We practice in a small trailer that is sagging on one corner.  When we put a book under one leg of the table it leveled the table but had a racking effect on the rest of the table resulting in strange distortions.  They developed a "rat solution" for that odd table that did not work at tournament.  Because they already knew how to cope with some of the imperfect conditions of the playing field they were able to quickly modify the attachment that catches the rat and achieve success during their scored rounds.  It was indeed a good skill builder.
~Charlie
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">B Bergenstock
To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 1:01 PM
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] EXT :[VADCFLL-L] Rat not sliding

Use this as a skill builder. 
"The world is not perfect.  How can the team overcome the possible non-slipping if it happens during the tournament?  What can they add to the programming to "convince" the rat to make the full decent?"
 These were the questions I posed to my team to get them to problem solve this situation.  They came up with a idea pretty immediately. 
Good luck to your team at state,
Brandy

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Aucoin, Bill (ES) <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

You have to read the Game Updates to get the answer to this and similar questions. See: http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/robotgameupdates

28 - RATS AND CORN MALFUNCTION
Don't expect a benefit-of-the-doubt ruling if you gently push on a rat slide and the rat doesn't come down.  Even with a slide in perfect condition, you have to give that model an honest smack to get the rat's weight off the slide (lighten up, rat!), and guarantee its descent.  That's just the nature of the model, and all correctly built models behave the same.  However, it is well known by now that the rat slides and corn harvester do need maintainance (see "Field Setup") in order to work like they did when they were correctly built (clicked pin connections for the slides, and spread walls for the harvester).  This post is to remind you about Rule 14's "Quality Control" procedure.  You share the responsibility for being sure the models are in tip-top shape if those models are critical to your game.  It so happens that when the robot interacts with these particular models, it's only half way toward earning full credit for the associated missions, so benefit-of-the-doubt is much harder for the ref to give.  The ref can still give you that favorable call, but It has to be REALLY obvious that a failure was the model's fault.  So do your part to reduce your chance of depending on a benefit-of-the-doubt call.

Best Regards,

Bill

 

From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Denise Snyder
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 10:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: EXT :[VADCFLL-L] Rat not sliding

 

 

Ok - we've been getting the Rat on a regular basis - the Robot is there, the catching container is there, the slide is activated - and now the rat appears to be getting stuck on the slide - the robot returns to base, minus the rat -  if this happens during the state tournament will the team get credit for the rat?

 

Denise Snyder

Coach

Fungi's

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