ARENA Fault

[Mike o.]

Everyone needs to remember that with every year that FIRST changes something with the control system, there will be a huge learning curve for all to understand how it all works. Also, it takes time to really fine tune the system, yeh NI and FIRST may be able to debug and get the system working to the best it can, but the true test really won't come until the Regionals when we bombard the system with all we got.

I know that in DC there were many teams that were having comm issues, but I assure you (99.9% at least) that these problems had nothing to do with the FMS faulting. Many teams were forgetting to plug their raido's back into the e-port on the cRio, or were forgetting to put a fresh battery in their robot, or hadn't restarted the DS program since their last match to name some of the major issues. We had one team that barely even moved the whole competition because they were having some sort of comm issue after another, but they were gracious and went back to the pit and worked hard to figure out solutions. We had a NI rep at the regional and he worked very close with that team to help them through these problems. It is issues and interactions like that that will help everyone learn more about the system and where it's weaknesses are and how we can improve on them in the future.

I know that it gets frustrating to be out there and all of a sudden not be able to compete, but remember your gracious professionalism and trust that the technical people behind the scenes are working hard to solve any and all problems and will make sure that there is a fair solution that comes out of it.