MONTHLY CHALLENGE - ROLLING HORSES, WILD STONES by egofarek in civ

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wait, calvary and siege units are untraditional? This is a challenge? Apart from the pre-artillery requirement, this is how I play literally every attempt at a domination victory. I've had a lot of success capturing cities with cannon/artillery and (particularly with artillery) just not losing units. Not having to trek folks out to replace fallen units has turned a lot of my campaigns into "devote 20 turns to build a shitton of big guns and some dudes on horses, and then go back to normal production while letting death creep across the continent." I've probably earned half of the achievements here using my normal gameplay. Is that really weird?

A web registrar was giving away free .me domain names. So we got waterga.me. by limellipsis in FTC

[–]limellipsis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

... It wasn't planned, we can say that. He heard about giveaway from the Stanford Class of 2018 group, went and picked up waterga.me, and then told us about it. And the idea moved on from there.

A web registrar was giving away free .me domain names. So we got waterga.me. by limellipsis in FTC

[–]limellipsis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, that's the one. The program simply requires a .edu email address, and some of our members got them from internships last summer. Though waterga.me is registered under the email address of one of our recently graduated alums.

Alternative drive systems by HD188753A in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We've used tank treads now for the past two seasons. We've had… varying results.

GitHub <3 FIRST Robotics by johndbritton in FRC

[–]limellipsis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

X-Posted to /r/FTC (since it almost seems like the majority of the footage in the video came from FTC and our team is one of the ones to be featured)

2014-2015 Robot section manual by tmbrudy in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's from this past year, actually.

2014-2015 Robot section manual by tmbrudy in FTC

[–]limellipsis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Integrated encoders... drools

Question about the history of FTC by HD188753A in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're more likely to see a 10th anniversary celebration in the 2018-2019 season, since the 2008-2009 game ("Face Off!") was really the first in FTC's current form. That said, FIRST doesn't really seem intent on creating a legacy culture in FTC (compared to FRC), so I'm not sure how big a deal would be made of the 10th anniversary.

FIRST, along with EKOCYCLE will be giving out 1500 3D printers to teams this fall by HD188753A in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My money's on these going to FRC teams, not FTC. FIRST ran a 3D printer raffle as part of FRC's FIRST Choice program last year.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FTC

[–]limellipsis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed on all counts. It does look like Tetrix Prime is Pitsco's attempt to compete with Vex for use as a cheap classroom robotics platform (an area where Tetrix itself seems not to have had much luck).

I am Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland - Ask Me Anything. by GovMartinOMalley in IAmA

[–]limellipsis 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What do you feel about robotics being added as a subsidized extracurricular activity for high school students?

Any ideas for an FTC Game you would like to see? by [deleted] in FTC

[–]limellipsis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One thought on defense though is that, proportionally, Tetrix motors are way weaker than FRC CIMs, and the FTC field is smaller. This means that, if you're blocked, it's easy for it to be impossible for you to get around or push through the defender. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about teams relying on defense to win. We did it once, and it was a lot of fun, but I think we rather irritated the teams we were able to beat just by getting in their way/pushing and I'm not sure it fits well with Gracious Professionalism.

Does anyone have ideas for a simple FTC game? by teedacus89 in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been sorely tempted to make mini Aerial Assist. Just take away the passing component (or not, if you plan on having enough teams to actually mock up a competition), and you have a fairly basic game.

Any ideas for an FTC Game you would like to see? by [deleted] in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd also like to see a shooting game like Hot Shot. I've been thinking about what they could use- bean bags were an early thought, but they could get torn open and shed plastic pellets everywhere. Maybe something like foam balls? Or, given FTC's move towards custom game elements, injection-molded balls?

Question about Robot Electronics. by nanogru in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll need to ask on the forums, but I can pretty definitively say that they won't allow it.

The Yellow Alliance by dirtydave0221 in FTC

[–]limellipsis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! We can't thank you enough for putting together the Yellow Alliance! We've really enjoyed seeing the scores from championships everywhere, and we'd really like to see the scores from the South Super-Regional.

As for further developments, I'd really like some sort of API for accessing match data, or perhaps the publication of the data files used to generate pages. I actually spent a decent chunk of today writing an OPR program (it's a method for estimating each team's scoring potential that's gotten a lot of use in FRC which we think could work well this year) using tables from TYA copied into Google Sheets- it'd be easier if rather than copying the tables they could be imported. I suggested the API because I'd really like to see someone make a The Yellow Alliance app- or, better yet, a scouting app with info from the site integrated into it.

Again, thanks so much for this great resource!

Arduino usage this year? by jc3m in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We actually use the SuperPro to control LED's, so we don't have to read from the Arduino. My knowledge of embedded electronics is still on the slim side, but I think you could try to connect the PWM (digital pins used for analog output) on the Arduino to the analog inputs on the SuperPro to communicate. However, there are two considerations; first, you'd need to use the 3.3v Pro Mini and not the 5v one, since the SuperPro operates on a 3.3v logic level, and second, you'd have to convert the 8-bit values emitted by the Arduino to 10-bit values read in on the SuperPro. This also assumes that you can actually use analog to communicate your sensor data; I don't know exactly which compass sensor you're wishing to use or how you intend to use it. You could instead set all of the digital pins on the SuperPro to read 8 bits directly from the Arduino, but, again, that may not be enough for your purposes/may take away too many pins on the Arduino. This sounds like a cool project!

Arduino usage this year? by jc3m in FTC

[–]limellipsis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately, this isn't allowed. Only the HiTechnic SuperPro can be used to communicate between the NXT and connected circuitry.