. Be careful with your E-stop button - they do break, and there aren't extras at the spare parts table (or at least, there weren't in Traverse City). You probably won't find a team with an extra one, either.

16. Gloves were provided in the KoP for a reason - use them! They count towards the safety award. And as always, lift from your legs and not your back.

17. It's difficult to see a ball from the driver's station if it's right up against the far side of the far bump.

18. Even if you DO have a hard mechanism to keep balls out from the underside of your robot, charging at a ball too fast may still result in your robot going over it if that mechanism isn't below the center of the ball.

[Ed Sparks]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ray

Ed,
Thanks for the insight. Speaking of BOM, are they REQUIRING the weight or is that just there for your convenience?

We didn't worry about the weight at Peachtree. My opinion is that it's optional but a question to the Q&A is probably in order here. There's nothing in the rules about any one component weighing less than XX lbs so I suspect it's just there for team use.

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by Ed Sparks

We didn't worry about the weight at Peachtree. My opinion is that it's optional but a question to the Q&A is probably in order here.

We didn't require weight on the BOM at KC either.

[rwood359]

Originally Posted by Ed Sparks

3. The Q&A indicates that it is ok to plow multiple balls as long as they are not possessing more than one. This was mis-understood at Peachtree.

At the San Diego regional, we were penalized for possessing two balls when we possessed one and were herding another. We challenged the penalty. From what our student said, the Ref that made the call said that that was the way he had been making the call all day. The Head Ref's decision was to let the penalty stand and tell the Ref to call them correctly from then on. We ended up with a 3-3 tie and 3 standing points. Without the call, the win would have been worth 10 standing points. A 7 point penalty - don't you just love the new ranking system.

Originally Posted by Ed Sparks

8. Charge your classmate every chance you get. There is a definate problem for teams that make it to the final 8 concerning this. At Peachtree, half of the classmates were just about to die when the last match was played (due to all of the delays and tie matches). Get a plan now, make someone responsible to manage this.

We had the Classmate on the charger just about every minute that we were in the pits. We were in the red at the end of the quarter finals. GP got us a battery to use for the rest of finals. Unfortunately, I don't know who to thank.

Originally Posted by Ed Sparks

11. I'll bet 75% of the teams this year used pneumatics (many for the first time). Be sure your using the FIRST supplied primary regulator(60psi). many teams don't realize that the last module on the cRIO can directly drive the solenoid valves.

Make sure that it is the primary (black ring) not the secondary (yellow ring) regulator. That slowed our inspection for a few minutes.

[rsisk]

We encountered the following issues at San Diego:

1. We were told a printed BOM would be OK, it's not. Be sure you have the electronic version on a memory stick for the inspectors. And it needs to include all the KOP items you used on the robot.
2. We were told our bumpers did not properly close at the corners and could just zip tie pool noodles into the corners. Wrong. We had to extend the bumper fabric to cover the added pool noodles.

Once we got past these issues, the only remaining issue was the pressure relief valve not releasing at 125psi. This issue was brought up in team update 11 but the problem was finding someone that knew how to adjust the relief valve. Basically you run the pressure up to 125psi, loosen the jam nut and back out the top of the relief valve until you hear air starting to escape, then tighten the jam nut back down.

Other than that, things went great. Huge thank you to 599 for their Robot First Aid Station, what a life saver.

[Jeffy]

19. When playing in the offensive zone, have the human players give you a heads up when your robot scores. They can see the goals far better than you can.

[Sunbun]

Originally Posted by Jeffy

19. When playing in the offensive zone, have the human players give you a heads up when your robot scores. They can see the goals far better than you can.

Seconded. I was HP for half of San Diego and our driver thought it was really helpful to have the HP scream "BACK! BACK! FORWARD! FORWARD!" when the bot tried to score.

I'll add:
20. If you have the trident, or if you're a human player, careful not to step outside of the white line. That's a penalty.

Also be sure to ask if the "Trident Guy" wants the ball rolled, tossed, or placed onto the trident. Every little bit of time saved counts.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ray

Ed,
Thanks for the insight. Speaking of BOM, are they REQUIRING the weight or is that just there for your convenience?

There was a Q&A response that said it was not required.

Sorry I don't feel like searching right now.

[Kage]

21: (either this is bad luck for us, or something to look for)
our pneumatics leaked. we had to boot up our robot in field-que and charge the tanks around 15 seconds left in the match. every time we did this, our computer messed something up with the joysticks, either they were reversed, or in the wrong places, or we lost I/O...
I think the rapid disconnect from robot, and connect to field system may have had something to do with it.
we stopped doing it, and we stopped having issues...

[sparrowkc]

Something about the way joysticks are handled on the classmate is flakey. We were left dead in the water during two matches because our joysticks didn't work.

At the KC regional, the field tech instructed us to use the following procedure, and we never had the problem again:

1. Enter the field with the robot turned off and the classmate logged off.
2. Have the people who set the robot down watch the display above Your Team's DS, and have them signal the person at the DS to plug in and then log on when your team number shows up.
3. Have the person at the DS signal the people at the robot to turn it on when the classmate displays the "FMS connected" message.
4. Win your match!