2010 nationals

I try to be as positive about BBIQ as possible, but I must agree with Cody that the over-representation of Miami teams is a problem. (And a problem borne of the West coast-East coast divide in planning)

I don't know how many of you have noticed, but I've taken to writing "Nationals" in quotes for this reason.

I do think that the people making decisions for BBIQ really do want a national event, but the implementation (or lack thereof) of communication methods (web and email) has been uneven at best. Marshall said it best--if you aren't in South Florida, then there is not a good way to know whats going on, nor to contribute to the conversation/decisions.

I vow to bring this issue up with Nola at the next good opportunity. Unfortunately, with the tight time frame on the next event, that time will probably be in May.

Well being able to talk to her in May is better than not being able to talk to her at all. The best thing BotsIQ could have done is just announced that this was a tournament that was open to all teams. NOT a "national" final. Think about it... if you are AutoDesk looking to sponsor the event again... and then you start looking at where all the teams are coming from and the actual number of school participating, they will never sponsor the program again. It is a total waste of their money. They could give the basically 10 or 15 total schools registered free software for all involved for less than they might spend to be a sponsor.

You have to promote a competition for what it is... a local event. Ohio had 36 teams registered for their event last week. That 8 more robots than you have in Miami. PA is having their event in Pittsburgh and Meadsville which is up near Erie. The Pittsburgh group has 64 competitive teams and the Meadville group has 32 more. So why would we want to promote the Miami competition as a "National"? Potential sponsors are going to send their money to where they are going to get the best advertising return on their investment. Which means when company representative show up to see that there are only a handful of schools bringing multiple robots, they are going to find another place to sponsor in future years. This is exactly what happened with the NTMA group. They were spending a very large amount of money on a competition that kept being centered around Miami. They decided to break ties and do it themselves... now look at what has happened.

The NTMA has brought so many schools into the program and have done it without charging $300 per registered robot. Seriously... the best thing for both groups to do would be to set up something like the RFL and have the "National" event comprised of robots that have placed at a regional competition. That way all the robots would be competitive and the matches would be something to attract major corperate sponsors.

I wish you the best... and I hope many of the upper level teams are at least marking their calendars for the KC event at the end of June. This should be THE event to be at.

I was thinking the same thing last night.

I think there probably going to run single elimination in the 120s

is the kansas city event going to have 120s? I only saw fifteens discussed on the website. If it has 120s, it may be a possibility for me (and Copperhead).

only 15s

Do they have 2 separate arenas for the 15s and 120s planned for Miami April 2010? I've seen 15s fight in a small box and in the larger box.

There will be a small arena for 15's and a large one for 120's.

Autodesk is sponsoring.

i saw some where that its not the battlebox so theres no hazards
what arena is it then?

It's an arena that Mark Devitz made for some competitions that were held in Louisiana. It was on a flatbed, so it was driven here, Miami, and was fixed up.

Glad to see the SECR arena is still alive, then. Haven't fought in it since just before Katrina.

hmm cool

I looked at the nrl rules...looks like NO lipos allowed??

While I agree with Marsh and others, that the smoke needs to clear and a TRUE national event needs to emerge from all this. If 1 org allows lipos (and many of the bots are kind of built around them) and the other does not, then this presents a BIG problem.

I was speaking with Paul (MLEC) about the NRL event in June, but none of their bots are easily convertable to NON Lipo batteries.

What's the big deal with lipos and why don't they allow them in the NRL? Seems like they need to get into the 21st century.....

I agree with richard on this. though counterproductive to hear it from me, Lipo's are the way to go. I would love to go to the NRL competition, and I am seriously considering it. but the limit on lipos poses a huge problem. that means I would have to go to A123's, which are bigger and heavier for less power.

a pair of 7 or 8 cel a123 packs in parallel might do it????

on a side note: any news on the red/blue divison thing? is this gonna happen?

that's what I'm thinking, the low mAh ones so I get the voltage.

not much discussion about it, only that there probably wont be enough robots in the upper class to do it.

you were running a 5 or 6 cel 45c lipo a while back?

what will you be running with the NEW fluffy?

5 cell, 2650 mAh, 45C discharge. trying to find some self-reseting breakers to put inside!

they did up untill this year. too many problems with them.
There not like botsiq and change the rules a month before the competition....

huh? they never change the rules! that's the problem! spin-down time is still 30 seconds!

last year when they announced a month before the "national" competition the lipos were allowed in the 15lb class and you just happened to already be building a bot designed for lipos
they dont do that.

fair enough, I asked way back in september of last school year, seeing if it was okay.

bad night sorry
thats one of those things they shouldve announced when you were told. anymore its not suprising though :/
at the same time your also seeing lipos being banned from more and more competitions rather then allowed
with all the precautions that need to be taken and still the high risk of an accident i agree its all just easier to avoid entirely

It's all good cody!

I'm not quite sure why everyones freaking out about lipos (lol) the problem isn't the batteries spontaneously combusting. the problem is people getting overexcited and designing an electrical system that can drain a battery faster than it wants to put out, and can put more power through an ESC than it wants to take in (such as me, for example).

by the way, I just looked at the NRL rules, and lipo's, li-po, lithium, lithium polymer, or lithium-polymer is never mentioned. Nevermind not allowed, never even discussed. only li-ion's are mentioned under examples of batteries permitted. and, if you want to get really technical about it, "lipo's" are actually li-ion's in foil packs.

i remember dughi telling me the same thing last year lol

if its the electrical systems why does everyone require lipo sacks to charge them? lol