Does your team use Laptops for Scouting?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by dag0620

Was that by any chance you guys at the CT Regional with the Wii Remotes in the stands? Every time I was walking by on my way to the pits I was always wondering what that was all about.

That was us. We found it easier to keep ourselves interested and it allowed us to scout without looking down at a sheet of paper. We probably should have collected more data Friday, but we loved the system.

[dag0620]

You guys looked like you were having fun. If the scouting team doesnt mind, I may just have to work on a system like that, or one with the multiple laptops instead of our paper into 1 laptop method we have now.

If anyone can point me into some directions to get started, please do.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by dag0620

You guys looked like you were having fun. If the scouting team doesnt mind, I may just have to work on a system like that, or one with the multiple laptops instead of our paper into 1 laptop method we have now.

If anyone can point me into some directions to get started, please do.

Our very good friends on 842 developed the system and released it to the public. http://www.nventivity.com/scout2.htm

I would highly recommend purchasing an AM Inverter and using an old robot battery. This kept our laptop running all of Friday without breaks.

[SentientCitrus]

Until this year we've used paper sheets to record information, which was then manually entered into an Excel spreadsheet or (last year) an Access database - talk about cumbersome!

This year, we trialed a custom application and database developed by one of our mentors, aimed at the netbook screen resolution, with the notion being that, because of their lower power consumption, running 6-7 at once (I think the typical load for these was 10-12W each?) on a little sub-100W Enercell inverter and old robot batteries would get us through a day of scouting in the event that power was not available.

[rulesall2]

We use the scouting system developed by 842 in the stands. The Wii motes are preferred over paper by all of our scouts. Unfortunately, during the course of the WPI regional our laptop battery ran out quite a few times, however we just bought an inverter to prevent this.

I know that team 20 developed an iPhone/iTouch app to scout and the data is transfered to a master computer at some point using a standard USB iPod cord. That is by far the coolest system I have seen so far. I also know that 1726 writes a program for the Nintendo DS that is also very effective in collecting data.

I find the best method is a method your scouts find painless and is easily assembled based on your budget and willingness to develop a system for you. Personally 842's system is simple and reliable, so thanks to you guys. I am interested in knowing how to get data straight to the pits.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by rulesall2

I find the best method is a method your scouts find painless and is easily assembled based on your budget and willingness to develop a system for you. Personally 842's system is simple and reliable, so thanks to you guys. I am interested in knowing how to get data straight to the pits.

USB key and a runner! Why mess with success anyway?

1714's used paper in the stands during my time on the team for this very reason. Data entry gets tedious, but it gets done.

[rulesall2]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

USB key and a runner! Why mess with success anyway?

That's not what I meant, I was looking for more specifics into 1676's router to connect to the stands. Sorry for the confusion.


Edit: Post 47: Chief Delphi

[Graham Donaldson]

Originally Posted by rulesall2

That's not what I meant, I was looking for more specifics into 1676's router to connect to the stands. Sorry for the confusion.

So if I understand it right, you're asking about how we get information around. I'm not sure exactly what part you're asking about, though, so I'll just go over it all.

6 laptops are connected via ethernet to a router, which connects to one central server computer (the admin computer). Also connected to this router is a 900 MHz (if I remember correctly - the point is that it's not in the spectrum used by WiFi and therefore legal under FIRST rules) 2-way transmitter. One transmitter is on a tower by our scouting table and is pointed towards the pits, where there is an identical transmitter (obviously these are dual receiver-transmitters, I'm just calling them transmitters) connected to another laptop hidden in our pit display. This laptop is connected to an external monitor and mouse on the outside of our pit display tower which we (and other teams) can use to access the database.

Addendum: in Atlanta, we obviously had to modify this system a bit. In years past, we've just had to resort to runners for going in between the pits; however, in 2009, an old team sponsor (KPMG) donated a couple of Sprint AirCards to us for the weekend - the admin computer in the stands put the data on our team website via one aircard, where it was accessed by the pit computer on the other aircard.

Hope this helps - let me know if you're still confused.

[ttldomination]

At Palmetto, we (1261 & 1379) developed a system via google docs for scouting.

At the events we attend, harder than finding power is finding internet. The google docs system would only work at Palmetto (out of all of the regionals we attend).

[alicen]

For the Palmetto regional 1261 and us (skeleton crews working together) teamed up for scouting, and used five laptops in the stands. There was an outlet nearby so we taped down an extension cord and had a power strip on that.

We also each had laptops in our pits for access to the scouting info.

We used Google Docs to share all of our information/sheets (Clemson had free guest wifi) though we also had the backup plan of connecting all the copmuters together with ethernet cables.

[Bethie42]

At the Autodesk Oregon regional I believe there was a designated scouting area in the stands with access to power, however we never used it.
Our team is pretty small so we had rather an unusual scouting system:
scouting captain (me) with MacBook, and usually only one other scout, with paper and pencil.
I was able to keep my battery going the whole day, with only a charge-up at the pit during lunch.


[And for people wondering how two scouts managed to do the Autodesk regional, with 60+ teams.... At competition my job is to know each and every robot. Every piece of data flows through my laptop, and I take scouting very seriously: I consider that if the team captain wants to know about a team, I need to have a ready flow of memorized info....plus it impresses the team captain This really wouldn't be possible unless you have a team member who is willing to watch every match and stay up til the wee hours of the morning compiling data.... ]

[Battery Guy 525]

Our team used paper scouting sheets and then compiled them on one computer at KC and are going to be testing out the wii scouting program in 10000 lakes. We plan to use two old robot battery's wired in parallel contained with in a wood box to keep the battery's together. Then useing a power inverter we can power two laptops for about three hours. This also allows us charge this battery on KOP chargers.

[MrForbes]

Looks like we might try Nintendo DS scouting again at the Vegas regional....the batteries in a DS last longer than those in most laptops.

[Sumathi]

No we don't use laptops for scouting. We tried to do that last year and failed miserably. This year we had seperate sheets for each robot at the KC regional, which didn't go so well because we had lost a good ammount in the stands. So at OK we used six clip boards with about 10-15 teams for each board. This went better because we were less likely to lose them. It also helped establish a scouting system so we would have six scouters at all times.

[NullEntity]

Last year was hell. We brought I believe 8 laptops from our tech-ed department. We have a UPS (uninteruptable power supply) which is two car batteries and an inverter to keep them charged. The problem was that the laptop's batteries could barely hold a charge. That and the fact that we could only keep three laptops plugged in at a time to prevent drawing too much power through the inverter. It was a lesson we won't soon forget.

This year, we did a paper-based system, but with a quirk. We had a scanner that could read the forms (they were sort of like Scantrons with bubbles) that would constantly scan forms while people were scouting. It was a lot simpler (and cooler ) than last year!