Roger on FIRST: March 2008

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Elimination Day @ WMR

The elimination rounds at this years West Michigan Regional were outstanding. The teams that made it to the finals were among the best teams I've seen this year. Unfortunately Team 904 wasn't part of the party.

Our first match today was against the new kid on the block. Team 2337, from Grand Blanc has already made their mark on FIRST and are proving themselves as one of the teams to beat. We did just that today, aligned with Team 33 - The Killer Bees, we took down the EngiNERDS in an awesome match that was extremely close.

Our second match this morning didn't prove to be as rewarding. We were beat in a hard fought match; thus ending our WMR qualification matches with a 3-5 record.

We all waited patiently as the alliance selection process happened, and again we were not selected.

It's not really a shocker to me, I could see this happening, however I was always hoping for the best. What is a shock, is the realization that 2008 is over (for the most part). Something that I've put every ounce of free time into for the past 3+ months is finished. In one way it's sad, but in another it's the start of a new beginning.

The Championship will go on without 904, and they'll survive... :)

904 will be strong next year, guaranteed.

I have lots of ideas for our off-season and we'll be digging into those next. This is not the end of this blog, but the beginning of the new season. And the new season starts now! :)

Friday, March 21, 2008

Friday at 2008 WMR

Wow, it was a long day for our crew. We started at 8am prepping our robot, and finished in a nasty snow/ice storm at about 9:30pm.

Today's matches weren't the best for 904; we finished the day with a 2-4 record. Our robot is capable of a lot more and so are our drivers. Right now I'm not exactly sure where our problems are, we're just not winning matches.

Our hybrid mode is lacking a lot to be desired. The code we've written to read the on board gyro doesn't seem to give us accurate results. This problems goes right back to our tests a couple weeks ago. Something isn't right and we are not sure what it is.

Besides today's matches, we co-hosted the team social tonight. Unfortunately I think the bad weather forced most teams to stay home. It turned out pretty good though. We all had a lot of fun and it was too bad that not more teams showed up.

Anyhow, we're back at it tomorrow morning. I'll try to post more tomorrow during the day.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

West Michigan Regional - Practice Day

The first thing I found out this morning is that GVSU has wifi access (since it's a college), and I thought, perfect, I can blog on my laptop while I'm in the pits. Good concept, but it didn't really work out. You see, I tend to go where ever the robot is. If it's in the pits, I'm there too. If it's on the practice field, me too; and if it's on the field, well I'm hollering like a blithering idiot in the stands. The down side is that when we're in the pits, there's about enough room for the robot and maybe two people, at most. Blog time never really presented itself, and I didn't want to be hogging pit space to write.

Nevertheless, here's a quick update of Team 904 on Practice Day in West Michigan. We were scheduled for 3 practice rounds. Each round consists of two consecutive matches. The first round wasn't bad but wasn't great either. The officials were not keeping score at first. There were scores, but they were incorrect. They were also not judging and awarding penalties. By (incorrect) score, we lost the first two rounds of matches. I think some may have been close had the scoring been correct and properly judged.

In our third round we were paired up with the new team from Grand Blanc Michigan 2337 - the Enginerds. They've been getting a lot of good press online over the last week or so and they have a great robot. They have an elegant "shooter" and we were using our fork lift. Together we scored 104 points and Team 904 placed the ball on the overpass, but as the match ended we were barely touching the ball, which did not score us the 12 point bonus. Either way, we smoked the opposing alliance. It was certainly the high point of the day.

Tomorrow we are pulling out all the stops in our hybrid mode. We were able to get our IR board re-flashed (cleaned, cleared and restored to it's original state) and it seems to be working now. It's time to go for broke. Over the next two days we're going to put our creation to the test. No more, "be careful we might break it". No guts, no glory; we are going for the win.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Ready for West Michigan

Team 904 learned quite a lot from their trip to Wisconsin. We've talked over a few simple changes we're planning to make to our robot on Thursday morning. With a little practice on Thursday, we should be in good shape for this regional.

We've discussed the changes with our drive team and they are stoked. They are ready to get back out on the field.

We're not sure if our IR board is fried; it didn't respond when we tried to program it in Wisconsin. Depending on it's state, we may or may not be able to get a trackball down in hybrid mode. Hopefully we can get it working Thursday.

So, if I haven't mentioned it yet, Thursday is the start of our second regional. We are home, in West Michigan, hoping to put on a good show. Hopefully everyone will be able to attend, but if you can't, check back here. I'm hoping to blog from the field house, with more in depth updates in the evenings.

This is our final regional of 2008. We need to win here in order to go to Atlanta.... no pressure... :)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Home Sweet Home

We made it home about an hour ago, and here I am back with a quick update before I call it a night.

I feel spoiled now typing on a real keyboard rather than poking at those little keys on my phone.

Anyhow, Team 904 wrapped up a great weekend in Wisconsin today. We did not score a lot of wins, but I feel we had a successful regional. We had a lot of electrical problems that we feel are now behind us and we are ready for West Michigan.

With a little cheering support from our team, our drive team did an outstanding job in the final matches. They performed well under pressure and I'm sure they'll be up to the task next weekend.

We did end the regional on a high note. I am proud to announce that Team 904 was awarded the Chrysler Team Spirit trophy for 2008 at the Wisconsin Regional! I am very proud of our team, they rallied around to give uber-support to our drivers. Congrats Team 904, you deserved that one!

Tomorrow I'll sort through the photos I took and post some to my flickr account. Check back soon for a few pics of Milwaukee.

The only other thing I need to add is that it feels great to be home!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The finals

After an awesome final match and another win, team 904 wasn't selected to compete in the finals. We're waiting for the finals to start, teams are cheering as the robots are starting to enter the field. And the wave starts.