Small FMS timer bug

[Greg Marra]

This is very interesting. I will time some matches during the Boston Regional to confirm this "on the ground". Watching recorded matches may introduce issues with different frame rates due to re-encoding, but it sounds persistent.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Is this a bug that should get squashed before this year is up? I know the obvious answer is yes, but technically it would be unfair to teams playing in later weeks..

[Doc Wu]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

Is this a bug that should get squashed before this year is up? I know the obvious answer is yes, but technically it would be unfair to teams playing in later weeks..

Yes, identify and fix the bug, but implement it in next year's FMS. Leave it alone for now. We've all had enough changes already.

Actually, I was thinking this weekend that the matches were too short, scores were too low, and how would strategy change if the drivers had more time... But that's a different question!

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

This is very interesting. I will time some matches during the Boston Regional to confirm this "on the ground". Watching recorded matches may introduce issues with different frame rates due to re-encoding, but it sounds persistent.

From Dave Flowerday's post, he timed matches in-person at the Midwest Regional, confirming his observations from the Milwaukee webcast. From the perspective of fairness, if all the matches run the same duration, no advantage is gained or lost* by any teams.

Maybe FIRST will discover a mini-black hole in the FMS that dilates time and create other problems with the field?

*Unless, of course, you don't trust your drivers and have automatic timing features in your code that effectively ends your match earlier than the rest of the field. (Sorry, Joe!)

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

From Dave Flowerday's post, he timed matches in-person at the Midwest Regional, confirming his observations from the Milwaukee webcast. From the perspective of fairness, if all the matches run the same duration, no advantage is gained or lost* by any teams.

Maybe FIRST will discover a mini-black hole in the FMS that dilates time and create other problems with the field?

*Unless, of course, you don't trust your drivers and have automatic timing features in your code that effectively ends your match earlier than the rest of the field. (Sorry, Joe!)

First, putting the brake on is not "ending the match early." The code I want to implement will allow the winch to go UP but not DOWN during the last 3 seconds of a match.

Second, I trust my drivers. BUT if there is a way that I can unload them from having to think about details during a match, I'm going to do it, especially given that we have not had enough quality time with the robot to practice these kind of things.


From years of experience, I can tell you that drivers get overloaded pretty easily. There is a LOT going on out there on the field. On something as critical as this, I think an auto engage is a good idea.

Joe J.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

Maybe FIRST will discover a mini-black hole in the FMS that dilates time and create other problems with the field?

Hmm. The LHC was recently re-started... coincidence?


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