There has been much discussion about the processing of the Boiler and it’s speed. While that topic has been particularly interesting and a real design constraint for many people - it has been beaten to death.
What I’d like to discuss is the physical counting of Fuel by the Boiler system.
While watching the AMAZING 1574 bot this morning, me and my team traded Slack messages regarding the awesome auto routine they are running. We saw in Finals 2 1574 score 42 kPa!!! Absolutely incredible.
As we do for many awesome shooters, we decided to breakdown the slow mo, count their accuracy and their balls/second.
What we noticed is they only physically shot 36 balls (still an incredible feat), but somehow ended up with a 42kPa number after auto. They missed a few of these shots as well. They never shot another fuel that match.
How have other people found the Boiler counting system to be? I’m greatly concerned about the accuracy of the count - and as a team who relies heavily on that number being correct, my concerns are starting to grow.
Again, I’d like to stay focused on the counting system and not the RATE at which it counts, as that has been beaten to death already.
In the final match at CHS NOVA one alliance received a fuel point during auto. Not a single robot on that alliance had the ability to manipulate fuel.
The score was corrected in the final score. But that means not only is it sometimes double counting balls, it’s just adding some randomly without anything going through it.
So, how confident are you of your shot count of 36?
I viewed the video a couple of times at normal speed. If I assume that they started loaded with ten and the hopper contained 50 +/- 4, then there are 56 to 60 balls available. It appeared that both the hopper and their machine were empty - notice the last few coming out much further apart than all of the previous ones.
Net, shooting 60ish and only getting 42 counted due to processing rate is consistent with the process time and lag which has been discussed.
I counted 37 balls shot. So while we might have missed a few, I don’t think we’re really that far off.
The answer to this question really depends on what sensor is counting the balls, because if it’s a beam break, it’s entirely possible balls can get double counted thanks to the holes in the balls.
I count 36 as well. Watch it at 1/4 speed and see for yourself. They did not shoot the full hopper, also some of those shots were going in from T-2 to T-0 of auto, no way they could be processed in time to count for a full kpa.
At lake Superior we played in a match where a piece of fabric was blocking the counting mechanism. We should have gotten over 30 kPa but were instead only credited for 16.
Yeah, at 1/4 speed I counted 36 as well. I could not tell if what appeared to be balls remaining in the hopper were in the hopper or prestaged near the hopper.
It did look like that hopper level was lower, too.
Very concerning, for sure. On more than one count.
I got 36 as well. This is disheartening if it is that inaccurate at counting. Nobody wants to be awarded points they didn’t actually earn, and nobody wants to win because they got phantom points either. This needs to be address by HQ immediately.
I am fairly confident that at least one of our quals matches this past weekend had phantom fuel scored, although it was removed from the final score before posting since none of the teams shot fuel in that match. I would have to wait to see the video recording to verify my suspicions.
I dont understand why they just cant go back to how they did it in 2006.
Wait until all goes through and processed before starting teleop.
It seems like the only solution at this point.
