Spectrum 3847 | Build Blog 2025

FIRST FRC Open Alliance
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Welcome to our 14th build blog. Since 2012, we have been documenting our strategy, prototyping, and progress to allow everyone to follow along and learn from our season.

Our pre-kickoff slides have led off with an abbreviated version of this excellent post for some years.

This year is an opportunity to do more for yourself, your team, and the community.

2025 Season Links

CAD Collection

Nearly 800 links to FRC CAD models. If you have posted your 2024 Robot CAD please submit the link to the form below so we can include it in our collection.

Resources

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Re Voucher Checklist, since Kickoff we also have (at least):

  • Next Gen Robots: Code for 1 CIM Cooler 180 or 775 Cooler 360
  • Plummer Industries: Code for $50 voucher
  • Swyft Robotics: Code for Complete April Tag Pack
  • Vulcan Spring: Code for 6 free constant force springs with free shipping
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Day 1: Reefscape Game Thoughts

  • This game is similar to 2019 in many aspects.
    • 2 game pieces, one defender, short cycles, etc.
    • Also, 2023 in some ways.
  • The field is a little longer than usual at 57ft, about 3ft longer than last season.
  • Flat field! YIPPEE!!
  • The field is rotationally symmetrical. Your alliance side of the barge is always on your left. The processor is always on the right. :slight_smile:
  • Weight limit is down to 115lbs. Bumpers are up to 20 lbs (plus any of the 115 lbs unused by the robot).
  • 6 RP is available per match; this means there should be fewer ranking ties, which devalues co-op as the tiebreaker.
  • Unlike in previous years, Auton is only limited by time, not game pieces.
    • You have full access to every game piece that starts on your side of the field.
  • Algae is less valuable than coral in quals because of the Coral RP
    • Doing both allows you to maximize points and avoid defense at Coral Station.
    • Algae mechanisms make co-op easier as well.
    • The processor is primarily a quals game mechanic as it only nets +2 in most situations.
  • This game will have extremely fast cycles for coral.
    • There may be a coral death cycle if human players can get it to roll to the reef, but it’s easy to defend
  • Scoring zones are protected, and loading zones aren’t, so defense will likely be at the coral stations.
  • 3-second instead of 5-second pin count will affect how the defense is played.
  • The max score is very high depending on how much you can stack coral in the trough.
  • The deep climb is challenging but valuable, especially for the Barge RP
    • It only requires 2 robots to get the RP if one of them can deep climb
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Did i miss something in the manual? Are you aloud to feed coral through the feeder station in auto?

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You are allowed to feed coral through the feeder station in auto.

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Yeah, Auto this year is going to be extremely interesting

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Did I miss something? Isn’t true that you can just put a robot in the PROCESSOR since it is not a safe zone?

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Yes that’s true, but if our opponents one defender is guarding the processor we will happily take that.

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True, although closer to playoffs games it might come in handy when you can assure that you are taking from them atleast 1 rp, if the other alliance can not score on L4

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Seeing this game doesn’t require accuracy when you are far away from AprilTags (unlike shooting games, or even games where you need to reach the other side of the field), do you think you’ll be using the Oculus Quest 3S you’ve been testing?

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I think this might be a better use for the Quest 3S because you don’t run the risk of hitting other robots and causing shock loads on the headset. Like a lower pressure environment because there won’t be much speed.

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Same logic applies for the reason why it just might not be worth it.
Idk, pretty interesting.

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Honestly, we aren’t sure yet we have done very little testing.

April Tag alignment without pose for the reef branches seems viable as well since the april tags are right in front of your robot.

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People have been asking about our elevator from 2023, We posted about it in that thread:

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This is such a massive benefit for those who can’t fit a full field. Last year for us, our practice space was just under a half field. On one side autos were a lot easier to set up and test than the others.
This year you can build everything on one side, and it should work on the other. (Baring field tolerances are accounted for.)

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Agreed, we are in the same situation with a slightly smaller room than a half field.

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Another thing we noticed, that may have been overlooked by some. The auto piece that gets you the rank point, if de-scored loses you the rank point. (Unless put back in the same spot.)

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Is there strategic advantage in descoring coral? I don’t see why that would be an issue, but a good thing to note nonetheless.

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No… but you can accidentally lose your rank point is the thing to worry about.

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Makes it seem like it would be a good idea to have at least one bot score in L1 in auto. It would make all the L1 coral be de-scored to lose the rank point.

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