Hi, so i'll keep this simple and to the point. I'm part of my school's notebook
group but we're rookies here. We really haven't grasped how to start the
notebook. We've thrown out some ideas, but we just don't know how to bring all
this information together as a whole. any ideas? oh and how do i find the
example notebooks? i keep getting lost on the best site, thanks to anyone who
helps.

In the past the top 2 teams from each Hub in the robot and Best competitions
advanced to Regionals. Is that still the case?

Hi this is berry middle school, do you recommend costumes or business type
clothing for presentations? We are not sure which ones we should do!

Thanks for your help

You should contact your hub for the number of teams advancing to regional
championship from your hub.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "wllmspaul@..." <wllmspaul@...> wrote:
>
> In the past the top 2 teams from each Hub in the robot and Best competitions
advanced to Regionals. Is that still the case?
>

Hi,

An obvious answer would be to start with the judging sheet - it lays out some
basic requirements, constraints, and things that judges will be looking for.
That said, the bulk of the engineering notebook is essentially a technical
writing on how the robot was built from start to finish. How it is organized
isn't all that important, as long as it is organized in a way that makes sense.
A while back, our team did some research on the engineering design process, then
wrote our outline based on that. We write in narrative form with tables,
pictures, illustrations, etc. throughout to help support the body. The idea is
to give a very good picture of how the robot was planned and built so that
anyone who reads it could see the details on how things were planned and built,
the math behind them, and why they were built that way.

BEST used to have example manuals available, but I can't seem to find them. A
few folders on the BEST site may be particularly useful though:

http://best.eng.auburn.edu/stored_procedures/folder-manager/create-folder.php?fo\
lder=632&parent_id=630

http://best.eng.auburn.edu/stored_procedures/folder-manager/create-folder.php?fo\
lder=633&parent_id=630

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "Jasmine" <silly_kid15@...> wrote:
>
> Hi, so i'll keep this simple and to the point. I'm part of my school's
notebook group but we're rookies here. We really haven't grasped how to start
the notebook. We've thrown out some ideas, but we just don't know how to bring
all this information together as a whole. any ideas? oh and how do i find the
example notebooks? i keep getting lost on the best site, thanks to anyone who
helps.
>

 

Hi this is berry middle school, do you recommend costumes or business type clothing for presentations? We are not sure which ones we should do!

Thanks for your help

Thank you, i guess our problem was that we were trying to simplify something
that was already simple. It seems all we had to do was reorganize it all in a
way for it to make sense, like you said.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "seancsnm" <sean@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> An obvious answer would be to start with the judging sheet - it lays out some
basic requirements, constraints, and things that judges will be looking for.
That said, the bulk of the engineering notebook is essentially a technical
writing on how the robot was built from start to finish. How it is organized
isn't all that important, as long as it is organized in a way that makes sense.
A while back, our team did some research on the engineering design process, then
wrote our outline based on that. We write in narrative form with tables,
pictures, illustrations, etc. throughout to help support the body. The idea is
to give a very good picture of how the robot was planned and built so that
anyone who reads it could see the details on how things were planned and built,
the math behind them, and why they were built that way.
>
> BEST used to have example manuals available, but I can't seem to find them. A
few folders on the BEST site may be particularly useful though:
>
>
http://best.eng.auburn.edu/stored_procedures/folder-manager/create-folder.php?fo\
lder=632&parent_id=630
>
>
http://best.eng.auburn.edu/stored_procedures/folder-manager/create-folder.php?fo\
lder=633&parent_id=630
>
> --- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "Jasmine" <silly_kid15@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi, so i'll keep this simple and to the point. I'm part of my school's
notebook group but we're rookies here. We really haven't grasped how to start
the notebook. We've thrown out some ideas, but we just don't know how to bring
all this information together as a whole. any ideas? oh and how do i find the
example notebooks? i keep getting lost on the best site, thanks to anyone who
helps.
> >
>

