Does your team use Laptops for Scouting?

[Kims Robot]

I wanted to get a feel for how many teams use Laptops for scouting.

This has happened to us before, but it came up this last weekend in Boston. We were told on Saturday that we were NOT allowed to use arena power to run our scouting anywhere in the stands. They were gracious about it (Thursday we were on a table, and they told us that was ok Thurs, but said they would need that area for VIPs so we could use power in the stands on Friday, Friday we ran all day from seats just below the power drop).

However, it was sad, especially because we had so many students that really like scouting this year, and they are happy to be a part of providing the team data, they feel involved & helpful. Since we hadn't planned for it, we didn't have a paper method available.

There used to be a rule in the events section that said "no power cords" can be run in the stands. This year it just talks about scouting, but no real regulations surrounding it. We understand that different venue's have different rules, but I would like to gather some data and write a letter to FIRST suggesting they implement something like Mikell's suggestion, putting in the rulebook that teams can work with the event, and/or FIRST can ask all of the events to arrange for a "scouting section". Or at least have it in the event documents.

So if you could, take a minute to reply to the poll and reply to the thread with which Regionals you have/haven't had problems with getting power.

For us I know:
Finger Lakes - allowed to use power, as long as cords are run into the stands.
Boston - not allowed to use power "technically" though were able to Thurs/Fri.
Chesapeake (old venue) - limited area semi-far from field had power available