pic: New low bar flaps

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by RoboChair

Part of the reason is that they needed to send the right amount of material to 24 DIFFERENT events on less than one week's notice. They were able to source something that works from McMaster Carr, a company uniquely adapted to filling this kind of panic induced rapid shipment of something.

TL;DR I ordered a roll from McMaster last night at about 5:30pm an I had it in my grimy hands by 9:30am this morning. That's a 16 hour from ordered to delivered 500 miles away.

I did the same thing. Now I have a roll of this stuff to redo our practice bar with. It cost around $45 for the roll as I recall. plus some shipping.
We get that same kind of service from MC up here in Washington too.
In fact most of the time I order parts from MC we get them the next day even without asking for express shipping.

[Bpk9p4]

Why did they remove the lower bar. Many teams designed there robot so that the bar would slide over there robot. Without that is could cause a major entanglement issue

[JohnSchneider]

This is a joke. The bar is an entirely different obstacle now. Shouldn't have rolled this out till next week so teams had time to prepare...

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by JohnSchneider

This is a joke. The bar is an entirely different obstacle now. Shouldn't have rolled this out till next week so teams had time to prepare...

Seeing as FIRST basically had no low bar flaps left after week 1, no matter what they did it would have been "an entirely different obstacle". This seems like the closest they could get to the former behavior on their tight schedule.

[MrBasse]

That's definitely not the most attractive solution I've seen to a problem. How fast and easily do they get pushed sideways and get hung up on the zip ties on the bar?

[SharonO]

Unless something changes in the morning, Kansas City was still using regular low bar coverings, except they are made from red and blue bumper material.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by SharonO

Unless something changes in the morning, Kansas City was still using regular low bar coverings, except they are made from red and blue bumper material.

Oh boy, now we have drastic inconsistencies across events!

Hopefully Kansas City switches to the new method for the actual matches.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by SharonO

Unless something changes in the morning, Kansas City was still using regular low bar coverings, except they are made from red and blue bumper material.

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

Oh boy, now we have drastic inconsistencies across events!

Hopefully Kansas City switches to the new method for the actual matches.

Originally Posted by Team Update 15

This solution will be implemented at most events, assuming shipments are on time.

Apparently KC regional doesn't qualify for "most" events status. I asked Tyler, the head ref, this morning and he pointed out the operative word "most" in the update.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Apparently KC regional doesn't qualify for "most" events status. I asked Tyler, the head ref, this morning and he pointed out the operative word "most" in the update.

It's also due to shipments. The places close to carr warehouses and all will get them first than others.

[dmorewood]

Has anyone actively tried to get a boulder through this? I know it's "technically" illegal but if someone can get the ball through the gaps after they've potentially been disrupted and moved by a robot isn't that more of just a poor design by the GDC then a foul or illegal movement of a boulder by a team.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

Originally Posted by dmorewood

Has anyone actively tried to get a boulder through this? I know it's "technically" illegal but if someone can get the ball through the gaps after they've potentially been disrupted and moved by a robot isn't that more of just a poor design by the GDC then a foul or illegal movement of a boulder by a team.

Some of the volunteers at Wilsonville were trying to do this while teams were connecting to the field...they didn't manage to get one all the way through, but one boulder made it to the other side of the low bar, held in place by one of the flaps. Definitely not impossible.

I was also playing around with one of the low bars -- as a result of the rubbery material the flaps are made of, it's close to impossible to get it to swing all the way around the bar as the fabric did. I couldn't tell exactly how much room it was taking up, but I think it was about half an inch under the low bar, so some teams that are close to 14" could have a little unexpected fun this weekend getting through.

[klink135]

It seems the new strips are ziptied to each other, so they all move as one, so it shouldn't be too much of an entanglement problem.

[Rebecca Pelzer]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

That's definitely not the most attractive solution I've seen to a problem. How fast and easily do they get pushed sideways and get hung up on the zip ties on the bar?

Not so much the flaps themselves, but the zipties at the top (around the low bar itself, holding them in place), get pushed out of place at least every two matches.

Everyone that I've seen go under the lowbar (so far) has seemingly gone under it the same as they would with the normal flap.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Seeing as FIRST basically had no low bar flaps left after week 1, no matter what they did it would have been "an entirely different obstacle". This seems like the closest they could get to the former behavior on their tight schedule.

I don't know, using bumper fabric for low bars didn't make the obstacle entirely different, except for the part where bumper fabric was far less prone to ripping apart. If anything buying a few yards of fabric seems easier for most events to do than getting strips of vinyl cut and zip tied together. I really don't get why FIRST went this route.

I'm especially troubled by the early reports that this vinyl makes the low bar effectively shorter. Making the biggest design constraint in this game even tougher, long after we're finished with our robots, instead of "just" buying tougher fabric? For once I'm glad I competed Week 1 and not Week 2!

[jlmcmchl]

FWIW, the material is surprisingly heavy as a curtain, and is just as effective as the previous style of low bar for preventing balls from passing.