Thank you, the links are helping me get a clue on how this all goes and the
advice helped so much as well. Especially on how your team split the notebook
workload, its genius and maybe it has been what my needs has needed as well.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, SHAKYES@... wrote:
>
> The best guide for the notebook is the judges' score sheet.  You  can find
> these at _www.bestinc.org_ (http://www.bestinc.org) .   Click on the
> participants link and then on file manager.  It's in the  public files folder
under
> awards & judging.  There is also some  guidelines for writing the ENB in
> the team resources folder.
>
> Our team creates a section of the notebook to cover each of the categories
> listed on the judges' sheet.  They then assign sections to individual
> students.  A notebook team leader then edits the sections, compiles them  and
> formats them to work well together.  I'll send you a pdf file of the  notebook
> they turned in last year as an example off list.  Although there  has been
> some discussion about posting higher scoring notebooks, I've never  found
> any posted.
> Gaylen
> SAIL Robotics
> CoCoBEST hub
>
>
> In a message dated 10/9/2011 10:53:43 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> silly_kid15@... writes:
>
>
>
>
> Hi, so i'll keep this simple and to the point. I'm part of my school's
> notebook group but we're rookies here. We really haven't grasped how to start
> the notebook. We've thrown out some ideas, but we just don't know how to
> bring  all this information together as a whole. any ideas? oh and how do i
> find the  example notebooks? i keep getting lost on the best site, thanks to
> anyone who  helps.
>

Our hub didn't know the answer.

Forty two.

Could you be a little more specific?

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "wllmspaul@..." <wllmspaul@...> wrote:
>
> Our hub didn't know the answer.
>

So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in the
past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX joystick lost
comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary round. We had comm
in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We only had comm for one
minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had six out of fourteen rounds
with radio comm for the entire round. To my knowledge, every team experienced
similar issues, though we had our worst problems after the preliminary rounds.

Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having radio
comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of radio
comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result of the
radio systems not linking.

After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks next
year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a similar
experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication problems are
well documented on the VEX forums.

There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told me how
much they enjoyed the past six weeks.

OKBEST ran across this problem last year, though apparently not to
this degree.  This year, the solution was to 'confiscate' all the keys
from all teams, and then to 'issue' a set of keys to each team as they
took the field just before each match.  My understanding is that they
felt that other teams not competing in fairly close proximity was
generating the interference, when they didn't shut down their robots
between matches.  By keeping all non-competing robot keys away from
the non-competing robots, they eliminated this possible source of
interference.  It seemed to work pretty well during their competition.

After 13 years of preparing teams for the wonderful BEST competition, this
year's competition was an absolute disaster due to linking problems with the VEX
cortex and transmitters.  Our rookie freshman team went in to the competition
with a well-designed and executed robot.  It was capable of caputuring all types
of escaped insects and returning them to all containment areas with food, but
after 14 rounds our score remained at ZERO.  In fact, after the preliminaries,
there were only 5 teams with scores not zero.   That does not reflect the
quality of their robots, but the problems with the system.

At school the systems all worked well, with a tether, all worked well and in the
pit areas all worked well, but 40 feet way from the pit area, in the competition
arena, the lights went red and communications were lost.  Time after time for 14
rounds this happened.  Only during one round was communications held and even in
that round the it was faulty.

The team did everything they knew they could do from reinstalling the firmware,
resetting the cortex, switching from tether to comm-linkage over and over again
to no avail.  It was not just our team either, no team survived all the matches.
The communications was awful and the team's morale was trampled through no fault
of their own.

Survival in rounds depended solely on commucations within the VEX system, it had
nothing to do with 6 weeks of planning, designing, developing, engineering,
re-designing, testing, re-testing, study, practice, construction or any of the
other attributes that makes BEST such a wonderful event.

Our teams should have been given an opportunity to move to another HUB venue if
they so desired, but that was not an option.  All the teams, save the
championship team, dismantled their entries and left the venue with heads hung
low.....it was a long, sad trip home.

I will add that North Houston Hub Director Paul and assistant G.J. did all they
could to help the situation and they bore the brunt of all the teams' anger and
frustrations.  It was totally unfair to them as well.  Over they years, these
two have worked hard to insure the best for our kids.  My apologies to them for
any frustration I may have vented on them.

On to next year!

