Team Update #1

[Nemisis]

Good luck with that Sir! Team 2389 is in full swing and is working nonstop to make this year the absolute Best!

[Boydean]

I find this new contraint quite enjoyable. Then again, I'm not on a team.

There has always been talk from year to year about "standardizing" certain parts of the robot across teams to allow them to be able to be switched out at competitions. I think FIRST just laid a golden egg right in your lap to do something like this and make it actually happen (in fact, they are encouraging it).

Forget about the "lack of innovation" that has come from this rule, and think about how fun it'll be brainstorming with other teams in the pit to get their minibot to work with your hostbot.

Just my two cents.

[Nemisis]

I must agree!

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

FIRST. You made a horrible call, you took what was potentially a good engineering design challenge, and turned it into a last ditch effort to save their inferior (to vex) FTC design competition.

It's now a challenge of who can make the SAME minibot lighter. Yay.

I completely agree. What is the point in the minibot challenge to see what design works after week one and to copy it identically within a day? That's inspiring AND encourages innovation...

FTC is a failure in comparison to VEX and FIRST should cut their loses. MI hardly even supports FTC because it takes away from FRC, we have 0 competitions in MI and no one's making a big deal about it (at least that I know of).

[Jonathan Norris]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

FIRST. You made a horrible call, you took what was potentially a good engineering design challenge, and turned it into a last ditch effort to save their inferior (to vex) FTC design competition.

It's now a challenge of who can make the SAME minibot lighter. Yay.

this...

Originally Posted by Cory

I have no desire to watch a battle of who sucks less. It's not inspiring to see whether the robot that takes 16 seconds to hang beats out the one that takes 14 seconds to hang. Slow=boring, regardless of whether it's a scenario where it ends up being a buzzer beater.

and this...

Really Disappointing FIRST...

I really liked the 60" cylinder rule, it made the game an actual design challenge rather then copying 2007 arms/manipulators.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

FIRST. You made a horrible call, you took what was potentially a good engineering design challenge, and turned it into a last ditch effort to save their inferior (to vex) FTC design competition.

It's now a challenge of who can make the SAME minibot lighter. Yay.

My thoughts exactly. For a second I thought that was an intentional allowance - you can either use FTC or think outside the box!

But no. FIRST isn't happy until overpriced, crap Tetrix parts are in the hands of every single FIRST team whether they like it or not.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Cory

What's more inspiring, a 1 second minibot or waiting to see who reaches the pole first to deploy their minibot that takes 7 seconds to reach the top?

That sounds like hanging last year. With a few exceptions (27, 33, 148, 1114, and others), watching robots hang was very suspenseful. Would they pull themselves up in time? Are they JUST over the top of the tunnel? While 148's ability to hang was amazing, it was consistent, and less keep-me-on-the-edge-of-my-seat exciting than a slower hanging bot.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Karibou

That sounds like hanging last year. With a few exceptions (27, 33, 148, 1114, and others), watching robots hang was very suspenseful. Would they pull themselves up in time? Are they JUST over the top of the tunnel? While 148's ability to hang was amazing, it was consistent, and less keep-me-on-the-edge-of-my-seat exciting than a slower hanging bot.

I have no desire to watch a battle of who sucks less. It's not inspiring to see whether the robot that takes 16 seconds to hang beats out the one that takes 14 seconds to hang. Slow=boring, regardless of whether it's a scenario where it ends up being a buzzer beater.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Karibou

That sounds like hanging last year. With a few exceptions (27, 33, 148, 1114, and others), watching robots hang was very suspenseful. Would they pull themselves up in time? Are they JUST over the top of the tunnel? While 148's ability to hang was amazing, it was consistent, and less keep-me-on-the-edge-of-my-seat exciting than a slower hanging bot.

Perhaps 148's hanger wasn't as exciting to you because they took it off prior to their first regional and never used in a match. I know if they did use it, I would have rather watched it than some rickety 19 second scissor lift. (Actually that's not true, scissor lifts are awesome...)

Originally Posted by Cory

I have no desire to watch a battle of who sucks less. It's not inspiring to see whether the robot that takes 16 seconds to hang beats out the one that takes 14 seconds to hang. Slow=boring, regardless of whether it's a scenario where it ends up being a buzzer beater.

And this is why I make sure to read every post by Cory McBride.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Perhaps 148's hanger wasn't as exciting to you because they took it off prior to their first regional and never used in a match. I know if they did use it, I would have rather watched it than some rickety 19 second scissor lift. (Actually that's not true, scissor lifts are awesome...)

Whoops, my bad. 217, not 148. Easy to get the two mixed up...

While 217's hanger was exciting to watch, after seeing it time after time again, if there was something else going on on the field, I was more likely to watch that. If it's 217 vs a team in their final match of their final event, they're hanger is working for the first time, and it takes 20 seconds to get up there, I'm watching that bot. There's a lot of overwhelming joy in seeing something succeed after multiple failures, for whatever reason. I'm not trying to say that a team like 217 isn't inspiring - they are. I am always impressed with the students from teams like that and what they have been able to accomplish. But I am also inspired by the other teams at the competitions who often get overshadowed by the extremely successful robots. Someone who is proud of what their robot can do, no matter how it compares to the competition, is always someone to provide inspiration.

[smistthegreat]

Originally Posted by Karibou

Whoops, my bad. 217, not 148. Easy to get the two mixed up...

While 217's hanger was exciting to watch, after seeing it time after time again, if there was something else going on on the field, I was more likely to watch that. If it's 217 vs a team in their final match of their final event, they're hanger is working for the first time, and it takes 20 seconds to get up there, I'm watching that bot. There's a lot of overwhelming joy in seeing something succeed after multiple failures, for whatever reason. I'm not trying to say that a team like 217 isn't inspiring - they are. I am always impressed with the students from teams like that and what they have been able to accomplish. But I am also inspired by the other teams at the competitions who often get overshadowed by the extremely successful robots. Someone who is proud of what their robot can do, no matter how it compares to the competition, is always someone to provide inspiration.

Hmm, not to be Johnny Raincloud but I'm fairly sure 217 removed their arm as well, at least I seem to remember them not having it at FLR. Hmm.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by smistthegreat

Hmm, not to be Johnny Raincloud but I'm fairly sure 217 removed their arm as well, at least I seem to remember them not having it at FLR. Hmm.

No worries Mr. Raincloud, you are correct.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Karthik

No worries Mr. Raincloud, you are correct.

Wow. I guess I'm really way off. I'm not even sure who I was thinking of now, but thanks for the correction. Sorry about all of that :/

[h1n1is4pigs]

Originally Posted by Cory

waiting to see who reaches the pole first to deploy their minibot that takes 7 seconds to reach the top

actually if you run a 4inch diameter wheel at the maximum the motors move(152rpm) it will only take 3.5 sec and even if it is running at 120rpm it will only take about 5 sec to reach the top of the pole

[Cory]

Originally Posted by h1n1is4pigs

actually if you run a 4inch diameter wheel at the maximum the motors move(152rpm) it will only take 3.5 sec and even if it is running at 120rpm it will only take about 5 sec to reach the top of the pole

Not quite, see this thread

So you can theoretically make one go up in 5 seconds. Whoop de doo. I guarantee you would have seen sub one second climbs if stored energy systems were allowed.