Hi Mark,
I could bring our little robot with one team member...
only for the 3:10 break, though.
Karen

--- Mark Edelman <marke@...> wrote:

> Are any of the FTC teams willing/available to come
> to the Northern
> California FLL Championship on Sat. Jan 12th to do a
> short demo
> of their machine?
>
> The tournament will be at Newark Memorial High
> School in Newark.
>
> There are a couple of breaks during the day that
> would work great for
> demos.  The break times are:
>
> noon-1pm
> 3:10-3:20
>
> a really eager team could also hang out and do demos
> in the common
> room for as long as they wished to stay!
>
> If your team is willing, let me know as soon as
> possible!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark Edelman
>
> --
> Mark Edelman
> Playing@Learning  phone: (510)656-8664
> 42668 Lerwick Street  fax:   (510)656-8664
> Fremont, CA 94539
> mailto:marke@...
> http://www.playingatlearning.org
>

Are any of the FTC teams willing/available to come to the Northern
California FLL Championship on Sat. Jan 12th to do a short demo
of their machine?

The tournament will be at Newark Memorial High School in Newark.

There are a couple of breaks during the day that would work great for
demos.  The break times are:

noon-1pm
3:10-3:20

a really eager team could also hang out and do demos in the common
room for as long as they wished to stay!

If your team is willing, let me know as soon as possible!

Thanks,

Mark Edelman

--
Mark Edelman
Playing@Learning  phone: (510)656-8664
42668 Lerwick Street  fax:   (510)656-8664
Fremont, CA 94539  mailto:marke@...
http://www.playingatlearning.org

Please send me your input if you rely on district funding - I will
summarize and send back to FIRST HQ:


FIRST is asking:
> Are teachers in your area faced with the necessity of spending the
> rest of their budgeted funds, or losing them in the next month or so.


Please let me know if this is the way it works for you and/or if you are
affected by this.

Thanks, Jill

Thank you to everyone for a great day.

We have posted results at:

http://www.norcalvex.org/modules.php?name=FTC_Tournament&file=results

All,
Thank you Ceal and Tim.

Does anyone else have pictures from Saturday?

> From Tim Craig: The pictures Ceal and Tim took Saturday are here:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/TimCraig47/FTCChallenge
>
> Feel free to forward the URL to your group.

Comment:
Very nice article!

---

Story:
Robot techies get wired at San Marin

By Jamie Oppenheim Staff Writer Some kids hunger for team competitions, the
bright lights of a stadium and cheering crowds — but not everyone is
interested in sports.

So San Marin High School senior Eric Reed created a club that's just that.

For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:

http://www.novatoadvance.com/articles/2007/12/19/news/doc4769789ea9da4392812032.\
txt



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I was asked if there is any online video for this year's Quad Quandary
game of an actual match.  I found these 2:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY924LqGttU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeyZTuN20TA


Anything else that you can recommend?


jill

Hi Ms. Wilker,
My friend Pratik Mishra would like to help out. He
will give you a call this weekend.
Please note he is only a 9th grader.

Thank You,
Abhishek Sriraman
--- Jill Wilker <jillw@...> wrote:

>
> Please help us find volunteers - mainly adults, some
> youth roles -  for
> the FTC Championship event.  There are over 25
> volunteer positions that
> are available.  The only roles that we prefer
> parents of competing teams
> to not volunteer for are the judges and referees.
>
> Since the tournament is on December 22nd, we are
> finding it
> difficult to recruit volunteers.
>
>
> We would greatly appreciate any help that you can
> give - it
> makes for a much more enjoyable day when we have
> enough volunteers
> to help manage the day.   Also, please help us
> recruit other
> "non-parent"  adults such as colleagues and teachers
> to help fill
> the judging and referee ranks.
>
> If you have any questions about volunteering, please
> do not
> hesitate to ask.
>
>
> Thanks, jill
>
>
> Jill Wilker, Playing At Learning
> FIRST Partner for FTC
> (510)  656-8664
>
> ---
>



      
________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

Hi Ms. Wilker,
My friend Pratik Mishra would like to help out. He
will give you a call this weekend.
Please note he is only a 9th grader.