SA-BEST completed our HUB competition this past Sat, Oct 15, 2011! It was
exciting and spirit filled! Just check out www.sabest.org (and get a peak at
your competiton!) Thanks to each of the SABEST all volunteer crew that made
things so smooth as possible along with St. Mary's Univ staff and students, too.
Also thanks to sponsors and organizations providing awards and scholarships. (1)
What a great experience for our two rookie teams (one each HS and MS) that our
veteran team guided! It was a great experience for us too. Even if our teams did
not qualify for REGIONALS. We all won because we have returning students (to
include our rookie teams!) that want more robotics and they'll tell their
friends and family. (2) One great experience was how the rookie schools had few
tools to cut their consumables into their robot parts.  The HS was invited to
come and learn to cut their parts at our school. While the MS "contracted" with
our team to cut their parts which they assembled. (3) Regarding the
matriculation of qualifying teams from HUB to REGIONAL there once was a document
in the BEST-File Manager - "HUB OPERATIONS" that outlined this process. Or just
contact your HUB. I haven't seen either a similar document for REGIONAL to
"WORLD" (Will it be Disney Land Apr 2012?). (4) Another tricky situation that is
covered in same document is the rubric for selecting which teams do qualify and
move onto REGIONALS / "WORLD". Consider teams with dual placement on BEST Award
and Game results. Hmmm?  It's no longer the top 2 in each category or what we've
understood. (5) Regarding lack of connection. Our team and the MS had not such
problem.  In fact our rookie MS moved onto Semifinals and we cheered them on!
But, our HS team had similar connection problems and with a combined HUB trouble
shooting lead to key and battery charge issues.  Our Hub provided plug-in
adapters for the controllers if the team wanted to.  The team did not use them
for the first three matches. Along with key replacments (that thumb drive device
plugs into Cortex and conroller), it seemed to have solved the problem
afterwards.(6)BEST Blessings to all till next BEST season for us BUT we'll
follow the REGIONALS (awaiting the 2012 game teaser) and slumber till "WORLD".

We also had several problems with 'communication dropping'.  This seemed to be
related to just a few teams.  In all the cases that I troubleshot, either the
Joystick or robot battery lights were red or we found a bad VexNet key.
   I recommend that the backup battery be used.  This provided backup power to
the Cortex and VexNet key should the main robot battery voltage drop under heavy
load (or poor charge).
   The new NiMH batteries don't develop 'memory' nearly as bad as the old NiCd
batteries, but they do need some maintenance to be at peak charge for game day.
   A couple teams neglected their Joystick batteries (yellow or red Joystick
LED).   We had AC adapters on the field for the Joysticks.
   The VexNet keys seem to have some reliability issues.  The keys are not very
secure and do protrude. They can be physically damaged if not protected.  Also,
remember to turn the Joystick power OFF before removing or installed the keys.
Most times you might not damage a key, but there's no guarantee.
   Don't be discouraged. This is only the second year with the Vex system and
we're still learn the quirks.

Mike


--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "ripphyzard" <srippetoe@...> wrote:
>
> So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in the
past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX joystick lost
comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary round. We had comm
in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We only had comm for one
minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had six out of fourteen rounds
with radio comm for the entire round. To my knowledge, every team experienced
similar issues, though we had our worst problems after the preliminary rounds.
>
> Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having radio
comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of radio
comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result of the
radio systems not linking.
>
> After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks next
year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a similar
experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication problems are
well documented on the VEX forums.
>
> There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told me
how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.
>

 

So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in the past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX joystick lost comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary round. We had comm in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We only had comm for one minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had six out of fourteen rounds with radio comm for the entire round. To my knowledge, every team experienced similar issues, though we had our worst problems after the preliminary rounds.

Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having radio comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of radio comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result of the radio systems not linking.

After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks next year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a similar experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication problems are well documented on the VEX forums.

There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told me how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.

I had previously checked with our school district because of problems we
had using our FIRST driver station. It operates in the 2 GHz range like
VEX. We have no active suppression system. When we switched our FIRST
driver station to a laptop with wireless operating in the 5GHz range,
our problems disappeared.

A search for "VEXnet problems" on the VEX Forum shows this is not an
isolated incident or problem. I remember matches being rerun if it was
determined that the field system had lost communication with a robot
using the Futaba controller system. Not so with VEXnet. Of course, you
can't rerun nearly 30 matches.

