Today there was an awesome scrimmage hosted by Auckland University (AURA). It was a great scrimmage and a lot of fun. Thanks AURA!
The finals were played by an alliance of 2941A (Otemotai College) with 2900 (Onehunga High School) against 2921 (Free Range Robotics, Homeschool) with 2915A (Lynfield College). The Otemotai and Onehunga alliance won the finals after winning 2 matches in a row. Very good job guys! You deserved the win!
Thanks to 2915A (Lynfield College) for a great alliance, it just wasn’t our turn today.
As for other awards, there was an award for the best dressed xmas themed robot. This was won by 2915A (Lynfield College), with their robot which had tinsel, fairy/xmas lights and more, that I cant remember as of now. Ill post a picture of our robot (2921) when I find the camera and upload it.
We had multi coloured fairy lights that lit up as shown and then we also later added some red ribbons and cardboard cut out sleighs which went onto the sides of the chassis.
Huge thanks to AURA for one of the smoothest scrimmages I’ve attended, those screens in the pit areas were so good!
Good games to 2921 and 2915. Can’t wait for nationals next year, there is going to be some tight competition! Huge thanks to 2900 for being awesome alliance partners (I don’t even think they are on the forums but whatever).
Also, just out of interest, does anyone know if anyone else was having connection issues during the playoffs, particularly on field 1? We disconnected at least once in each of our playoff matches, luckily it didn’t last too long, only 2-3 seconds and never at a vital time, but I thought it was kind of weird, because the lights on my controller still looked like I was connected to the robot and to field control, but my pneumatics fired in (their default state) and all of the motors couldn’t move. I don’t think it was a Vexnet Key issue (unlike at world cup, grrrr, :p) so I don’t know what could have been causing it. Really strange. I really just want to know if it’s something to do with my robot specifically, so I can fix it, or if it was a universal issue.
Aaaaaanyway, once again, a huge thanks to AURA for the awesome running and organisation (as is usual) and all of the competing teams for some great games.
You guys also had lights? - we didn’t realise this when judging for the award
Also must agree with you that is was a very good scrimmage and it became very competitive near the end. Great job to AURA for organising and providing (most) of the supplies for the event - nice venue and plenty of fields
I believe that field had a new control kit used but there were a number of small problems with TM throughout the competition so it could be due to that -this could have caused it but I would believe it to be unlikely as the field control equipment shouldn’t interfere with any of the connections between the robot and the joystick
Yeah, I didn’t think so. Can anyone either confirm or deny whether wifi networks can interfere with Vexnet? Because I’ve heard people say it can, and I’ve heard people say it can’t. Because I really don’t think it was our Vexnet keys because we were using new keys. Could be interference from metal on our robot or something??? I honestly have no clue. But considering we were disconnecting literally EVERY game, I doubt they are just random unlucky disconnects. There must’ve been a cause, but I have no clue what it could be =(.
Thanks everyone for coming along the scrimmage! Sorry it took us awhile to reply, we went out for a team building exercise after the scrimmage in the evening
After a pretty hectic early morning, we had a really good day when we got started! Hopefully everyone had some fun as well as some practice in the robot competition. It was a really great venue to use with all the extra screens, but I think it was a bit of a hassle to get everything in, especially with difficult parking and being in the middle of the city. I didn’t get to see many of the matches unfortunately but the ones I did see looked pretty good! Congratulations to the winners, of both the competition and the robot dressing up competition Hayden has the Tournament Manager info so when he uploads the files to robotevents or vexscores then the skills scores should go up. Thanks heaps to ALL of our volunteers, from Massey University, Manakau Institute of Technology, and University of Auckland, as well as all the coaches and adults who helped bring in fields and set up in the morning. Great to see lots of our friends and (robotics) family, and I think it was good to let off a bit of steam after a pretty busy 2011!
See you all after the new year and have a great Christmas!
Once again thanks to our amazing alliance 2921A (Free Range Robotics), our alliance seems to be becoming a trend
Congrats to Onehunga (2900) and Oats (2941), you guys have been up there all year and deserved a win.
Sorry Free Range, we let you down this time. The new robot had a few teething problems and didn’t like playing match after match in eliminations… you guys did really well 1v2 in finals… Looks like we need to re think out drive train a bit
There were some awesomely decorated robots, we had a sleigh, reindeer, tinsel bot etc
Thanks to the Aura and Massey guys, once again you guys have done an awesome job
Well, after all, in the first finals match you guys really did most of the competing for our alliance, as our robot didn’t work as planned. First the autonomous fails, then the lift, we were almost hopeless without having a great alliance that put up a good fight. We did very well playing 1(and a bit) against 2 in the final matches. Thanks again for the great alliance!
Now, time to iron out some issues and make some upgrades i think…
I didn’t actually see the issues you guys were having until I watched the videos of the matches after! I suppose I was busy trying to drive my own robot, but still, I should really be more observant. Looking forward to some good matches at Nationals (or at earlier scrimmages) once your robots are working to their full potentials :).
On a side note, does anyone know whether aMax can compete at Nationals and/or Worlds this year? Or is he too old?
Been fixing the issues all afternoon - more powerful and faster drive now
We were also plagued with autonomous problems throughout the day. Both our A and B robots decided to go round in circles where the day before were working fine… ah well, next time
as a side note, i dont see anything other than what my robot is doing when im driving, so whenever the gate opens and i come out (usually 20-30s mark unless we are playing gate down) im either really surprised if i have a half decent alliance as everything is scored or im disappointed because i still have to do all the work
Hahaha, so its not just me then. I occasionally check on the center 30 inch goal even when my gate is down, just because its so important to the late strategy of the game, although in competitive games it is usually claimed in autonomous anyway so sometimes that’s not even necessary. It’s funny, because as someone who has primarily driven in isolation, I went in interaction on Saturday for the first time in ~2 months and realised how little there was to do until the gates were raised. The center goal gets filled almost straight away, and it takes 3 or 4 seconds after that for the 11.5inch goals to be scored. I had no interaction strategies ready because I have barely played in it, (I believe that as well as in world cup, every single playoff alliance I have been in so far this year I have played isolation) so I just filled up on objects to either put in my own 30 inch goal, or to get into the other teams isolation goals, and waited for either gate to open. It was so confusing to change zones like that though, I need to come up with some strategies before nationals.
I do have a video of the finals, but I don’t think I want to post a video of my robot all over the internet, especially after what happened after World Cup where every robot seems to be “heavily influenced” by New Zealand designs. However, in compensation, If I don’t attend worlds which is more thank likely due to the cost, I will post a detailed reveal on my robot after NZ Nationals in March next year.
Yea, we would rather our robot not be posted until we build another one (once we dismantle one i put up photos and videos) - especially considering the advancements in our design since world cup we would appreciate it
Hayden has the Tournament Manager info so when he uploads the files to robotevents or vexscores then the skills scores should go up. Thanks heaps to ALL of our volunteers, from Massey University, Manakau Institute of Technology, and University of Auckland, as well as all the coaches and adults who helped bring in fields and set up in the morning. Great to see lots of our friends and (robotics) family, and I think it was good to let off a bit of steam after a pretty busy 2011!
you guys did really well 1v2 in finals… Looks like we need to re think out drive train a bit 