Good Afternoon Teams,
I’m back from a very interesting trip taken in the interests of FIRST. There’s nothing I can tell you about that yet (stay tuned) but I do have a few loose ends to share this week.
Keep an eye out for the annual FIRST Kit of Parts Survey coming soon. An email blast will be sent to all team main contacts when it’s ready, please encourage them to share the survey with your team when they get it. I want to know what you think.
Logo loc has some used Orbit balls left. They’re going to run out of Super Cells and Empty Cells any minute now, so if you plan to run an off season event or demonstration this summer, get your order in soon.
We’ve figured out why some robots moved before the start of their match or behaved oddly during the season. If a robot links to the field before the FMS has linked with the driver station, there is a short time in which the robot program might see "enabled/teleop" or "enabled/autonomous" before the match actually starts. This can affect teams that coded their robot to expect Autonomous mode to always precede Teleop and cause their robot to make a false start or behave in unexpected ways. We’re going to work on the FMS side of this equation over the summer. What you can do is check your robot program to make sure you haven’t programmed your robot to require autonomous code to run before teleop code.
Have you checked out the Java website? Do you have questions or an opinion? Share your thoughts on the FIRST Java forum at http://forums.usfirst.org/forumdisplay.php?f=1255
226 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
What next year might look like
Good Afternoon Teams,
Here at headquarters, we’re putting a lot of thought into the future of FRC. We’re well aware that times are tough for teams and we want you to succeed so we’re looking at how we can keep FRC affordable without losing the elements that make FIRST special and unique. We’re re-examining almost everything with an eye toward keeping the magic, maintaining our quality and continuing to offer the FRC experience without breaking the bank.
A lot of really great material shows up every year in your FRC kit of parts. Please respect the manufacturers of these materials and don’t resell hardware and don’t share software outside your team. If a piece of software isn’t open source, selling or giving away copies violates the usage agreement and can be prosecuted by the manufacturer. Not to mention, it makes FIRST look bad.
241 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!
Here at headquarters, we’re putting a lot of thought into the future of FRC. We’re well aware that times are tough for teams and we want you to succeed so we’re looking at how we can keep FRC affordable without losing the elements that make FIRST special and unique. We’re re-examining almost everything with an eye toward keeping the magic, maintaining our quality and continuing to offer the FRC experience without breaking the bank.
A lot of really great material shows up every year in your FRC kit of parts. Please respect the manufacturers of these materials and don’t resell hardware and don’t share software outside your team. If a piece of software isn’t open source, selling or giving away copies violates the usage agreement and can be prosecuted by the manufacturer. Not to mention, it makes FIRST look bad.
241 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
I'm back
Good Afternoon Teams,
Some of you may have noticed a button I wore proudly at Championship. No Robot Left Behind. As you are all well aware FRC introduced a new control system in 2009. With 1680 teams starting from scratch it made for a challenging build season. The onsite Robot Inspectors tell me every team attending an FRC event, no matter the state of their robot when they arrived, was able to get out on the field and compete during that event. I want to thank National Instruments for their onsite help during the season and I want to thank all of you for sharing what you learned and offering assistance to other teams. With all that support, no robot was left behind.
What you may not have noticed at Championship is an absence I am also delighted to share. We heard you loud and clear when teams responded to last year’s team survey. You told us there were too many opportunities for penalties in Overdrive. The Game Design Committee and the Referees took your comments to heart and designed Lunacy accordingly. There were fewer actions and conditions that could be penalized in Lunacy and no penalties were awarded on Einstein this year. When the team survey is ready this year I hope you’ll take the time to let us know what you think. I’ll send an email blast to teams the minute it’s ready.
Speaking of the Game Design Committee, we met on Monday and there is nothing I can report (lots that I know, but nothing I can share – yet).
And if you have time over the summer, you can start thinking about next year. We announced at Championship that teams may program their robot using Java in 2010 if they choose. If you’re ready, you can learn more here. We’ll keep updating the site as we finalize the rules.
248 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!
Some of you may have noticed a button I wore proudly at Championship. No Robot Left Behind. As you are all well aware FRC introduced a new control system in 2009. With 1680 teams starting from scratch it made for a challenging build season. The onsite Robot Inspectors tell me every team attending an FRC event, no matter the state of their robot when they arrived, was able to get out on the field and compete during that event. I want to thank National Instruments for their onsite help during the season and I want to thank all of you for sharing what you learned and offering assistance to other teams. With all that support, no robot was left behind.
What you may not have noticed at Championship is an absence I am also delighted to share. We heard you loud and clear when teams responded to last year’s team survey. You told us there were too many opportunities for penalties in Overdrive. The Game Design Committee and the Referees took your comments to heart and designed Lunacy accordingly. There were fewer actions and conditions that could be penalized in Lunacy and no penalties were awarded on Einstein this year. When the team survey is ready this year I hope you’ll take the time to let us know what you think. I’ll send an email blast to teams the minute it’s ready.
Speaking of the Game Design Committee, we met on Monday and there is nothing I can report (lots that I know, but nothing I can share – yet).
And if you have time over the summer, you can start thinking about next year. We announced at Championship that teams may program their robot using Java in 2010 if they choose. If you’re ready, you can learn more here. We’ll keep updating the site as we finalize the rules.
248 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!
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