Thank You,
Abhishek Sriraman
--- Jill Wilker <jillw@...> wrote:

>
> Please help us find volunteers - mainly adults, some
> youth roles -  for
> the FTC Championship event.  There are over 25
> volunteer positions that
> are available.  The only roles that we prefer
> parents of competing teams
> to not volunteer for are the judges and referees.
>
> Since the tournament is on December 22nd, we are
> finding it
> difficult to recruit volunteers.
>
>
> We would greatly appreciate any help that you can
> give - it
> makes for a much more enjoyable day when we have
> enough volunteers
> to help manage the day.   Also, please help us
> recruit other
> "non-parent"  adults such as colleagues and teachers
> to help fill
> the judging and referee ranks.
>
> If you have any questions about volunteering, please
> do not
> hesitate to ask.
>
>
> Thanks, jill
>
>
> Jill Wilker, Playing At Learning
> FIRST Partner for FTC
> (510)  656-8664
>
> ---
>



      
________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

--- In norcalvex@yahoogroups.com, "jillwilker" <jillw@...> wrote:
>
> IMPORTANT: We are closing the Northern California FTC tournament
> registration on Thursday 12/13 at 11:50pm - that will give us enough
> time to finalize the remaining details for the tournament.
>

We have 3 teams that are "in progress" with their FIRST registration -
please close on this soon.  We can not allow you to compete at our
tournament if FIRST has your eligibility as "No".


In addition, we have 13 teams that have not yet paid for the Nor Cal
tournament - please do so in the next day or two.  If you can not pay
for some reason, please contact us.

I posted a summary status page at:   http://www.norcalvex.org/status.htm


Finally, we still have a lot of volunteer needs - if we don't get more
volunteers, then we will institute a policy that each team must
provide at least 1 adult volunteer for the day.


Regards,
    Jill & Mark
    Playing At Learning  (510) 656-8664

Bob Hoskins of Turlock High school has given me permission to announce his open
arena days:

Dates:  Dec. 8 and Dec. 15.
Time: 11 a.m. - 3 pm.  (both days)
Place:  Room I-4, Corner of Colorado and Lyons Avenues, Turlock High School,
Turlock

According to Bob, "Anyone is invited to come and practice. While the arena is
set up for anyone to use, I have not connected the computer control to disable
the units while on autonomous mode so if anyone wants to practice a round they
will have to do autonomous mode on the honor system. We will stay open longer if
there is a need."

Hope to see you there!


Yolande Petersen (FTC 438)

P.S.  You might want to bring food.  Last time I was there, I didn't see fast
food near the school.

_____________________________________________________________
Click here to compare top medical billing products, get demos, and quotes.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2111/fc/Ioyw6iig7liP0Bgw1vcRxzWueROgwBlK5wIm\
rRatjIfa6ti8NC4PIt/

Hi Jill,
You can put Kevin and at least one buddy down to help.
  If you need a camera person, I might have one of
those as well.
My team is still wishy-washy, but I think we will
register at the last minute this week.
Karen

--- Jill Wilker <jillw@...> wrote:

>
> Please help us find volunteers - mainly adults, some
> youth roles -  for
> the FTC Championship event.  There are over 25
> volunteer positions that
> are available.  The only roles that we prefer
> parents of competing teams
> to not volunteer for are the judges and referees.
>
> Since the tournament is on December 22nd, we are
> finding it
> difficult to recruit volunteers.
>
>
> We would greatly appreciate any help that you can
> give - it
> makes for a much more enjoyable day when we have
> enough volunteers
> to help manage the day.   Also, please help us
> recruit other
> "non-parent"  adults such as colleagues and teachers
> to help fill
> the judging and referee ranks.
>
> If you have any questions about volunteering, please
> do not
> hesitate to ask.
>
>
> Thanks, jill
>
>
> Jill Wilker, Playing At Learning
> FIRST Partner for FTC
> (510)  656-8664
>
> ---
>

FYI  - the www.norcalvex.org site was hacked.
we know - we are working on it.

