Christmas came early to the Beachbots. Fedex delivered the 2008 FRC Game Hint 3 days early.
It came with a note to visit http://www.usfirst.org/frc_decgift but that isn’t even active yet.
Christmas came early to the Beachbots. Fedex delivered the 2008 FRC Game Hint 3 days early.
is this legit?
Looks pretty legit to me… read the board carefully…
More digging later
Edit: Can you show us the other end of the cable?
The site says something about insert text and pdf here. (You have to enter the URL directly; no link yet.)
Joe, if there wasn’t photographic evidence, I’d suspect something was up on your end…Seeing as there is, Lavery Claus has struck.
Reading what is below the five LEDs, each says something about “CHXX”, with XX reading (L-R) 03, 02, 01, 00. Except for the far right one, which reads “ERROR”. Then you throw in what looks like a reset button. I detect a radio device of some form.
Oh, and there is a website printed on the board. www.divsys.com
let the madness begin…
I’m pretty sure he’s serious this time. He also contacted the team.
Ahhh, let us now experience the powers of the interwebs.
I call shenanigans (and not just because of Joe’s history). Anybody can put a circuit board together with “© 2007 FIRST” silkscreened on it. (I also find it a little strange that FIRST would spend what can only be an appreciable sum on FedExing 1,500 of these things around the world when the kits are also going out reasonably soon.)
That said, I’m lightly seasoning my words in case I need to eat them later.
I don’t think its a hoax. Check out the provided web address, it works.
The URL does work, and it points to a known supplier of FIRST (see their logo on the banner here). I’m still cautious.
It definitely is real. Our mentor just got the package himself today via FedEx Saturday delivery. The picture our mentor took shows the same parts that are displayed here. Can’t seem to figure anything out yet though.
I was gonna think that it all is a part of the new KOP, as the cable has where to connect on this board.
Only problem is it says FIRST2007. If it said FIRST2008, i’d be sure its from the KOP.
What could it be used for, can anyone who knows electronics look at it and tell what he thinks?
Oh, I meant the FIRST address. There’s no information posted, but the URL navigates to a valid portion of the usfirst.org site. Anyway, there goes my sleep for the rest of the year…
Whats the other end of the cable look like?
It’s just cut off, nothing attached.
I just got ours. There is no other end of the cable, just cut wires.
I also don’t think it’s a hoax. Here is what I can see from the picture:
- IR Receiver
- 5 LEDs (CMD3, CMD2, CMD1, CMD0, ERROR)
- a Microchip Processor (PIC16LF87)
- Ribbon cable goes to J1
My best guess is that this is a field element. The robots will send an IR signal to this device, and the field element will act accordingly. There are 4 commands. I think the button will clear any errors that come up (reset button).
Good guess… i wasn’t in FIRST for 2004 game but i heard that they used IR and it wasnt very reliable… is this true?
There goes Christmas…
I’m still a little skeptical. Are we sure that this is a hint and not an early delivery of an item in the kit? Perhaps something extra for teams that has nothing to do with the game, like the fuel cell challenge was?