We are in the North Houston hub.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, Michael Carroll <mjcarroll@...> wrote:
>
> I'm surprised to hear this.  Part of the reason for the move to VEX
was to
> reduce radio interference problems that we have had in years past with
the
> old-style Futaba receivers.
>
> Last year at South's BEST, we ran 60 teams through (with up to 8 at a
time
> on-field) with no interference problems.
>
> It sounds like the venue may have had some sort of active Wifi
suppression
> system (I've heard of them, never seen one in action) and perhaps this
was
> the cause of the radio failures?  I can't think of any of our regional
> venues having these sorts of issues.  What hub are you from?
>
> ~mc
>
> On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 23:45, ripphyzard srippetoe@... wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have
experienced in
> > the past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the
VEX
> > joystick lost comm with the Cortex controller, except for one
preliminary
> > round. We had comm in our first semifinal round and half of our
second. We
> > only had comm for one minute in the three rounds of the finals. We
only had
> > six out of fourteen rounds with radio comm for the entire round. To
my
> > knowledge, every team experienced similar issues, though we had our
worst
> > problems after the preliminary rounds.
> >
> > Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever
having
> > radio comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the
lack of
> > radio comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the
result
> > of the radio systems not linking.
> >
> > After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six
weeks
> > next year working with the kids to put a robot together to go
through a
> > similar experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The
communication
> > problems are well documented on the VEX forums.
> >
> > There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team
told
> > me how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.
> >
> >
> >
>

Your problem has been interesting, though very unfortunate. I say interesting
because last year, we had very occasional problems with connections using the
VEX system, to where we we never needed to pursue a solution. This year,
however, ever since we've gotten a working robot two weeks ago, we've had
constant issues with the robot disconnecting from the joystick. Sometimes it
would reconnect, others it wouldn't. Through the troubleshooting process, we
replaced a suspected faulty USB dongle (which disconnected every time it was
tapped), a joystick (which ceased to connect to the computer after repetitively
trying to update the firmware), a battery (which we thought had a bad
connector), and finally a battery adapter/connector (which we finally discovered
was causing problems, as the wire slipped right out while replacing the
battery).

Although we haven't had time to test to see whether the connector was the
problem, I do know that we were still experiencing disconnection problems with a
different battery connector, different battery, different USB dongle, and
different joystick. Finally, at mall day yesterday one of the officials brought
to our attention the fact that the USB dongle is very sensitive, and being so
close to the Cortex where all of the current is being drawn from disrupts the
signal, causing it to randomly disconnect while driving. This year's Cortex's
apparently have raised USB plugs to try to eliminate the issue, but we have an
old one. He suggested shielding the dongle by wrapping aluminum foil or some
other shield around the underside (but not the top) of the USB dongle. The
official BEST solution is apparently using the USB extension cable to move the
USB dongle away from the Cortex. It is also important to make sure it is away
from motors (and probably wires) too, because motors have a strong
electromagnetic field that could easily disrupt the USB dongle. After hearing
about this, we used the adapter to mount the key on our arm; the furthest from
the electronics it could get.

Although the VEX system has brought some good advantages, it has had a lot of
inherent problems, which take a ton of time to work around. The past two years
our largest problem hasn't been a design that can't score, but rather working
around VEX-related issues. For example, last year we burnt out a Cortex and
caused multiple servos to strip by doing the same thing we'd done in past years.
Thankfully, VEX has worked with BEST to solve these issues, and continues to do
so. The BEST competition tends to be very hard on returnable components, much
more so than the VEX Robotics Competition. I don't think VEX quite had a handle
on what they were getting into when they designed components for the BEST
competition.

As a senior, I think the competition has been completely worth it every year
since I joined 6 years ago. Although things have changed a lot, it is still a
great learning experience, with many challenges.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "ripphyzard" <srippetoe@...> wrote:
>
> So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in the
past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX joystick lost
comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary round. We had comm
in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We only had comm for one
minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had six out of fourteen rounds
with radio comm for the entire round. To my knowledge, every team experienced
similar issues, though we had our worst problems after the preliminary rounds.
>
> Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having radio
comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of radio
comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result of the
radio systems not linking.
>
> After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks next
year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a similar
experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication problems are
well documented on the VEX forums.
>
> There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told me
how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.
>

Anyone else having issues with speed controllers on the drive wheels/big drive
motors burning out while the students are driving the robot? We have had 3 go
out so far. One during competition.

It may be related to freshly charged battery?