[and we really truly don't need this on top of everything else]

-jill

Please help us find volunteers - mainly adults, some youth roles -  for
the FTC Championship event.  There are over 25 volunteer positions that
are available.  The only roles that we prefer parents of competing teams
to not volunteer for are the judges and referees.

Since the tournament is on December 22nd, we are finding it
difficult to recruit volunteers.


We would greatly appreciate any help that you can give - it
makes for a much more enjoyable day when we have enough volunteers
to help manage the day.   Also, please help us recruit other
"non-parent"  adults such as colleagues and teachers to help fill
the judging and referee ranks.

If you have any questions about volunteering, please do not
hesitate to ask.


Thanks, jill


Jill Wilker, Playing At Learning
FIRST Partner for FTC
(510)  656-8664

---

From FIRST HQ:

Competition Templates:

Events get a late start because teams don't know or don't understand
that they need the correct template in order for their robot to pass
inspection.

The EasyC template can be found here:
http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/02FVC/FVC_Documents_and_Updates/2\
007_Quad_Quandary/FTC%202007%20Quad%20Quandary%20Competition%20Template.ZIP

The MPLabs template can be found here:
http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/02FVC/FVC_Documents_and_Updates/2\
007_Quad_Quandary/MPLAB-FTC-CODE-2007.zip

The programming guide can be found here:
http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/02FVC/FVC_Documents_and_Updates/2\
007_Quad_Quandary/2007_FTC_QQ_Manual_Appendix_2A.pdf

One of our team members found Softiles at Wal-Mart, and others have reported
they are also available in the flooring section at Lowe's.  Sometimes the gray
tiles are harder to find than colored ones.

Yolande
_____________________________________________________________
Click here to find the satellite television package that meets your needs.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2111/fc/Ioyw6iifPTuxILQnqKemgD7FjKkR7PHbzjkA\
DVkU8zbE2J8I1ikZiZ/

IMPORTANT: We are closing the Northern California FTC tournament
registration on Thursday 12/13 at 11:50pm - that will give us enough
time to finalize the remaining details for the tournament.


There are 2 things to finish registration.

1) Register (and paid) with FIRST and have a "real" non-temporary team
number.
2) Register (and paid) with Playing At Learning on the norcalvex.org site


We strongly recommend joining the norcalvex yahoogroup.

Hi Bob, Jill and others,

This is our first year.. so some naive questions.

How critical is it to practise on the exact same surface.  How do I
order the Soft Tiles.  Is there anywhere I can buy them in person
rather than online?

Regards,

Viji.s..

Hi .. Thanks for the offer... This is our first year too.. and would
love to join in....






--- In norcalvex@yahoogroups.com, "garrick yan" <garrick.yan@...>
wrote:
>
> hello nor cal vex!
>
> anyone interested in a nor cal pre tournament scrimmage?
>
> our school has a gym in dublin, ca and would love to use it. i
would
> love to invite you to come to test out your bots before the actual
> tournament.
>
> this is our school's rookie year, so i am VERY GREEN. i just
talked to
> jill from p@l, and she advised that they could set up the field for
> this years ftc. we do however need experienced ftc coaches and
teams
> to run a successful tournament. would any of you experienced
coaches
> be willing to run a scrimmage if the field set up and the gym
location
> was provided?
>
> many thanks!!!
> garrick
>

Bob Wolff wrote:
>
>
> Hey Jill & others -- I've purchased a set of 9 softtiles from the
> correct vendor to emulate the playing surface. However, I'm not sure
> which side belongs "UP". There is a very flat semi-spongy side and then
> there's a slightly harder side which has a texture in it and
> alternating grooves.
>
> Which side goes up so we know how wheels and rings will interact?
>
> Thanks!
> Team #350
> Bob Wolff
>

smooth side up, not the textured side.

- Mark

--
Mark Edelman
Playing@Learning  phone: (510)656-8664
42668 Lerwick Street  fax:   (510)656-8664
Fremont, CA 94539  mailto:marke@...
http://www.playingatlearning.org

Hey Jill & others -- I've purchased a set of 9 softtiles from the
correct vendor to emulate the playing surface. However, I'm not sure
which side belongs "UP". There is a very flat semi-spongy side and then
there's a slightly harder side which has a texture in it and
alternating grooves.

