Keep in touch

Good Afternoon Teams,

Once you pack up your robot, please take a moment and let us know what you liked and didn’t like about this year’s build season. We have a lot of suppliers who would love to know what you think about their product. Did a part work particularly well? Did you ask a company a question and get a quick helpful response? Please share your stories with us at FRCteams@usfirst.org and we’ll pass any compliments on to our donors.

While you’re waiting for your first Regional it might be a good time to make some plans for the summer. Did you know you can borrow an official FIRST competition field during the off season for the cost of transporting it to your event? Reservations are being taken now. Quantities are limited, first come first served. Look here for more details.

10 days until the Week One Regionals begin
See you then!

Talking about trailers

Good Afternoon Teams,

What happens if there aren’t six robots on the field during competition? Six trailers remain in play. We’ve created a bogie wheel to allow unattended trailers to remain in play. A third rover wheel is fitted with a bushing and mounted on the trailer tongue held in place with a clip ring (available from any office supply store. If you have a practice trailer, you might want to create a bogie wheel of your own to experience how this allows the trailer to move during competition.

14 days until Week One Regionals begin,
See you then!

What’s the latest update?

Good Morning Teams,

I know it’s easy to get focused on the robot during this last full week of build season, but don’t stop paying attention to the updates on the 2009 Control System web page. You need to have the latest software updates in order to compete and you don’t want to be downloading them on the first day of competition at your Regional or District Event. Here’s what’s available right now:

LabVIEW for FRC Update 3.0a and newer
cRIO FPGA Image FRC_2009_v11.Zip and newer
WPI Robotics Library 3.0.1718 and newer
Driver Station 2009-02-010a3 and newer

Plus, we’ve just added How to use the FRC Control System Camera on 02-09-2009. Check it out, it can be a big help.

If you have questions or issues, leave a message on the FRC Forums (good for technical issues) or drop FRC a line at FRCteams@usfirst.org (general information questions). They’re the place to go for accurate, up to date information.

14 days until Week One Regionals begin,
See you then!

What are you bringing to the regional?

Good Afternoon Teams,

If you’ve never done it before, you’re going to want to pack a laptop to bring to events this year. It should be loaded with the development environment so you can resolve programming issues and make quick updates to your software on the fly. A laptop is one tool you won’t want to be without this season.

By now you’ve probably heard about the Withholding Allowance , and know that the limit has been increased this year to 40 pounds , but have you given serious consideration to which 40 pounds you plan to withhold? I want you to know the weight limit was carefully chosen so you can withhold the control system, your operator console and a few subsystems and continue to program your robot while you’re waiting for your first event. Take advantage of this opportunity.

At the Regional events, teams will be able to bring in hand tools during early uncrating (when you take the robot out of its crate and plug in your batteries). Then hand carry in the rest of your supplies in one trip during event check-in. We will be checking. Robot parts are not permitted to be brought in during crate opening. Please be sure to pack your 40 pounds of withholding so it may be easily identified and weighed if necessary.

15 days until Week One Regionals begin,
See you then!

Vision targets

Good Afternoon Teams,

FIRST has a limited number of the official vision target tubes available for sale to teams at $20 each plus shipping and handling. These Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene tubes are the same tubes that are mounted on the competition trailers. Target fabric and mounting hardware not included. Go here to order.

22 days until Week One Regionals begin,
See you then!