If you already know you’re going to Championship

Good Morning Teams,

I just learned that hotel registrations for Championship will go live next Wednesday, Dec 2nd.   Steel Meetings doesn’t have their website ready yet, but details will be included in an email blast soon.

45 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!

In case you’re busy Wednesday, here’s this week’s post early

Good Afternoon Teams,

We want to know who you are.  New this year, we’re asking FRC teams to complete a team roster in the Student Team Member Information System.  If everything goes well, students will be able to sign their 2010 Consent and Release form electronically here starting December 3rd.  Team Main Contacts will receive an email blast with details when the system is ready.  Remember, anyone can see email blasts and news items as they happen here.  We’re planning to add RSS to that news page and to the team update page when everyone gets back from the holidays next week.  I’ll let you know when it goes live.

As of this morning we have 1746 FRC teams registered for the 2010 season competitions.  Only 1264 of you have signed up to attend a local kickoff event.  Remember, if you arrange to have your kit shipped directly to you, you pay the shipping.  If you pick up your kit at a local kickoff, we pay the shipping (no, the FedEx donation doesn’t cover the kit of part shipments this year).  If you can make it to a local kickoff, you’ll have your kit in hand sooner and at no additional expense to your team.  Kit and kickoff registration ends December 4th so there’s still time to look for an event near you

And just because I appreciate your checking this blog regularly, here are a few little known facts about this year’s kickoff.  We start setting up for the broadcast on Wednesday (it takes a lot of work to turn a basketball court into a soundstage).  This year you will be able to see the Game Design Committee in action (we videotaped some of the meetings).  And the live broadcast is scheduled to begin at 10:00AM EST.

46 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!

Odds and Ends

Good Morning Teams,

Thanks to the generosity of Rockwell, all teams (not just rookie teams) will receive a panel signal device in their Kit of Parts this year.

FRC will continue to adhere to its tradition of not reviewing film or electronic replicates of game play during competitions.

Filming for the 2010 game reveal at Kickoff will begin at headquarters this coming Monday.  No, I’m not going to tell you how long I expect it will take to fill the pool for filming.  I’m not going to give you any hints at all.   Ok, the Kickoff may look a little different this year, but that’s all I’m saying.

We’re trying to reduce the overwhelming number of email blasts sent to your team Main Contact, and we’re trying to make information more accessible to team members, so you’re going to notice a change this year.  We’re going to post general information and news items here  as they become available.  We’ll then email blast the Main Contacts every Thursday with pointers to new items on this page to remind teams to come take a look.  You never know when something interesting might be posted (Don’t worry, we will always tell your Main Contact about it in the next Thursday email blast so teams won’t miss out.)  Team Updates related to the game and game manual will continue to be posted here

And speaking of email blasts, next week the FRC email blast will be a day early  (due to the holiday) and will have news for teams interested in programming in Java during the 2010 season.

52 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!

Dartfish Software Evaluation

Good Afternoon Teams,

Thank you to everyone who applied to evaluate Dartfish Software.  Emails were sent to those teams this morning, so now I can share the list with you. You may notice there are 56 teams listed, Dartfish was willing to increase their support, so we included more applicants than originally planned.

33    Killer Bees
49    Robotic Knights
56    Robbe Xtreme
68    Truck Town Thunder
71    Team Hammond
88    TJ2
93    N.E.W. Apple Corps Robotics
111    WildStang
241    Pinkerton Robotics
287    William Floyd Robotics
486    Strath Haven Positronic Panthers
562    S.P.A.R.K.
620    Warbots
801    Horsepower
816    Panthers
910    The Foley Freeze
987    HIGH ROLLERS
1094    Channel Cats
1245    MoHi Shazbots
1306    Badger B.O.T.S.
1391    Westtown Robotics
1418    Vae Victus
1510    Westview Wildcats
1543    The Riddler Revolution
1566    Ammoknights
1585    Holzy's Army
1625    Winnovation
1696    Sun River Valley Science Club
1739    Chicago Knights
1743    Short Circuits
1758    Technomancers
1795    SOT  Technobots
1803    Vikings
2056    OP Robotics
2175    Fighting Claculators
2252    Mavericks
2283    Panteras
2352    Metal Mayhem
2369    MTC
2388    The Robot Pirates
2421    Rolling Thunder Robotics
2435    Soldiers of Technology
2459    Golden Hawks Robotics
2506    Saber Robotics
2561    Arlington High School
2576    Corazón de Chileno
2761    Clovis North Robotics
2791    Shaker Robotics
2813    Gear Heads
2932    Pueo Engineering
2962    EagleBots
2988    Fish Named Bob
3096    Highlanders
3155    Coyotte
3256    WarriorBorgs
3276    Wildcats


Evaluation teams will receive their software and license by November 20th.  You can follow their progress and ask questions here

58 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!

something to think about while I'm off for Veteran's Day

Good Morning Teams,

I’m excited to announce that this year, FRC is offering a Coopertition™ Award.  Details will be in the awards section of the FRC Competition Manual coming soon.  Also new in 2010, the Driving Tomorrow’s Technology Award will become the Engineering Excellence Award (still sponsored by Delphi) and Autodesk will retire both the Visualization Award and the Inventor Award in order to introduce the Excellence in Design Award (with expanded software options).

If you’re getting excited about the 2010 season, you may want to tune in.  WPI will be hosting a webinar on the 2010 FRC Control System on Saturday, 11/14, from 10AM to 3 PM EST.  Webinar participants will be able to ask questions directly of some of the system developers.  Participation is free.  More details can be found at http://first.wpi.edu/Workshops/frccon932.html.

Back, on September 29th I posted a link to the rookie/veteran kit variations document on the usfirst.org website.  Today I can clear up the TBD.  The 2009 robot radios have been proven to work with the new system so veteran teams will be asked to reuse last year’s radio. 

And don’t forget to visit the safety page of our website  where the new FMA contest is posted.

59 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!

River Rage and Dartfish

Good Morning Teams,

The Delta field performed well at River Rage over the weekend.  We identified a few items that we’re taking back to the drawing board, but on the plus side, not only did the field stand up to a full day of real competition, there were some people in the audience who didn’t realize the field wasn’t standard until they got a closer look.  My thanks to River Rage for allowing us to use their event for testing.

We also had 8 teams lend us a hand with a quick test of the new Driver Station hardware while we were there.  They plugged their controllers into the new classmates and played three matches, changing sides, and changing alliances without any major hiccups.   My thanks to teams 20, 88, 134, 839, 1058, 1073, 1519 and 1735.

Unfortunately the link I provided in Friday’s blog (and the link included in this morning’s email blast to teams) has changed.  If you are interested in evaluating Dartfish software this fall, please apply at http://www.usfirst.org/forms.aspx?ekfrm=15875

67 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!