Rain on Red Alliance Side of Einstein Field

Although I have gone through multiple posts on technical issues during the Einstein semi-finals, I did not see any mentions on the Edward Jones Dome leaking on red controler end of field.

I was sitting in section 31 (on the side of the red team controlers in the semi’s), and a fine mist of rain came down prior to the start of semi-finals (only lasted for a few seconds).

This misting repeated again just prior to the start of the semi’s and the hail pounding on the roof.

I would think that mist in the air could have affected station 2 on the red teams. Neither robot from station 2 moved in the first two semi’s, which were replayed. 118 (station 2 on red alliance) never moved (in replay or second game), while the Canadian robot didn’t move in the initial semi and stopped moving in the second game of the semi’s.

In the finals matches, 180 stopped working briefly, I’m not sure if it’s related.

Here is a bit more detail on the rain/mist prior to start of Einstein semi-finals. Our seats were in section 31 and 8-10 rows above the aisle/path that circles entire dome (in seating area).

The first misting happened 30-60 minutes prior to the start of the semi-finals (at the time I didn’t know there was a storm in the area).

The second misting was much closer to the start of the semi’s.

Both events were brief (a few seconds), but the mist was fairly obvious (but very fine).

I would assume that similar mist clouds were floating around and likely related to wind gusts prior to the hail that pounded the roof of the Edward Jones Dome.

That’s correct. We started working again because we manually rebooted the cRIO from the driver station. That gave us another (useless) 10 seconds at the end of the match…

  • Bryce

As i mentioned in your other post on the same topic, are you saying that the Einstein field got wet, or are you speculating that humidity in the air was a causative factor?

I think he means literal mist. I dont see humidity being a problem with the electronics because most of the teams from Florida had zero comm probelms throughout the entire competition and the only problem I can think of happened to SPAM in the final match on Einstein which only lasted about 10 seconds.

Yes, the short bursts in the stands were a fine mist of percipitation, which I suspect could cause problems in communications.

There were communication on the blue alliance side as well. Our robot lost communication several times, as well as our teammate’s robot during the 2 finals matches. I’m not sure if there was rain/mist on that side of the field too, but there was definitely some sort of interference.

The mist I felt was in the stands to the left of the red alliance controlers. It happened twice, well before the start of semi’s and again just before the semi’s started (probably 30-60 minutes apart). My daughter, who was seated with team reps on the floor, actually saw hail falling from the ceiling during the hail storm.

I suspect there were MANY burst of fine precipitation floating around, which could have caused problems on both sides (but the red alliances appeared to be hit especially hard, since one red robot, on two teams, failed to move in the first three semi-final matches).

I really doubt this had much to do with the field issues it would take some direct water in order to cause any issues, humidity really shouldn’t affect much. Even then think about the probability of those few sporadic raindrops causing issue most of the field components are sealed and many teams have semi-enclosed electronics.

granted all the components I worked on are waterproof aka mechanical. But I’ve had experiences transporting robots in rain and operating them in slight moisture we’ve never had an issue in fact many robots are more susceptible to dust then a few raindrops,