2007 Silicon Valley Regional

[Nick 568]

All of 568 had a great time, just being able to get out of the freezing temps and into the perfect CA weather was one of the best parts for us. This was my third FIRST event, second regional, and favorite regional yet. Ran much more smoothly than the Richmond-VCU regional IMO.

We had a fantastic time hanging out with 1351 on saturday and hope to see you all again next year. At the HI regional hopefully! Thanks as well for doing the whole light-swap with us. I still think it's stupid to go to that whole new light set-up... I mean what was the point? A pain to figure out how to wire, and tells you less info than last year's light...

[Joobacca]

hey everyone, i was wondering where i can find jason morrella's awesome "silicon valley regional 2007 movie". had lots of cool footage and was just a blast!

[burkechrs1]

does anyone have any footage? is SOAP ever going to make an SVR section? i need video of SVR...

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by burkechrs1

does anyone have any footage? is SOAP ever going to make an SVR section? i need video of SVR...

We recorded the raw stream of the event. One of our mentor volunteers is currently cutting up, compressing and uploading the footage from PNW and SVR. It takes hours and hours of work as he is doing it mostly via a portable usb drive (many gigs of raw footage). Be patient, we will get it to soap or somewhere else soon!

[AznPrincess3089]

Originally Posted by DotCom

I think you did lift us once...second match of quarter-finals, I think? I remember driving onto your ramp with only 3/4 of our robot on your ramp and you still managed to lift us at least 4". =)

Oooh, I was meaning to ask team 488 how their ramps were able to keep lifting even after they cut the power. I never had a chance to ask, though. =[

I don't think we got the points for that. I was pretty sure that you guys acted as a counter balance to lift 254 up all the way even if they were on the blue (unsupported) side. Lol, everything was kind of a daze when we saw Raptor lifted.

[DotCom]

Originally Posted by AznPrincess3089

I don't think we got the points for that. I was pretty sure that you guys acted as a counter balance to lift 254 up all the way even if they were on the blue (unsupported) side. Lol, everything was kind of a daze when we saw Raptor lifted.

Really? I think that was in the first match when we were the counter balance. And then in the second match Raptor was pinned against the rack, so we got on the ramp...

[royal_robotix]

Originally Posted by DotCom

Really? I think that was in the first match when we were the counter balance. And then in the second match Raptor was pinned against the rack, so we got on the ramp...

we did get the points for lifting both bots but i dont think we got the full 60 pts

[JB987]

Team 987 would like to congratulate the winning alliance (and all of the other great teams that made this regional such an awesome experience for us). We were especially impressed with the friendliness of the folks at the regional and look forward to a return visit! We can't wait to see some of you again, at our regional and/or at Atlanta...

[Guy Davidson]

Team 8 would like to thank and congratulate:
The winning alliance, teams 190, 1280, and 1516 for their victory.
The finalists, teams 488, 766, and 852 for making it to the finals.
All teams that made eliminations, becuase it's something.
Everyone who fielded a robot, because that's what we were there to do.
Everyone who had fun, because what's the point if we didn't have fun?
Everyone who learned something, because learning is awesome.

For those of you we'll see again at Vegas, we can't wait. We plan to actually have an operational bot for Vegas, and hopefully put together a more impressive show. For everyone else, good luck in whatever regionals you go to, and at Championships if you go.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by 115inventorsam

So that's how we managed to get back on the field? Amazingly I never knew that, but anyways, thank you 488! You made the team pretty darn happy when El Toro X came back on the field.

It was our pleasure. We didn't use those gearboxes, but we knew they'd come in handy for other teams, so we brought them along with us to Portland and San Jose. We started with two; now we have none.

Originally Posted by DotCom

Oooh, I was meaning to ask team 488 how their ramps were able to keep lifting even after they cut the power. I never had a chance to ask, though. =[

As others have mentioned, we use two 125 lbf., closed-loop gas springs per side to lift robots. The gas springs are held closed by some steel hooks that are pulled loose by the Fisher Price motors coupled with a 256:1 Banebots transmission. We need only a fraction of a second of power to spin the FP motors and pull the hooks, then it's up, up and away.

[Gboehm]

Any video footage avalable yet?

[Stvn]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Team 100, on behalf of 675, we can't wait to see you at Davis. Also, I like your Saftey Captain's hat.

That hat was a media magnet. The team member wearing it was interviewed by four or five newspaper reporters. It also made the front of the Chronicle. For some reason, a hammer sticking out of a hardhat strikes people as funny.

[Royalpride1070]

Silicon Valley was an extremely rewarding (fun/awesome) experience! once again 254 has amazed us all by their awesomeness. I would like to also congratulate our alliance 692, it was awesome having two all girls team in one alliance.