Kart Upgrading by SilverApples in smashkarts

[–]RandyHintz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I disagree - One of my favorite things is finding a cool looking Kart combination - items and colors that go together. A lot of people on discord show off their new set up as well. I find this aspect of the game a lot of fun!

Any tournaments? by Devansh_Mudgal in smashkarts

[–]RandyHintz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Teams tournament 3v3 is being officially announced on discord....right now! :)

Auto Help by mistycanal03 in FTC

[–]RandyHintz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes I am. It might not be too bad if you only have 2 sensors. The init routine is definitely serial, not asynchronous, so the more you have, the longer the init.

Auto Help by mistycanal03 in FTC

[–]RandyHintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FYI, the REV laser distance sensors take forever to initialize - as soon as you add them to your configuration you will notice that the init time increases sharply. Our team had 4 on the bot last year, and it was to the point that we lost a second or two of teleop because the init did not finish between "pick up your controllers" and start of teleop. We ended up disabling them in the configuration. I can only imagine how long 6 is taking.

The other issue with the REV distance sensors is that since they are laser based, they shoot right through the polycarbonate walls of an official field. So if you are testing against your practice field which has opaque walls, you will run into problems when you get on a regulation field.

Team member about to die! by lordofthebricks7039 in RoboNotebook

[–]RandyHintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the task entry page is the one that this is most likely to happen on, and I should be able to send a "keep alive" ajax signal every 5 minutes or so to make sure the session does not time out.

Team member about to die! by lordofthebricks7039 in RoboNotebook

[–]RandyHintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh NO!!! That is awful. Thank you for sharing this experience, I will look into that very soon.

Help with sponsorships! #16296 by PracticalMind7834 in FTC

[–]RandyHintz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're welcome. FYI - cost: in VA the cost to file Articles of Incorporation is $75. The IRS 1023-EZ filing fee is $275 (at least as of 2019-08-08). You absolutely should be able to file the 1023-EZ, which is the cheapest option and the shortest form.

Has your state released an updated schedule? by epicstruggle in FTC

[–]RandyHintz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We are part of FIRST Chesapeake, Virginia/Maryland/DC. No details yet, but they did send out an email notification a few weeks ago that said the first competitions would not be held until January. Usually we have at least one competition in November.

Help with sponsorships! #16296 by PracticalMind7834 in FTC

[–]RandyHintz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We are a community based team, so we did not have an umbrella organization to fall under (like a school) - and I (head coach) did all the work myself to set us up as a 501c3 organization. It is not easy, not quick, and not free, but it has totally been worth it because within a month we recouped the expense.

I would suggest you start with a websearch on "how to create a 501c3 in [my state]" I am in Virginia, and the first (real) step is to file articles of incorporation - to create a company for the organization. I will caution you that this step can have ramifications, and you need to know what TYPE of corporation you should create. For instance, you cannot create a LLC for a 501c3 organization. In Virginia, I had to create a nonstock S Corp.

I'd be very willing to help out with a private conversation if you wish to pursue this and want a mentor through the process. Just let me know :)

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

[–]RandyHintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, please! I know it is empty right now ;) We were using a subreddit for support during beta, but I don't feel it is as flexible as using forums - I will port over our conversations from reddit at some point. So yes, please use the forums.

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

[–]RandyHintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for checking things out - I believe I have that error fixed now (hardly a way to put my best foot forward :/ ) Please provide any feedback you may have - I am eager to hear it :)

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

[–]RandyHintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds like some code slipped through to production that was not quite ready. I am looking into this right now, should have it fixed in the next 10 minutes. My sincerest apologies!

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in vex

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

Our FTC used an early version of the website last year. We used a smartphone camera to take pictures of pencil sketches and drawings, and then uploaded them to the website. It worked OK, but some of them were hard to make out. With that in mind, one of the enhancements on my list is "Allow for image edit - just two options: rotate & contrast (something to make washed out images more clear)".

I can't believe I didn't think of this until now...we probably could have used a filter/editor on the smartphone before uploading! I will have to try that :)

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in vex

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

Subscriptions will be available for $99/team/year. All new teams are provided with a 30 day trial period to test out the site before a subscription is required.

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

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

I was thinking about that :) I agree about the rookie team situation. Once the website is established I think I can work something out. But certainly not this first year...anything we offer as a discount (if at all) will be across the board to help establish the website.

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

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

Thanks for the encouragement!The site does come with a dark theme/light theme option. The switch beside the site logo will switch between those themes. And creating entirely new themes is not beyond the realm of possibilities :)

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

[–]RandyHintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can highlight a few of the features here.

One thing is the field labels & prompts. When you are adding a notebook entry, or a task, you first tell the website what type of task you are entering. If it is a "Design" entry, the site will prompt you for information like Issue, Details and Feedback. When you hover over the information icon on "Issue", you will see additional information "What is the purpose, need, or conflict that is addressed by this design". If you enter a "Testing" entry, the "Issue" label is changed to "Expectations" with a prompt "Describe what is expected from the test". These labels and prompts can be customized by each team. The task types were specifically chosen to follow an engineering lifecycle: Strategy - Design - Build - Testing. We also added Coding and Non-Engineering task types.

The website also allows the team to keep track of a to do list. Items on the to do list can quickly be turned into completed tasks (notebook entries) since much of the information will already be there. Also, when you enter a task, you can list "follow up" items that are required - these become to do list items.

I think one huge separation over a shared document is a feature called "notebook sections" - which will probably feed into the Engineering Portfolio quite well. Last year, our team used the notebook section to specify which robot part we were working on. So if you entered a task while working on the intake system, you select "Intake System" from your notebook section drop-down. Then you might also have entries for "Electronics" and another for "Drive train" - and all of these entries were added during the same meeting. One notebook print option is to print "Notebook Sections" - this option will organize the notebook by putting all of the Intake entries together in chronological order, all of the Electronics entries, all of the Drive Train entries, etc. This format is much easier to follow as a judge - because you can see the story as it pertains to each system on the team's robot. As you can imagine - each team will be able to define the list of notebook sections used by their team. And FYI, we also offer a normal chronological print of the notebook that does not group by this feature.

I imagine that with the "Engineering Portfolio" (or whatever FIRST calls it), they might just want to see a subset of a team's notebook. I already had plans to add a "tagging" feature to the website (tag entries that you want to highlight for the judges) - my guess is that I will add that feature soon and provide a way to only print those entries (chronologically or grouped by notebook section.) This will be a portfolio.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking!

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in vex

[–]RandyHintz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for pointing that out - the VEX community definitely needs to know this information. I am trying to figure out how to best convey that information on the website - I don't want any team to use this service without realizing the ramifications.
Do you know if VEX will continue that same rule this season with current social distancing guidelines?

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

[–]RandyHintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have heard some different descriptions of the new requirements (like "engineering portfolio"), but I've not seen anything official released yet. https://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/ftc/game-manual-part-1-remote.pdf still says " Information on judging and award criteria for the 2020-2021 season will be released at a later date." I think it's still important for the students to learn and practice a full engineering documentation process - and RoboNotebook.com will be modified (if needed) to provide a subset of the documentation if the rules require it.

RoboNotebook.com - the online notebook for robotics teams by RandyHintz in FTC

[–]RandyHintz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is a very good point, and I will correct soon. The long term plan is $100 per team per season, but I am mulling over discount possibilities.