I'm surprised that you're surprised.  we competed at auburn and had connection
problems.  our hub even sent an extra wifi key with us because of all the
problems we had before, during, and after the hub competition.  we even received
a penalty during the competition at Auburn due to these problems.  Besides not
having enough money after going to Orlando, that was the main reason we did not
buy the robot kit last year.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

Michael Carroll <mjcarroll@...> wrote:

>I'm surprised to hear this.  Part of the reason for the move to VEX was to
>reduce radio interference problems that we have had in years past with the
>old-style Futaba receivers.
>
>Last year at South's BEST, we ran 60 teams through (with up to 8 at a time
>on-field) with no interference problems.
>
>It sounds like the venue may have had some sort of active Wifi suppression
>system (I've heard of them, never seen one in action) and perhaps this was
>the cause of the radio failures?  I can't think of any of our regional
>venues having these sorts of issues.  What hub are you from?
>
>~mc
>
>On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 23:45, ripphyzard <srippetoe@...> wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in
>> the past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX
>> joystick lost comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary
>> round. We had comm in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We
>> only had comm for one minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had
>> six out of fourteen rounds with radio comm for the entire round. To my
>> knowledge, every team experienced similar issues, though we had our worst
>> problems after the preliminary rounds.
>>
>> Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having
>> radio comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of
>> radio comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result
>> of the radio systems not linking.
>>
>> After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks
>> next year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a
>> similar experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication
>> problems are well documented on the VEX forums.
>>
>> There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told
>> me how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.
>>
>>
>>

In San Antonio, we had 4 motor controllers returned.  On had the case broken
open.  I haven't had a chance to check them out yet.

Mike

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "Tammie" <tammie.friberg@...> wrote:
>
> Anyone else having issues with speed controllers on the drive wheels/big drive
motors burning out while the students are driving the robot? We have had 3 go
out so far. One during competition.
>
> It may be related to freshly charged battery?
>

Like you, we had problems after we built our robot and tried all the fixes you
described, to no avail.

My hub must not have gotten the "memo" that a usb extension was the official
BEST solution. We asked to do this during our hub competition and were not
allowed to.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "seancsnm" <sean@...> wrote:
>
> Your problem has been interesting, though very unfortunate. I say interesting
because last year, we had very occasional problems with connections using the
VEX system, to where we we never needed to pursue a solution. This year,
however, ever since we've gotten a working robot two weeks ago, we've had
constant issues with the robot disconnecting from the joystick. Sometimes it
would reconnect, others it wouldn't. Through the troubleshooting process, we
replaced a suspected faulty USB dongle (which disconnected every time it was
tapped), a joystick (which ceased to connect to the computer after repetitively
trying to update the firmware), a battery (which we thought had a bad
connector), and finally a battery adapter/connector (which we finally discovered
was causing problems, as the wire slipped right out while replacing the
battery).
>
> Although we haven't had time to test to see whether the connector was the
problem, I do know that we were still experiencing disconnection problems with a
different battery connector, different battery, different USB dongle, and
different joystick. Finally, at mall day yesterday one of the officials brought
to our attention the fact that the USB dongle is very sensitive, and being so
close to the Cortex where all of the current is being drawn from disrupts the
signal, causing it to randomly disconnect while driving. This year's Cortex's
apparently have raised USB plugs to try to eliminate the issue, but we have an
old one. He suggested shielding the dongle by wrapping aluminum foil or some
other shield around the underside (but not the top) of the USB dongle. The
official BEST solution is apparently using the USB extension cable to move the
USB dongle away from the Cortex. It is also important to make sure it is away
from motors (and probably wires) too, because motors have a strong
electromagnetic field that could easily disrupt the USB dongle. After hearing
about this, we used the adapter to mount the key on our arm; the furthest from
the electronics it could get.
>
> Although the VEX system has brought some good advantages, it has had a lot of
inherent problems, which take a ton of time to work around. The past two years
our largest problem hasn't been a design that can't score, but rather working
around VEX-related issues. For example, last year we burnt out a Cortex and
caused multiple servos to strip by doing the same thing we'd done in past years.
Thankfully, VEX has worked with BEST to solve these issues, and continues to do
so. The BEST competition tends to be very hard on returnable components, much
more so than the VEX Robotics Competition. I don't think VEX quite had a handle
on what they were getting into when they designed components for the BEST
competition.
>
> As a senior, I think the competition has been completely worth it every year
since I joined 6 years ago. Although things have changed a lot, it is still a
great learning experience, with many challenges.
>
> --- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "ripphyzard" <srippetoe@> wrote:
> >
> > So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in
the past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX joystick
lost comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary round. We had
comm in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We only had comm for
one minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had six out of fourteen
rounds with radio comm for the entire round. To my knowledge, every team
experienced similar issues, though we had our worst problems after the
preliminary rounds.
> >
> > Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having
radio comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of
radio comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result of
the radio systems not linking.
> >
> > After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks
next year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a similar
experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication problems are
well documented on the VEX forums.
> >
> > There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told me
how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.
> >
>

One burned out on our team during one of the seeding rounds in our hub
competition... I would bet that the 3+ amp stall current that those large motors
pull plus the massive back emf they generate when the robot takes off (everybody
uses the big motors to drive their wheels) is just too much for those poor
little motor controllers...

