Team Update - 4/16/13

[PayneTrain]

"Man, you know what we're missing at CMP?"

"More things controlled by the FMS?!"

"YOU'RE DARN RIGHT!"

-Probable conversation I wish was held in alternate reality where the FMS was actually not a source of delays and tears.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Now comes the tricky part: how do you do choose when to freeze time when you have 6 teams out there?

I saw some seriously questionable choices made by teams on the practice field this year - shooting long distance shots over other teams, one robot climbing whilst another team took their robot down from 30 point land, robots driving into people on other teams. I know the UL guys noted a lot of these things and I bet there was a report with recommendations made. I miss the days when we could put one person on the field with the robot during Thursday at regionals, but I understand the concern with other robots out there.

Adjusting the match time in FMS is not difficult.

Wetzel

This is my point exactly. You can't do this stuff with 6 teams operating as a practice match.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Now comes the tricky part: how do you do choose when to freeze time when you have 6 teams out there?

I saw some seriously questionable choices made by teams on the practice field this year - shooting long distance shots over other teams, one robot climbing whilst another team took their robot down from 30 point land, robots driving into people on other teams. I know the UL guys noted a lot of these things and I bet there was a report with recommendations made. I miss the days when we could put one person on the field with the robot during Thursday at regionals, but I understand the concern with other robots out there.

Adjusting the match time in FMS is not difficult.

Wetzel

I too agree the practice field wasn't the best managed at several events. At Pine Tree when we were testing our climber there were two other robots testing their shooters on the either side of the pryamid. Not the safest setup but all teams on the field were asked prior if we we could share a slot and we agreed.

Champs would be best setup with the following:

1. Two full practice fields for tethered operation (two for each division just like we always have had).

2. Several carpeted practice spaces that could include the following setup (One set of goals with pyramid spaced to field specs and next to it a stand alone pyramid for climb testing).


Now I am all for radio practice matches those are good and if FIRST/the community saw a need for these I would recommend one full practice field for tethered testing and one full practice field for full practice matches (run one match at a time for quick turn over of teams) AND increase the number of option 2 above so more teams can do tethered testing.

The reasons Brandon has mentioned are the reasons we need tethered field testing. The purpose is to diagnose while operating. If not how will you know what to fix or where your problems lie. Most of the time we have issues in a regular match we say, "Straight to the practice field/pit to test this" not, "Lets get right back in line for another match".

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Now comes the tricky part: how do you do choose when to freeze time when you have 6 teams out there?

I saw some seriously questionable choices made by teams on the practice field this year - shooting long distance shots over other teams, one robot climbing whilst another team took their robot down from 30 point land, robots driving into people on other teams. I know the UL guys noted a lot of these things and I bet there was a report with recommendations made. I miss the days when we could put one person on the field with the robot during Thursday at regionals, but I understand the concern with other robots out there.

Adjusting the match time in FMS is not difficult.

Wetzel

When it comes to making sure their robots are perfect teams don't always engage in the wisest behaviors. The practice fields tend to be a Wild West where teams seem to forget their common sense and GP and climb over each other for time on every available scrap of carpet.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Siri

Do we know if these tethered fields will be open Wednesday, or does the Hours of Operation section apply to both types?


I wish FIRST would offer some kind of rationalization (or warning/response period) when they make changes like this. Running matches is not what most teams I know look for on the practice field. If there's no pyramid on the tethered fields, we'll be lucky if we can climb at all.

Practice fields will not be open Wednesday Evening.

The Rest of the Schedule is as follows:

Thursday 7:30AM to 8PM

Friday 7:30AM to 6:30PM (Closed for Opening Ceremonies, 8:15-9am)

Saturday 7:30AM to 10:30AM...

Not sure what the 10:30AM Close time on Saturday Morning is all about, I hope that it has something to do with them being reserved for Elimination Alliances or something like that.

Relevant Document: http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default...ice_Fields.pdf

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Not sure what the 10:30AM Close time on Saturday Morning is all about, I hope that it has something to do with them being reserved for Elimination Alliances or something like that.

Relevant Document: http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default...ice_Fields.pdf

If it's like last year, there won't be enough time for all elimination round alliances to get practice time after alliance selections are over.

Y'all have fun with that!

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Siri

Dustin,
Yes, that's what I'm referencing, but I don't see anything on there that indicates those hours of operation apply to the tethered "regional practice field goal setups". As written, it seems they only apply to what FIRST has capitalized as "Practice Fields", which are the full-size, wireless practice match fields. I'll work under the assumption they're the same hours to be safe, but it'd be nice to know for planning Wednesday.

The way I interpreted the document is that the Goal Setups (we should call this shooting galleries or firing ranges or some other more interesting name) operate the same hours as the other practice fields - though it would make sense for them to be open instead of the full fields on Wednesday night since they - in theory - only need one volunteer to operate.

Now that I think about it, if there isn't somewhere 'safe' to shoot discs on Wednesday night things could get interesting...

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

If it's like last year, there won't be enough time for all elimination round alliances to get practice time after alliance selections are over.

Y'all have fun with that!

We were lucky enough to be able to get onto the practice field last year without too much hassle. Then again, our pit was 25' or so from the field so that helped...

[Cory]

Yet again FIRST blows it big time. Pure genius move. Obviously nobody at FIRST understands why teams use the practice fields. It's got nothing to do with practicing driving and everything to do with debugging.

If this was a safety issue they should have said "due to the unsafe nature of having multiple robots and people interacting on the practice field, we have decided...". Instead it just makes it sound like they did it for the hell of it.

They've allowed people on the practice field with their robots for a very long time. It's hard to believe it only became a safety concern now.

[BigJ]

I foresee the "Four regional practice field goal setups" being way more crowded than the actual practice field for the reasons that Jared mentioned.