2010 Lesson Learned: The Negative

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by CallieJ

I did not actually realize this was a problem. Admittedly, I'm not much of an electronics person and I'm always scared to death to touch that thing because it's so costly, but I know that we killed one at SVR ( $5000 we don't have anymore) and got it replaced before our next match... I'll talk to our programmer about that because we just got it out, got a replacement in, and kept playing.

In the last 2 seasons we've replaced our cRio 4 times and have never done it in less than an hour. Each time the cRio that was on the robot was replaced with a unit from spare parts that was completely clean of any code so it required a timely re-imagining process in addition to new user code.

I have seen some teams replace cRios in between elimination matches, but I believe these units had the appropriate code on them already.

Next season I'm going to pursue investing the $700 or so into a spare cRio that we can bring with us to events that will be an exact copy of whatever cRio is on the competition bot so that swapping one out is just a matter of the physical swap.

[kjolana1124]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

NO GAME OBJECT IN THE KIT OF PARTS!

FIRST never do this to us again! The surface finish on the balls was so specific at driving the design of ball handling mechanisms and you screwed it up again by chosing something we couldn't get and not warning the manufacturer to stock up because a huge influx of orders would be coming.

I would simply suggest that FIRST warn manufacturers that come January 9th there may or may not be a swarm of 14-18 year old children demanding to buy this product. Who said stores can't have a Black Saturday as well?

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by kjolana1124

I would simply suggest that FIRST warn manufacturers that come January 9th there may or may not be a swarm of 14-18 year old children demanding to buy this product. Who said stores can't have a Black Saturday as well?

We've been reccomending that to FIRST for several years that they warn the vendors so there is a stock. It would be win win for the vendor and the teams but FIRST has yet to do so, hence the comment. In 2009 they supposedly went with something that would be readily available, but FIRST's order interferred with Walmart getting their order and Walmart cancelled so we could no longer buy them easily.

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Perhaps it's the frequency in which so many teams were yelling "ROBOT!" when there was no one even close by, that caused everyone else to become annoyed and ignorant of teams actually trying to clear their way through. For next year, howabout we have everyone try leaving their pit area a little earlier, and taking their time to walk with everyone else, instead of trying to blast through/past them all.

Even I started becoming somewhat unaware of the "ROBOT COMING THROUGH!" shouts in the pits (though I'm guilty of saying it myself). The problem, at least at Buckeye this year, was that the pit walkways were blocked way too often. You couldn't flow with the traffic, because there was no traffic to flow with. I remember our aisle being congested constantly due to two teams apart from each other having so many visitors constantly that they would overflow into the walkway. The backs from one group almost touched the backs of another.

Unfortunately, that "ROBOT!" chant wasn't enough to even break through sometimes. I'd stand there for what seemed like ages, shouting at the top of my lungs before they'd even realize I was right behind them. I think we'd eliminate a lot of the shouts if the pits were actually passable at all times.

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

We've been reccomending that to FIRST for several years that they warn the vendors so there is a stock. It would be win win for the vendor and the teams but FIRST has yet to do so, hence the comment. In 2009 they supposedly went with something that would be readily available, but FIRST's order interferred with Walmart getting their order and Walmart cancelled so we could no longer buy them easily.

That was a mess, especially because an orbit ball wasn't exactly a household item that you could find anywhere. Neither were the rings in 2007, if I recall correctly.

This is a pretty big deal that could be solved easily by more communication with FIRST. I assume they're worried that details about the gamepiece/game being leaked early, but I'm sure most companies wouldn't mind keeping a secret for a few weeks or months in exchange for an influx in orders from teams around the country.

[Radical Pi]

Originally Posted by thefro526

I have seen some teams replace cRios in between elimination matches, but I believe these units had the appropriate code on them already.

Not the ones at philly at least. Our alliance partner had their cRIO blow out and it took 2 timeouts to reformat and re-upload to the new one

[CallieJ]

Originally Posted by thefro526

This is true. We were shoved into a goal during our second qualification match and couldn't get out. After the match I looked at the goal lip and how it caught on the wheels and saw that the only way a team could've prevented this from happening was to either build a robot too talk to go into the goal, or by giving your chassis about .5" of ground clearance.

I know of at least 3 teams that have about that much ground clearance.... Us, 254, and 968. To be able to go over the bumps we had to countersink all of the holes to mount our electronics and place all the screws from the bottom up. The bottom of the robot was literally SMOOTH. And we never got stuck!

And I know that all the holes are countersunk because I was the one who was in charge of drilling all of them....

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by CallieJ

I know of at least 3 teams that have about that much ground clearance.... Us, 254, and 968. To be able to go over the bumps we had to countersink all of the holes to mount our electronics and place all the screws from the bottom up. The bottom of the robot was literally SMOOTH. And we never got stuck!

And I know that all the holes are countersunk because I was the one who was in charge of drilling all of them....

Us, too... Unfortunately, we engineered things too closely, and while we could climb our practice hump, and the humps at FLR, we could not climb the humps at Championship.

My students learned a bit of a lesson about design tolerance this year!

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

Unfortunately, that "ROBOT!" chant wasn't enough to even break through sometimes. I'd stand there for what seemed like ages, shouting at the top of my lungs before they'd even realize I was right behind them. I think we'd eliminate a lot of the shouts if the pits were actually passable at all times.

I teach preschool, and it's so interesting to me how similar 4 year olds and high schoolers are to each other.

Have you ever had someone yell in your face about something? Do you actually hear their words, or do you hear OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD NOISES?! Combine that with being in the Pit Area, which is already an obnoxiously loud area, and you don't register any loud noise because it's blending in with the rest of the loud noises that you've blocked out.

Now, have you ever had someone whisper something to you? Maybe you didn't quite understand what they said right away, but you heard the whisper, and it intrigued you enough to pay attention.

Instead of yelling "ROBOT" and push through, perhaps we could all walk with the crowd, and then when it gets congested, gently tap the person who is in the way, say, "Excuse me, we need to get through for our match" in a polite tone, with a smile on our faces.

I tell my four year olds, "Use your gentle words". Most of the time it works for high schoolers too.