Are there beefier motor controllers available from vex? If not it may be cheaper
to just allow motor ports 1 and 10 again, rather than having to replace those
motor controllers periodically.

By the way, our motor controller failing in that one round in no way ruined our
day... We all had a great time, and I am very thankful to the guys who volunteer
to get all of these kits together... y'all are doing a great job!


--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, "Tammie" <tammie.friberg@...> wrote:
>
> Anyone else having issues with speed controllers on the drive wheels/big drive
motors burning out while the students are driving the robot? We have had 3 go
out so far. One during competition.
>
> It may be related to freshly charged battery?
>

Our team had wifi linking problem after we updated the mastercode. When we
rolled the mastercode back to the version that is on the cd's that our hub
provided, everything worked just fine... the mastercode might be a source of
your problems...

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, Lori Jack <mail4jacks@...> wrote:
>
> I'm surprised that you're surprised.  we competed at auburn and had connection
problems.  our hub even sent an extra wifi key with us because of all the
problems we had before, during, and after the hub competition.  we even received
a penalty during the competition at Auburn due to these problems.  Besides not
having enough money after going to Orlando, that was the main reason we did not
buy the robot kit last year.
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
>
> Michael Carroll <mjcarroll@...> wrote:
>
> >I'm surprised to hear this.  Part of the reason for the move to VEX was to
> >reduce radio interference problems that we have had in years past with the
> >old-style Futaba receivers.
> >
> >Last year at South's BEST, we ran 60 teams through (with up to 8 at a time
> >on-field) with no interference problems.
> >
> >It sounds like the venue may have had some sort of active Wifi suppression
> >system (I've heard of them, never seen one in action) and perhaps this was
> >the cause of the radio failures?  I can't think of any of our regional
> >venues having these sorts of issues.  What hub are you from?
> >
> >~mc
> >
> >On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 23:45, ripphyzard <srippetoe@...> wrote:
> >
> >> **
> >>
> >>
> >> So today was the second most frustrating day of BEST I have experienced in
> >> the past ten years. Every round had robots not running because the VEX
> >> joystick lost comm with the Cortex controller, except for one preliminary
> >> round. We had comm in our first semifinal round and half of our second. We
> >> only had comm for one minute in the three rounds of the finals. We only had
> >> six out of fourteen rounds with radio comm for the entire round. To my
> >> knowledge, every team experienced similar issues, though we had our worst
> >> problems after the preliminary rounds.
> >>
> >> Another team went through all three semifinal rounds without ever having
> >> radio comm. Yet another missed a round of the finals because of the lack of
> >> radio comm. Some rounds only had one of four robots running, all the result
> >> of the radio systems not linking.
> >>
> >> After we were finished today, I just could not imagine spending six weeks
> >> next year working with the kids to put a robot together to go through a
> >> similar experience. VEX and BEST need to find a solution. The communication
> >> problems are well documented on the VEX forums.
> >>
> >> There is an upside to this disaster. At dinner this evening the team told
> >> me how much they enjoyed the past six weeks.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>

We checked for connection before the other robots arrived in the pits that
morning. We had connection for about 3 minutes, then it was gone. We lost
connection in 3 of 8 preliminary rounds, 2 of 3 semifinal rounds, and 2 of 3
final rounds.

--- In bestinc@yahoogroups.com, Sean Shenold <sean.shenold@...> wrote:
>
> OKBEST ran across this problem last year, though apparently not to
> this degree.  This year, the solution was to 'confiscate' all the keys
> from all teams, and then to 'issue' a set of keys to each team as they
> took the field just before each match.  My understanding is that they
> felt that other teams not competing in fairly close proximity was
> generating the interference, when they didn't shut down their robots
> between matches.  By keeping all non-competing robot keys away from
> the non-competing robots, they eliminated this possible source of
> interference.  It seemed to work pretty well during their competition.
>