Miami Dade Youth fair 2010 this weekend!!

i got ya now.
you had a banebot on it before right?

youtube works. i suffered through it. Wasnt really much controlled agression from wobbles ttatt should have won although theres nothing you can do know

its gonna drive me nights trying to figure out who this judge was, i think i may have an idea though

Cody Harris wrote:

i got ya now.
you had a banebot on it before right?

still do

at 1 point they had a servo encoder controlling it, but it was unreliable

after the ttatt vs wobbles decision. the wedge teams all want drums.

ya.. I can imagine that..

Woodynator 2 works now! weapon spins with a different motor, and the drive is UNBELIEVABLY quick

how much does this disk weigh?
its like a mix of woodynator and x-termanation lol

a lot.. I'll figure out how much it ways in a bit

woody 2 looks good!!!

How's Fluffy 2 coming along? any preogress?

ya, it's coming along.. we had cut the side plates, then realized they were wrong... lol drum has been turned down, need to machine the slots for the teeth.. need to make the teeth. still lots to do. we're working today on it. the big thing right now is making a cone. we need to bend the chromoly steel armor at a funny angle, so we need this cone to do it.

" 1 judge in particular must hate us so much, that in the finals, our students knew that they would have to win by knockout , or they would lose no matter what. "

" Do you recall some one on this forum campaigning against us (kind of like you and Alex) and then disappearing into the woodwork...in your words it was 'here we go again' "

Ummm are you talking about me?

Here's what I have to say.

1. The judges keep scorecards. Before claiming that I hate you, check out the cards. Andrea was the one who put wobbles on top. Talking about it after it was because of the hit (although it was a tiny hit) wobbles' weapon made which made them win the damage portion judging criteria.

2. I supremely agree with you that the event had pony show elements. The 15.5lb weight limit being my most critical problem. BattlebotsIQ does not host perfect events by a long shot. But they host events. Being an EO is an insane thing to do so I respect and appreciate them alot. Trust me, if I had the resources I would hold my own super safe events with a super accurate scale and buy calibration equipment from a reliable source and recommend all teams to buy the same scale/calibration combo, and all of the other things that could make an event great from a builder's point of view.

3. I would never campaign against somebody who helps kids learn/build robots. If there were no advisors then my life would be alot different. I just think that kids need to learn how to be engineers in the real world where they have responsibility and where things don't always work the way they are intended to. Maybe I was a little harsh in my other posts to you but I would honestly really be interested in learning how you teach your kids to build great bots in a short time. NOT to prove something in some messed up campaign against you. The robot building community is small enough already, no reason to divide it further.

4. I know titanium and S7 are expensive but the experiences of reverse engineering a crappy robot into something amazing is a priceless lesson.

5. Safety was not my department and I agree with your posts here and on the rfl forum that it wasn't perfect. Still, I've been to more unsafe events before.

6. If you have a problem with me talk to me in person. I think I'm approachable enough. I was even at the last 305 meeting at starbot soldering up 120 A123 cells, wernt you there? I think you will find that we're more similar that different. BattlebotsIQ is all about the kids. The interpretation of that universally agreed upon statement can vary, but lets at least talk about it.

Adam

I'm will no longer get into a shooting match with anyone on this or any other forum....so I''ll only say the following...

1) I 1000% agree with you that this community is way too small to divide it any further

2) I don't know anything about a 15.5 lbs weight limit, except to say this

a) I believe that MLEC's digital scale was being used to weigh in bots and it is quite accurate

b) if the limit was raised to accomodate some overweight bots, I have no problem with that in that this was a very small event, and my take on this is that I would rather see the overweight bot compete rather than not. If a team didn't have access to a good scale is one thing. If they knowingly added a 1/2 lbs. heavier weapon to gain an advantage that is really another. I don't think that this was the case here.

c) at a national event, I would think that as long as everyone is informed in advance as to what IS the maximum allowed weight, then there also should be no problem and those unforunate enough to not be able to get their bot down to that weight should not be allowed to compete. but that's JMO and if it done differently, then we'll just live with it

3) My bottom line is the safety of the kids. A few other frustrating or surprising events did occur, but I have said repeatedly that it was MINOR in the big picture

The ENTIRE bot community needs to focus on safety issues. If ANY event ANYWHERE has a bad accident, and especially if a minor is injured, I think that this sport will shrink and possibly go away.

I've heard of events being cancelled or limited to hockey or NO lipos allowed, or whatever, possibly because of OUR (and I say this as part of a community) lack of attention to safety details.

If we had most of our ducks lined up properly at the Ransom event, the Fluffy incident would have been taken care of in a matter of a minute or so and the event would have continued without much delay.

4) With respect with judges decisions, In the future, I will NEVER even blink an eye at any decisions that I may feel went against us for ANY reason.....I actually wish that we could implement a rule whereby a winning team could hand over the victory if they so choose. I would recommend that our teams do this,if I felt that we should have lost. It would be the sportsman like thing to do.

I do think that possibly separating the judges, then having them simply hand in their scores and declare a winner, might eliminate some of the finger pointing, which will undoubtably continue to occur in the heat of the moment. We will NOT be part of any of this at ANY future events....

5) as far as any other issues or concerns, I am open to talking about them anytime...the 305 consortium has all my contact info, or you can reach me through any of the forums.

btw: I would have NO problem with you judging at any future events....I do appreciate the efforts of any and all volunteers and can only imagine waht a tough job judgin is.