New Poll! (18)

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Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 2/24/2000 8:30 PM MST


In Reply to: New Poll posted by PollMaster on 2/24/2000 8:14 PM MST:



Does anyone REALLY believe the Woodie can make about 50% of his shots end up in the goal?

Granted we did not have an ideal room to practice in, but I can't believe that the differences we had from the true conditions would make that big of a difference.

From my talks with other teams, the best I have heard is about 20%.

Have I just been talking to the wrong folks?

What percentage does your team make?

Do tell.

Joe J.

P.S. We WISH we had a thrower who could make as high as 20 out of 100!

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Posted by Keith Liadis.

Student on team #131, C.H.A.O.S., from Central High School Central and Osram Sylvania and Fleet Bank.

Posted on 2/24/2000 8:46 PM MST


In Reply to: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Joe Johnson on 2/24/2000 8:30 PM MST:



To tell you the truth.. in our tryouts.. the top three people were making between 40 and 50 percent in. The guy we picked normally stays right around that percent in practices.

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Posted by Raul.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling HS and Motorola.

Posted on 2/24/2000 8:54 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Keith Liadis on 2/24/2000 8:46 PM MST:



: To tell you the truth.. in our tryouts.. the top three people were making between 40 and 50 percent in. The guy we picked normally stays right around that percent in practices.

WOW. Maybe our balls were at too high of a pressure. We could hit the inside of the goal about 40% of the time but they just bounce out.

Or, maybe you have some special technique? What is it?

Raul

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.

Posted on 2/25/2000 2:38 AM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Raul on 2/24/2000 8:54 PM MST:



Keep in mind though, that the balls are inflated to SIZE not pressure. We've had about 40% from our HP, and much better luck with the black ball. It's softer and rounder for some odd reason. We also have the problem of the 'bounce out' of the goal, but we've found that if you get the right spin on the ball, it helps tremendously. Who knows how anyone will fair in comp. though, because I remember the balls in '98 being so much different at the comps because of the weather and FIRST specs than our balls back home. No matter how good your HP is...much is still left up to chance.

Lora

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Posted by Greg Mills.

Engineer on team #16, Baxter Bomb Squad, from Mountain Home and Baxter Healthcare.

Posted on 2/25/2000 6:13 AM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Lora Knepper on 2/25/2000 2:38 AM MST:



:
WOW - We are in the same boat as Joe & Raul - we can hit the goal 40-50% but can't get them to stay in. Unless we did someting wrong about 10% would be a great shooting performance even with the black ball.

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Posted by Thomas A. Frank.

Engineer on team #121, The Islanders/Rhode Warrior, from Middletown (RI) High School and Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

Posted on 2/25/2000 10:24 AM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Greg Mills on 2/25/2000 6:13 AM MST:



They're not balls, they're eggs...

I suspect that the black one behaves differently due to whatever they use for pigment (carbon black, grpahite?) to get the color. It seems to affect the consistancy of the material to a noticable degree.

They seem awfully bouncy to me...we'd just as soon feed the robot over the top...

Tom Frank

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Posted by Keith Liadis.

Student on team #131, C.H.A.O.S., from Central High School Central and Osram Sylvania and Fleet Bank.

Posted on 2/25/2000 2:18 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Raul on 2/24/2000 8:54 PM MST:



WEll the way i see it, our HP judges the ball to see where it would be best to hit the ground, usually on the seam, and then does the bounce technique, and a good 40 to 50 percent of them go in well. THis is with the metal goal, not the pvc. The pvc is much easier to score in. Of course he gets the weird bounce a lot, but it never really seems to affect his performance. We'll see though!

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Posted by Jason Rudolph.

Student on team #168, The Flashbacks, from North Miami Beach Senior High and Velda Farms/FedEx/ETC/HPE Automation.

Posted on 2/25/2000 4:07 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Raul on 2/24/2000 8:54 PM MST:



: WOW. Maybe our balls were at too high of a pressure. We could hit the inside of the goal about 40% of the time but they just bounce out.

: Or, maybe you have some special technique? What is it?

Well, we have found a good technique. First of all, we hit the inside of the goal 80-90% of the time, but we found that the best technique is to only try and throw them in when there are a few balls already in the goal. The other balls act as shock absorbers and the balls tend not to bounce out as much. I would say doing this increased our percentage from 30 up to 60%. Give it a try!

: ) Jason

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Posted by Justin Stiltner.

Student on team #388, Epsilon, from Grundy High School and NASA, American Electric Power, Town of Grundy.

Posted on 2/24/2000 8:58 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Keith Liadis on 2/24/2000 8:46 PM MST:



Our shooter makes a solid 5 out of 7 and for some reason the black ball almost every time I think that the black ball is a littel more round. But the goal we are using is made from pvc (cheaper than buying kee klamps cause the pvc was donated) and it might be flexing as the ball hits it.

Justin Stiltner
Team 388

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Posted by Raul.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling HS and Motorola.

Posted on 2/24/2000 8:49 PM MST


In Reply to: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Joe Johnson on 2/24/2000 8:30 PM MST:



We have no idea what our best shooter could do because we gave up on the idea when no one could make one stay in after about 20 tries. We even tried bouncing them in - not much better because the balls are not round.

I think it is too much of a luck factor due to the middle bars in the goal that cause most balls to bounce out. You have to hit it perfectly between the bars with spin or hope that it sticks between them. So we will not likely even attempt it other than as a desparation shot at the end.

Raul

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.

Posted on 2/25/2000 2:31 AM MST


In Reply to: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Joe Johnson on 2/24/2000 8:30 PM MST:



On a really good day....when he's on a really good streak, our human player can hit roughly 40% of his shots. We are lucky enough to have pretty close to a full field, and the player station to goal distance is regulation. So we still keep our HP practicing, so hopefully his numbers will go up before the NE regional....he's the best we have.

Lora

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Posted by Matt Ryan.

Student on team #69, HYPER, from Quincy Public Schools and Gillette.

Posted on 2/25/2000 5:23 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Lora Knepper on 2/25/2000 2:31 AM MST:



Now he is shooting about 50-60%. He is definitely getting better.
Note: That is still on really good day when he is on a streak and he is REALLY REALLY REALLY lucky. :-)

-=Matt=-

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Posted by Chris.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Coach on team #308, Walled Lake Monster, from Walled Lake Schools and TRW Automotive Electronics.

Posted on 2/25/2000 6:56 AM MST


In Reply to: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Joe Johnson on 2/24/2000 8:30 PM MST:



: Does anyone REALLY believe the Woodie can make about 50% of his shots end up in the goal?

: Granted we did not have an ideal room to practice in, but I can't believe that the differences we had from the true conditions would make that big of a difference.

: From my talks with other teams, the best I have heard is about 20%.

: Have I just been talking to the wrong folks?

: What percentage does your team make?


Our percentage is about 47%. Our one Human Player made 7 out of 8 in the last set of balls before we had to take our goal out of the gym we were using.

It does take a special technique. I would tell you all what it is, but after seeing all your great robots I can't tell -- we need to have a competitive advantage in at least one area.

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Posted by Rob Zeuge.

Other on team #121, Rhode Warrior, from Middletown High School and Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

Posted on 2/25/2000 8:59 AM MST


In Reply to: Was Woodie pulling our leg? posted by Joe Johnson on 2/24/2000 8:30 PM MST:



Why would we shoot at between 20% and 50% when we can feed all of the balls to the robot and score 100% of them?

By the way, our human players did have a low shooting percentage, but that probably has as much to do with that large pipe in the way as the actual difficulty

See everyone in Jersey.