Hello FRC Coaches, Mentors and Supporters,

I have 3 items for you today

1.     District Event Briefing TONIGHT! 7:00 pm

2.     Quiet Space at Events

3.     From the desk of our District Tech Director, Steve Kelly! (Zebra’s Dart system at events)

1. District Event Briefing TONIGHT! Feb 11 at 7:00 pm

We will be holding our FRC District Event briefing on Tuesday, Feb 11 at 7:00 pm. Here is a list of some of the topics we will go over on this webinar.

·          The general information you need for all of the events

·          New load in procedures now that bag and tag is gone

Especially with the changes this season, I strongly recommend you have one adult attend this webinar. Remember, you are responsible for knowing this information.

We will be posting site specific information for each event a week and a half before the event starts (for example info for the week 1 events will be up by end of day Wed, Feb 19) Be sure to check the site specific info for each event for important info (like load in directions)

To register for the webinar click here

2. Quiet space at events

Thank you to 5588 and 955 who have offered to host quiet spaces at events!

We are working to have quiet spaces at all of our events but need help from all of you! We need a team to step up and host at our events or we can’t offer a quiet space.

5588 has offered to support 3 events: Glacier Peak, Bellingham and Dist Champ

955 has offered to support Oregon State Fair

We still need help at:

·          Clackamas

·          West Valley

·          Auburn Mountainview

·          Wilsonville

·          SunDome

·          Auburn

This is a great job for parents who come to watch the competition. They can take a shift in the quiet room and also get a break from all the noise and craziness. Please consider supporting this, I’m sure each team at some point in time will have a student (or students) who will benefit from this space!

FIRST has asked that all events attempt to provide a quite space this season. We can’t yet promise a space at all events but we are going to work hard to find some sort of space at every event if possible. Holy Names, 5588 has hosted quiet rooms for the past few years and will be supporting all of the quiet rooms by sending a tote with supplies on each of the trucks. What would help us is if we could get a quiet room host team at each event. There will need to be an adult present in each quiet room/space monitoring the students. We are hoping to recruit additional quiet room volunteers this year but the host team would need to be prepared to have their adults monitor the space during the duration of the event (in the event we don’t have additional volunteers)

 If you are interested in hosting one of our quiet rooms please fill out our workshop form .

3. From the desk of our District Tech Director Steve Kelly (Zebra’s Dart system at events

From the Desk of the District Tech Director – Steve Kelly

Hey teams – hope all is going well for your build and will be ready to compete this season. I wanted to bring you up to date on some things happening in the FIRSTWA area with our video technology. We do what we can with the funds available to provide the best experience for all three of our audiences.

1 .        The live audience at the venue

2.        The streaming audience watching

3.        The teams for scouting

Because we have three audiences that have different requirements and limited funds provides us a challenge to satisfy you all – all the time. With that said – we at FIRSTWA are known around the US as one of the top notch video production teams. Very proud of our teams and tech directors at each event.

We again will be providing you with TWO live streams 1) the normal multi-camera switched view and 2) We spent the money last year on a high camera and the switching gear to place the FMS information on the second single camera high shot. This second one was added last year after many requests. This way you can really see everything that the robots are doing throughout the whole match.

This year we are adding another feature that the teams can use for scouting. We will have the Zebra Technologies DART tracking system available at EVERY FIRSTWA event this year. What is the Zebra Technologies DART tracking system?

It uses sensors attached to each robot and tracks every robot position 12 times a second. This allows teams to review where all robots went, where they spent most of their time, highest velocity and distance travelled.

Example of a heat map produced from Zebra data.

We are one of the few districts in the country where Zebra is donating the equipment for us to use for EVERY match of EVERY event. To do this we require one thing from each team (if they so choose). We have permission from FIRST (refer to Team Update 10) to have the teams place the sensors on their robots with no penalty. You will need to place two sensors on your robot similar to the diagrams shown below. We can help you if you like – come to the AV table and ask for assistance.

The RFID tags look like this:

The specs are as such:

Length:

Ø4.0 cm (1.57 in)

Width:

Ø4.0 cm (1.57 in)

Height:

2.0 cm (0.78 in)

Weight:

20 gm (0.70 oz)

We will provide the straps required to attach to your robot. We will be providing you with the two sensors at the beginning of the event. These are assigned specifically to your robot so no swapping or switching with another team. When the event is over you MUST return them to the AV table so we can use them at the next event.

Zebra technologies is now in the FIRST FRC Manual if you want to know more (See Team Update 10 about being able to add “location sensing devices”)

Zebra also has a thread on Chief Delphi – Zebra MotionWorks™ for FRC 2020 Location Announcement

If you have any questions, ask them on this Discord Channel  https://discord.gg/7RJ5Vha

Upcoming Dates and Deadlines:

2-11-20:  District Event Briefing

3-24-20:  District Championship Briefing

Adrienne Rime

Event & Logistics Manager

FIRST Washington

p: (253) 656-0700

FIRST Washington | firstwa.org