Which side goes up so we know how wheels and rings will interact?

Thanks!
Team #350
Bob Wolff

Any update on the timing for a scrimmage in Dublin? Our team is
getting darned close to functional for a scrimmage and we're in
Fremont. Dublin is just over the hill. Heck I bet the robot could
drive us there!

Team #350
Bob Wolff

--- In norcalvex@yahoogroups.com, "garrick yan" <garrick.yan@...>
wrote:
>
> hello nor cal vex!
>
> anyone interested in a nor cal pre tournament scrimmage?
>
> our school has a gym in dublin, ca and would love to use it. i would
> love to invite you to come to test out your bots before the actual
> tournament.
>
> this is our school's rookie year, so i am VERY GREEN. i just talked
to
> jill from p@l, and she advised that they could set up the field for
> this years ftc. we do however need experienced ftc coaches and teams
> to run a successful tournament. would any of you experienced coaches
> be willing to run a scrimmage if the field set up and the gym
location
> was provided?
>
> many thanks!!!
> garrick
>

Garrick,

Thanks for the invite -- we would love to attend, but we'll probably be
attending an event in Turlock (date uncertain), so I don't think we'll be able
to make it.  It's looking like our only open date is Dec. 15  so if Turlock
doesn't scrimmage on that date and you do, we might be able to make it.  Any
thoughts about possibly collaborating with Turlock?

A scrimmage doesn't have to be complicated.  Last year we attended a
scrimmage/workshop held by Mark & Jill.  Basically, they opened up the room
around 9:00, and provided a table for each team.  The teams worked on their
robots and tested them on the field.  There were no formal matches scheduled in
the morning.

It was suggested that everyone have robots somewhat assembled and ready to go by
2:00.  At 2:00, only 4 teams (out of 8) had robots that were driveable, so those
4 teams played about 8-10 matches in succession.  If you have more teams, you
could have them take turns.  You don't necessarily need a formal schedule --
just teams willing to cooperate. The matches were informally scored at the end,
but no one kept a record of the score or ranked the teams.  The matches ended
around 3:00 or 3:30, and most of the teams packed up and left shortly afterward.

The main considerations I can think of:
1.  Getting enough teams to make it fun -- one scrimmage we attended had only 3
teams, but it was still worthwhile, because one team had an extra Squarebot to
serve as the 4th robot for the game.
2.  Providing a table for each team
3.  Figuring out what you'll do for food -- you could tell each team to take
care of itself, take pizza orders for each team, or potluck.

Hope your event goes well.

Yolande Petersen, coach
Metal Gear -  Enochs High School (Modesto)
_____________________________________________________________
Save on Cellular Service. Click Now!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2111/fc/Ioyw6iiggp2csap7UOjgoQcVa0P2OVRmlQaa\
7u7PhdoNY47pcwYUeF/

hello nor cal vex!

anyone interested in a nor cal pre tournament scrimmage?

our school has a gym in dublin, ca and would love to use it. i would
love to invite you to come to test out your bots before the actual
tournament.

this is our school's rookie year, so i am VERY GREEN. i just talked to
jill from p@l, and she advised that they could set up the field for
this years ftc. we do however need experienced ftc coaches and teams
to run a successful tournament. would any of you experienced coaches
be willing to run a scrimmage if the field set up and the gym location
was provided?

many thanks!!!
garrick

We received the field pieces this past week. So, looks like if you
haven't received yours yet, then should be coming soon.

Jill

--- In norcalvex@yahoogroups.com, Jill Wilker <jillw@...> wrote:
>...
> The FTC playing field pieces haven't started shipping but I
> expect that they will by early next week.  I received word
> from my procurement department yesterday that they had
> been delayed due to a backorder on one component.
>

If you missed any of the email blasts that were sent out to
coaches from FIRST, the archive is at:

     http://www.usfirst.org/community/fvc/content.aspx?id=7384

The last one was on November 2nd.


Cheers, jill