New! No Bag and Tag Inspections at Championship: With the compressed schedule for inspection this year, and the historically few discrepancies we’ve found at Championship related to bag and tag, FRC management has decided there will be no bag and tag inspections at the FIRST Championship this year. Teams may immediately unbag their robots upon opening their crates in the Pits, no need to wait for an Inspector to come by and approve.
I would assume Al knows, as there’s a note directly from him, Ed, Chris, and Jeff immediately following and referencing it in the e-mail blast.
This will certainly make things easier for inspectors… I managed Bag and Tag for one of the divisions last year, and it was a huge pain to make sure we knew who had been signed off, who hadn’t, who had shown up already, etc…
Yes, we knew. Do you know how hard it is to keep a secret? We are doing everything we can to help you get in ten matches this year. Please help us along with the process. Do not wait until Thursday for inspection. If you are making any changes, please come in and check your weight with the new parts on the scale to be sure you are not over weight. We have a record number of inspectors working the event this year and many more LRIs than ever before. Please check over my annual inspection thread as it might pertain to your robot. Be prepared! As always, we will answer any questions and assist all teams to complete inspection and meet the compliance of the robot rules. There is no change in the inspection checklist so Rev B will still be used this weekend. We will have a complete Q&A and will be inspecting with those guidelines in place.
While many of you may have been watching Chief Delphi and are aware of Inspection Rules and the Tournament, please make sure all of your alliance partners know and follow these simple rules.
In particular, G3 (safety), G4 (passed inspection), T6 (Red Card for not inspected), T8 (interchangeable mechanisms including changes for elims), T10 (mods need to be re-inspected) and all of Section 4, Robot Rules. This also applies to pneumatics rules using one and only one legal compressor, either on-board or off-board.
The inspection areas will be centrally located in the pit, as in the past. I ask that teams communicate with inspectors if they are thinking about making changes. We can advise you on how to accomplish your change and remind you to reinspect prior to participating in a match.
As pointed out in a different thread, you will need your driver’s station for inspection and you will need to show your BOM to complete the process.
The pre-qualification activities were compressed in order to get qualification match play up to 10 rounds. I like the idea of getting more opportunity to play matches but the 5-1/2 hours (2 hours limited to 5 in pit) will be a bit stressful on those of us who are determined to complete inspection by 8:30 Wednesday. It will also be very stressful to those of you who want to make significant changes within the guidelines of the rules.
Please don’t forget that your opportunity to access the division field in the form of practice matches is also happening on Wednesday. You do not need to complete inspection to participate in your scheduled practice matches but you do need to complete inspection if you want to access the filler line.
My hope is that most of you will go ahead and knock out the inspection process asap if you have no changes or minor changes to make to your robot. Even if you make some changes after the initial inspection, we can deal with it after the inspection rush.
Keep in mind that we are there to help you and to keep your inspection paperwork accurate, we’re not there to be a royal pain. Keep an open dialog with your inspector(s) and if there’s anything that needs special attention, let the Division LRI know about it. Most of the CMP inspectors are very experienced inspectors and some are regional/division LRIs. You should expect that they will notice things that others have missed.
If you feel that you’d like a second opinion on an inspectors call, contact the Division LRI. That’s why we get the BIG bucks. No harm, no foul if you feel strongly about the interpretation of a rule.
Above all, try to have fun. If you see a team struggling, jump in and help and/or let the Division LRI know so we can divert resources to those in need.
What Ed said! We have a tremendous challenge ahead of us on Wednesday afternoon to get everyone inspected so play can start on Thursday morning. Please make sure your pit neighbors know they don’t need to wait for an inspector.
We are going to have inspectors stationed in the isles to remind teams, and to be paying attention to the amount of parts teams are bringing in, as the spare parts allowance limit is still in effect.
This is a great idea! We can look into this right after every team figures out how to read and follow all the rules and shows up to their regional/district events in 100% compliance with the robot rules. Thus inspectors will be deemed unnecessary. Of course, this would mean no modifications would be allowed and you would have to compete exactly how you unbagged at your first event for the remainder of the season. On the other hand it would also eliminate the need for that withholding allowance too since, well, you would be adding stuff anyway and there wouldn’t be inspectors to check it anyway.
I agree with Drew - teams had to qualify for Championships so they’ve been through the wringer already. It’s not like a team is going to rewire their robot or sharp edges are going to appear all of the sudden.
Perhaps just make it a weigh in and a reduced inspection, or some honor system form that teams can declare if they made any changes that need to be inspected. We already rely on the honor system for bag-and-tag, so it’s not that far of a stretch to do the same for championship inspection.