Today we got to test out our field elements on carpet and we have found that totes don’t land normal on the ground if the latch is simply opened with the tote resting on it. This is a trend we have seen in others tests as well. My question is if we could release the tote say 3 inches off the latch and open the door after we release it (in testing this made for a perfect landing every time if done correctly). By releasing the tote then opening the door G6 would not be violated (or would it). Any ideas? Also if you have done any testing with the totes and the human player station please let me know how your totes landed.
If you’re in contact with the door and the tote, it’s a foul, -6 points. I fail to see how the tote won’t slide to the door if you release it before opening the door, given the slick surface and steep angle.
As long as you let go of the Tote before reaching the handle you would be good. You just cannot contact both the Tote, and door handle at the same time is all. That would be really sad if those as built field chutes don’t work that well.
You’d think they would be fairly well tested as a Human Game Element. Then again, they had to add bottom rods to the chains in the upper frisbee targets too.
My biggest concern with this system is that it appears when the door is opened the tote doesn’t slide out. Pretty sure you can see that happen twice in the linked video above.
Then what do you do?
Looks like they pushed it out in the video.
We did a lot of testing with our home-made tote chute and the totes didn’t slide all that well. Hopefully there is a good technique to repeatably get these totes through the wall.
Not to mention the tote “crashes and burns” once it exits the chute. Not exactly the way it worked in the FIRST field tutorial. Makes the landfill slightly more appealing.
we built up our game pieces today and also had some problems with the totes tipping when they came out of the chute. What we found is that if you open the door all the way up(no contact with the tote), then just as the tote is about to fall out you drop the so that the bottom of the door drag on the tote for the last few inches then the tote will land flat every time.
Our station is the low cost wood design. The tote slides down a ramp surface of masonite, which is probably not the same as the plastic in an official station. Has anyone tried this with an official station?
Since there are three team on each alliance, that means you have more than one person who can operate those. With that in mind, one person can lift the gate while the other pushes the tote.
This technique works very well and it also causes the tote to end up positioned (most of the time) in a perfect position to receive a 2nd tote right on top of the first. I had a streak of 3-4 drops where I sent the first out with this method and the second landed perfectly on top With practice it shouldn’t take any longer then just lifting the door and letting it go.
To answer your question we also used HDPE for the bottom of the slide.
When we tried it at the half field at the GVSU kickoff in Grand Rapids, the totes consistently landed right side up, with only having to pull the lever up. I suppose you may have a construction issue.
With practice it shouldn’t take any longer then just lifting the door and letting it go.