Hi Everyone,
Post here or respond to the poll if you think that the new scoring display should have a CLOCK and not just a progress bar.
Justin
Yes, I totally agree. The red numbered clock on the alliance station wall is small and difficult to see through the rack. It’s hard for drive teams to determine how much time is left to go in the match. A clock on the big screen would help.
Andy B.
The new scoring bar does suck, if FIRST does decide to keep it atleast put a clock in the display too. it makes it easier to find the time then having to figure out the time remaining. Also I dont know if it was the lag of the webcast, but when I was watching VCU on Friday, the bar seemes to be either behind or too fast then when the actual match ended.
Change the bar to a clock
CLOCKS ALL THE WAY, ALSO THE BIG SPINNING LIGHTS FOR ROBOTS TOO, LOL:D
Yes, please do add a clock. Location is unimportant, so long as we know where to look.
it wouldnt be a bad idea to move the clocks on the driver stations to the middle of the field on top of the rack since there is already power there. it would be much easy to see for the drive teams
i agree. The clocks ontop of the rack would work perfect. Then the drivers wouldnt have to be looking around for the time. Its highly unlikely for FIRST to do but its a good idea.
I think the clock needs to be on the screen. There is a giant contraption in the middle of the field with lots of shiny metal, which makes it really hard to see the other driver station from the opposite side of the field. Even in the stands, it’s hard to see with the crowd, the robots, and the rack in the way.
I think George did a nice job at NJ, periodically announcing the remaining time. 
It’s a nice visual but it’s vauge as a guage to tell how much time is left in the match and teams that are strategy intensive (i.e. really good teams) really depend on knowing what time it is so they can plan out thier goals accordingly.
You all do realize that the progress bar changes color after one minute and then flashes during the last 20 seconds right?
It’s a much better indicator for a quick glance than numbers IMHO.
Keep it.
If you really need a TRUE CLOCK at your events, then you should of signed up for NJ, Boston, Hartford & Atlanta where I will be. 
:rolleyes:
Its not so much a problem halfway through the round or even during Autonomous. Its mostly towards the end game that its the problem. A True Clock is more accuarte on how much time is left but with the progress bar, its hard to tell just how many seconds you have left when it comes down to the last seconds of the round.
So what if it changes color? I think it is much more useful to know exactly how much time is left without having to guess. I would rather see that there are 18 seconds left than have to process the fact that the progress bar is flashing yellow, meaning that there are no more than 20 seconds left, then try to make an estimation of what percentage of the bar is filled. Pretty, but useless. I’ll take a plain old countdown clock any day.
I never even knew there was a clock on the alliance station wall.
If I had to choose between the progress bar and the clock, I would choose the latter. A clock is much better for forming an exact strategy, because then you know exactly how many seconds are left in the match.
But I have a solution that makes everyone happy.
As anyone who’s familiar with iPods knows, they have both a progress bar and countdown clocks on the screen that are displayed when playing each song. A very similar concept can be adapted for use on the FRC scoreboard displays.
Elgin,
I have to agree with you, it’s a great indicator.
For a 1st year scoring system, (it’s a new company this year), if all teams have to complain about is having a clock vs a moving bar they’ve done a great job. You should be happy that the system worked so well in week one. I know its what you would expect, but it’s not what has been deliverded the last few years. In the past years the scoring system still had “opportunities” past week two, three, four… All that extra stuff that shows up on the screen this year via the scoring system is a BONUS to us all.
Teams you all have coaches and human players in your stations, they could place themselves to see the clock on the opposing teams wall. Also there are audiable warnings, plus generally the play-by-play announcer is also calling times remaining throughout the match.
Just one more man’s opinion
It did? St. Louis was down for over an hour because it couldn’t calculate rankings correctly. Sure, the match control went better (however, there was no automated scoring and no green light to turn on/off), so it’s a step in the right direction, but not being able to calculate rankings correctly is quite literally a show-stopper defect.
Add me to the group that says there needs to be a timer on the screen. Along with that, I’d add that it would be nice to have the match number displayed on screen. This is something we’ve had before and I don’t know why it wasn’t included in the new system. It’s so helpful when you pop your head out of the pits to take a look at what’s going on to know which match is currently being played. Also it makes it a lot easier when reviewing recorded footage, which is what I’m doing now. Along those same lines, why are the eliminations displayed as “Match 1”, “Match 2”, etc? There’s no way from looking at a recording of a match now to know which round (quarter’s, semi’s, etc) it came from, or which match it is within that round.
Two steps forward one step back I guess.
There was a progressive time bar? I didn’t notice it on the webcast. I just thought they couldn’t get the clock to work in the program.
Let me tell you, if I couldn’t figure out the new system, what makes you think that **normal **audience people will? Bring back the clock!
I agree with Dave. I had no idea what match I was watching on the webcast, whether it was match 1 or 2, or whether it was QF or SF or F. This is a BAD thing if you’re not devoting 100% concentration to the game (ex. Scrounging for parts, trying to fix your robot before your next match, etc.).
I looooove this idea. Brilliant!
I love it!
Perhaps the whole FRC competition should be run with Apple products…
Jacob
Wow, that is bad… I only had the opportunity to watch VCU on the webcast. Their system seemed to be working well. Matches and Standing were updating in real time to the FIRST website.
I do see where having the match numbers up on the screen would be a help. They have had that info in the past. My comments were tempered by what I saw on Saturday and what I’ve experienced during week 2 at the Arizona Regional the last 4 years. I can’t remember a scoring system that worked properly when we received it.
Complaining about not having a clock, when there is a clock mounted at the top center of each alliance area justed seemed petty.
A vendor can only supply what why are asked to supply.
The problem was that there were an odd number of teams at the event. This caused teams to play as surrogates in matches at the end of the competition. The system wasn’t able handle this and ended up counting these matches in the rankings.
One of the reasons that it was caught at STL was that the #1 and #2 seeded teams were surrogates in the last match. #2 ended up beating #1 in that match and the rankings changed to reflect this. #1 brought this to the attention of the regional. I have to wonder if this happened at other regionals and went unnoticed.
At VCU, I believe there were 66 teams. This divides nicely by the number of teams per match (6), and is why they shouldn’t have seen this issue.
Complaining about not having a clock, when there is a clock mounted at the top center of each alliance area justed seemed petty.
I disagree. If the drivers can’t see the clock in the case of a loaded rack, it does them no good. From a spectator’s point of view, the remaining time should be clearly displayed. The uneducated eye should be able to figure things out in a matter of seconds. It took me a few matches to even realize that the progress bar was there!