What's going on in DA CUTTT? aka: UTC Regional update thread.

[Elgin Clock]

As I am going to miss at least today and most of tommorrow of the UTC regional, I just want to know how things are going.

Are practice matches running smoothly?

Anyone one having any major issues?

Any early rising stars during the practice matches??

How are the rookies doing?
Did anyone cap a vision tetra in autonomous mode yet?

Just curious.

Oh, and what is going on for a team social Friday night?
Anything? I may take a ride up later after work if the weather is nice, and I will definately be there Saturday all day.

Good luck to all teams!

[Cory]

Practice matches went smoothly for the most part.

It seemed like most teams with issues resolved them by the end of the day. I think almost everyone was able to run in at least one practice match.

126,20,173,69,230 all looked good in practice.

Nobody has capped a vision tetra, the closest anyone came was 157 when they picked one up during auton.

[kulisb]

How many tetras was 230 stacking at once? They looked good at the UTC scrimmage (I think they did 3 at a time), and I was just wondering how many they are able to do at max.

[Cory]

They were doing 3 at a time all day.

[devicenull]

Yup, 3 is the max we can cap.

[BoyWithCape195]

My team is at UTC, and this is the first time I have seen so many teams with problems, or just not finished. So many teams did not have their bots done, and still didn't have it working by the end of tonight. Yes they got a practice round in, but it wasn't very successful for many teams. I hope it isn't this way tomorrow, because its depressing that so many teams are having problems. Has it been this way at the other regionals? (at practice rounds)

[Cory]

Originally Posted by BoyWithCape195

My team is at UTC, and this is the first time I have seen so many teams with problems, or just not finished. So many teams did not have their bots done, and still didn't have it working by the end of tonight. Yes they got a practice round in, but it wasn't very successful for many teams. I hope it isn't this way tomorrow, because its depressing that so many teams are having problems. Has it been this way at the other regionals? (at practice rounds)

Today's practice rounds at UTC were FAR better than those at Sacramento last week.

[David66]

I did not notice a lot of bots having serious trouble at the Great Lakes Regional. Most practce matches had at least a majority, if not all of the scheduled bots, on the field practicing. I saw many robots capable of capping, which is encouraging. Looks to be a good competition.

[pathew100]

Originally Posted by David66

I did not notice a lot of bots having serious trouble at the Great Lakes Regional. Most practce matches had at least a majority, if not all of the scheduled bots, on the field practicing. I saw many robots capable of capping, which is encouraging. Looks to be a good competition.

David,

Also, didn't your team cap a vision tetra in your last practice match? That was sweet!

[kulisb]

Originally Posted by BoyWithCape195

My team is at UTC, and this is the first time I have seen so many teams with problems, or just not finished. So many teams did not have their bots done, and still didn't have it working by the end of tonight. Yes they got a practice round in, but it wasn't very successful for many teams. I hope it isn't this way tomorrow, because its depressing that so many teams are having problems. Has it been this way at the other regionals? (at practice rounds)

The first day is always an experience. Practice rounds at BAE made it look like many maschines were having their difficulty, and it looked as though the competition could be dull if things didn't shape up. But, as always, teams came out to win the next morning. Many robots that did little during practice proved major contenders throughout qualifiers. Everything that happened on thursday showed little foresight. Believe me, by tomorrow, you'll have quite the competition. All the bugs seem to have a way of working out in time to make things interesting!

[nobrakes8]

Is it me or did a lot of teams give up on the vision tetra and camera?

Some strong teams I noticed today (I was in the pit area most of the day chillin out):

178, 181, then i'd like to say 536? (they have the shark or something)

I also heard team 230 is awsome but I haven't seen them.

Also hate to jinx myself or be cocky (the drive team is being cocky and kind of annoying the rest of the team), team 1071 looked impressive, probably able to stack 8-9 high on the center goal if we had to, scoreing about 4-5 tetras per round after we fixed our controller.

[devicenull]

Anyone know what happened with the robot over in the spare parts area? I walked in there a couple times today, and the same one was there.. being worked on. I didn't want to interrupt their hard work. Can't even remember the number at this point.. hrm.

Also noticed the lack of wireless internet access, which disappointed me.

[dshidler]

I saw alot of teams that were doing really well and alot of teams that had some problems with parts either falling off or not being completely finished. Over-all though, it was a good first day. I'm kinda bummed that they don't have WiFi internet access so that i could update you through out the day, sigh oh well. Anyways, i'll try to update when ever i have net access.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

We were having a score of problems today. First, we needed to disassemble our transmissions and put in new side plates. We also needed to drop 5 pounds off the bot. Doing these things brought us to about 2:00, and we were only able to compete in 2 practice rounds. In the first, our motors were wired back wards, and the program was reversing sides, so the bot was near impossible to drive.

In our first match, our camera locked on to the target with no problem, but I overlooked a break statement in the code, which caused the robot to never enter tracking mode. In our second match up, the backup battery was dead, and we did not have connection to the camera (doh!).

I am pretty confident we should be able to track the vision tetra tomorrow, and hopefully after we fix a few bugs we can pour all of our recourses into making that happen.

[Jaine Perotti]

Things seem to be running smoothly for the most part at UTC, although I also noticed that there were alot of teams who have been having problems on the first day... my team included. I didn't get to watch many matches at all, but the robot that stands out most in my mind is team 69's robot, which had a very simple yet elegant arm that would cap quickly and easily.

As for my team... it was a mediocre day for us, although certainly not as bad as it could have been. We have been struggling to perfect the design of our hook, and a good portion of my day was spent wrestling with the hacksaw to make new pieces for the hook. I think we are close to getting it to work well, but it is still rather frustrating... by then end of today I was pretty much at the end of my rope.

We have also had some problems with our wheels... we basically chewed up one of the inner tubes of the pneumatic wheels (don't ask me HOW it got off of the rim of the tire and into the sprocket, but it did). We were using low air pressure to let us turn easier, but somehow this caused the tire to be pinched and... it self destructed. I am thinking of keeping the remains of the inner tube as a souvenir . Anyways, now we are forced to use a higher air pressure in order to prevent this from happening again, but now we are bouncing like CRAZY when we turn. If anyone has any ideas as to how to remedy this problem without lowering the air pressure in the tires, feel free to share them! The bouncing makes me nervous and our robot nearly lost its balance today because of it. Not to mention it creates difficulty when trying to cap.

I hope things go better for us tomorrow... I need to try to keep a positive attitude when things go wrong. A combination of lack of sleep and lack of food made me rather... almost depressed by our performance this first day. I think once we get the hook working better, and we get some more driver practice, things should begin to shape up. I think that we are DEFINITELY not the only team who has been experiencing these difficulties, and I am thankful that it is not worse.

Good luck to all the teams competing at UTC tomorrow, and I hope we can all get our robots up and running!

-- Jaine