How could we improve FTC for next year?

[mikets]

Surely you mean REV and their hex motor. As I mentioned above did you see the new motors as well? They will be FTC-legal.

I talked to them a bit in Houston and I really think we're going to see a big improvement over the MR stuff.

We made it to Houston for FRC. Didn't make it past super regional in FTC due to the same lighting issue with color sensors that caused problems in Houston.

Sorry, I did mean REV. Don't know why I typed VEX. Thank you for correcting me.
The same here, we made it to Houston for FRC but not for FTC.

[mlwilliams]

I didn't get to watch any of the FTC events. Was simply too busy with FRC to make it up there. I didn't even make it to the baseball stadium. After waiting at least 30 minutes without the security line moving I just decided to go back to the hotel. Luckily the team got there early enough to get in without a problem.

[R2D2]

Visited VEX at world yesterday. Their products are really nice. They have motors similar to Andy Mark's but with hex shaft and all accessories are hex shaft compatible. Nice!!

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Surely you mean REV and their hex motor. As I mentioned above did you see the new motors as well? They will be FTC-legal.

I talked to them a bit in Houston and I really think we're going to see a big improvement over the MR stuff.

We made it to Houston for FRC. Didn't make it past super regional in FTC due to the same lighting issue with color sensors that caused problems in Houston.

If you guys were at the 3rd level booth, you probably spoke with me or Christina. Hope we answered all or most of your questions! Give it a few more weeks (Registration Opening), and the boards will be available!

[korimako]

Beacons - just say NO. After two years if issues with the hardware, and solving the same autonomous problem twice it's time for a change. Sry if you bought a programmer. Please lets move on to something different in autonomous.

[Inventer bots]

Beacons - just say NO. After two years if issues with the hardware, and solving the same autonomous problem twice it's time for a change. Sry if you bought a programmer. Please lets move on to something different in autonomous.

Yea most of us already have the code and know how to score then in autonomous, so they wouldn't be a challenge. I hope they will randomly spread the game pieces on the field.

[100101]

I would like to see a future version of the SDK built with the Java 8 libraries instead of Java 7; that would make some code cleaner and easier for my team. Mainly it's Lambdas I want.
I'd also like to see Vision used more. Teams have access to the phone camera as well as several off the shelf cameras. They also have OpenCV and Vuforia. The four beacon navigation sheets were a good addition but, there could have been more done i.e. different colored game elements, random orientations, side of an element with something special etc.
Last big thing I want is more training on other software, Creo, Mathcad, and Windchill mainly

[dmssargent]

100101, the FTC Robot Controller doesn't have to be built with Java 8 for your team to use Java 8 features (as they are coming to Android), mainly you have to have the latest Android Studio updates and tell Android Studio the TeamCode module language level is 1.8. After that you can write all that lambas you want in your OpModes (or libraries) (assuming your Android Studio, Gradle version, and Android-Gradle plugins are up-to-date).

By the way, Android Studio 3 (preview) has better support for Java 8 than Android Studio 2.x: https://developer.android.com/studio...8-support.html

Guide enabling Java 8 Support in Android Studio 2.x: https://developer.android.com/guide/...m/j8-jack.html

Also, if you want more training on other software for use in FIRST Tech Challenge, I would recommend that your team invests some of its energy into making some form of training, as that would be a good way for a team to make a name for itself. Just remember, the training material quality is better than quantity.

[jrasor]

How can FTC library maintainers make life easier for you upgrading versions?

Make clearer whether v 3.1 or 3.1-fixed is the current one. https://github.com/ftctechnh/ftc_app/releases says it is. https://github.com/ftctechnh/ftc_app does not.

[jrasor]

REV hex shaft motors don't appear to have different gearboxes like the AndyMark ones. That would be nice, plus the bare motor option that AndyMark has.

[GearTicks]

Make clearer whether v 3.1 or 3.1-fixed is the current one. https://github.com/ftctechnh/ftc_app/releases says it is. https://github.com/ftctechnh/ftc_app does not.

They are the same version. They just left in two old files that prevented the project from building when they first released it, so they re-released it as v3.1_fixed after they were alerted of the issue and resolved it. If you download the v3.1 release instead, you just have to delete the two test programs yourself. I would just use v3.1_fixed.

[suriono]

Definitely replace USB connection. The new REV box seems to fix the problem. USB is not designed for vibration resistance because it's a differential signal (USB is designed for speed and noise robustness). Vibration causes slight changes of resistance on the USB connection and corrupts the differential signal.