2010 Lesson Learned: The Positive

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by vhcook

Bag and Tag outside Michigan worked nicely based on our experiences at KC and OKC.

I agree that B&T outside Michigan (based on my experience with it at WAT and GTR) worked famously BUT. I think traditional shipping should be an option for teams coming from farther away than X. I don't know what X is, but B&T is just not realistic for a NJ team competing in CA (25), or for an HI team competing in AZ (359). B&T for local teams, and visiting teams from other regions are allowed to ship.

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

I agree that B&T outside Michigan (based on my experience with it at WAT and GTR) worked famously BUT. I think traditional shipping should be an option for teams coming from farther away than X. I don't know what X is, but B&T is just not realistic for a NJ team competing in CA, or for an HI team competing in IL. B&T for local teams, and visiting teams from other regions are allowed to ship.

I'd definitely agree with that. If we'd been far enough that driving was not practical, B&T would have been a problem.

[thefro526]

The game this year was phenomenal. I didn't like it at first, but Breakaway definitely grew on me. The combination of soccer balls flying across the field, fantastic defense, and last second elevation attempts made it exciting for almost everyone involved.

10 Qualification Matches at the Championship was HUGE. I applaud FIRST for making this change, and I hope they improve upon it in the Future.

The overall increase in Qualification Matches from 2009 was great. It's nice to know that we're getting a few more matches for our entrance fee.

More lax pneumatic rules need to stick around for next year, they opened some interesting design possibilities.

Wednesday Uncrate and Inspection at the Championship was awesome. I'd love to see this expand to open pits on Wednesday afternoon next year.

[David Brinza]

Classmate PC

Turn-key camera view "window", diagnostics page w/ error message log for trouble-shootling, lightweight and relatively durable hardware.

Increased battery life and shorter boot-up time are areas for improvement, though.

[Chris is me]

The perfect game. Discussed elsewhere.

Dean's List is a good concept, maybe next year it will be done right but I'm glad it exists.

My driver station never exploded this year.

Increase in qualification matches at every event I went to was a very very good thing. Thursday matches at Championship was awesome, I'm so glad they did that. My team played 33 matches at 2 events. I love that.

The easy alliance identification was very nice and spectator friendly.

[Rick Wagner]

Starting qualifications on Thursday allowed more time for meaningful field scouting too.

[Billfred]

The more I watched the game, the more I liked it. Team Update 16's tweaks made a big difference, particularly with ball penetration.

I did enjoy having to build something different (and likely tougher)--a flat-game drivetrain had to make some real sacrifices to keep its status.

Scoring was a fair bit easier to follow, and I thought autonomous was mostly well-rewarded.

I think playing Thursday in Atlanta is a good thing, as is getting ten matches in.

No-update updates worked well, even if they were the butt of a few jokes.

I also appreciate Bill Miller reaching out a bit more, both on his blog and on Twitter--even if he can't necessarily respond to every question or fix every problem, keeping the human element in the FRC is important. Keep it up!

Allowing five CIMs was just right this year. I wouldn't mind getting three or four in the kit, but at least they're readily available.

Loosening the compressor rules was a nice olive branch, albeit a bit of an exercise in futility since nobody seemed to make a commercially-available compressor that matched the specs (let alone provided teams some design choices, such as duty cycle versus weight). Still, I liked the freedom in pneumatics rules.

Hopefully things keep rolling forward for 2011!

[JaneYoung]

The red and blue bumpers are made of win. It is so easy to determine the alliances. It also makes the competition look much more professional, overall.

Please note that the white letters and even the yellow numbers were very easy to read. It also helped just having the numbers on the bumpers without the team names and/or logos. Very clean.

Many of us grumbled (and are still grumbling) about losing the ability to personalize the bumpers but - as cool as those are, individually - the red and blue bumpers give a classy classic look.

Love it. This from the purple tie-dye freak.

Jane

[busted240sx]

A couple things.

In Atlanta, we stayed pretty much on schedule the whole way through on Archimedes. Good job to everyone working the field.

I really loved having all the "other things" in Atlanta besides just the competition. Boeing, NASA, Lockheed, CIA, PTC, Autodesk, and all the vendors made it more than just a big regional. There was a lot more to discover and I hope this gets bigger and better.

No driver station failures for us this year! That blue box from last year was just bad.


I think the game was better in general this year compared to last. To me, it was more fun to watch and to design for.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by busted240sx

.....In Atlanta, we stayed pretty much on schedule the whole way through on Archimedes. Good job to everyone working the field.....

Not meaning to take this on a tangent, but.....
After watching several matches Thursday and Friday on the web, I was really impressed with the lack of delays waiting for the game adapters to sync up. (No waiting around while your pneumatics systems slowly bleed to death.)

So, what did FIRST do to remedy that issue?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by billbo911

After watching several matches Thursday and Friday on the web, I was really impressed with the lack of delays waiting for the game adapters to sync up. (No waiting around while your pneumatics systems slowly bleed to death.)

So, what did FIRST do to remedy that issue?

They identified the potential network-killing issue with using the newer wireless bridge and found a startup sequence that kept things from breaking.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

They identified the potential network-killing issue with using the newer wireless bridge and found a startup sequence that kept things from breaking.

I know that the new game adapters would kill the old ones if the old were powered up first. I believe that was identified some time around week 4. I know during week 5 we were having the new adapters power up on the field first, then the old ones. Even with this approach, there were still a lot of delays even in week 5.

When you say they found a startup sequence that kept things from breaking, is the approach I mentioned what you were referring to?

If so, why were there still failures in week 5?

If not, can you elaborate on the new startup sequence?

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by billbo911

No waiting around while your pneumatics systems slowly bleed to death.

If your pneumatic system is noticeably dropping pressure during a delay to sync radios you didn't do it right. Our team had a terribly leaky system in 2008 and a well sealed system this year and the difference is remarkable. Some soapy water goes a long way.

Now students getting bored to death during these delays on the other hand....

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

If your pneumatic system is noticeably dropping pressure during a delay to sync radios you didn't do it right. Our team had a terribly leaky system in 2008 and a well sealed system this year and the difference is remarkable. Some soapy water goes a long way.

Now students getting bored to death during these delays on the other hand....

We were only loosing about 1psi/minute. I know that is not perfect and can, and will, be improved on. Although, when you wait in staging for over 30 minutes and an additional 10 on the field..... well you can see the issue.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Billfred

<snip>

Loosening the compressor rules was a nice olive branch, albeit a bit of an exercise in futility since nobody seemed to make a commercially-available compressor that matched the specs (let alone provided teams some design choices, such as duty cycle versus weight). Still, I liked the freedom in pneumatics rules.

Hopefully things keep rolling forward for 2011!

You might check with the Cheesy Poofs (254) or RAWC (968). I don't know the manufacturer/model number, but they found a smaller compressor than the KOP version that meets the specs.