Scores?

[retired1]

The national SO committees will start meeting on Sunday to make changes for next year, so why not remove the back up being allowed. If the difficult part is getting it to go fast and still hit the mark, removing the backup will certainly make it harder. It will also allow some teams without the programming money or time or equipment to possibly be competitive.

It is the annual situation. Those that are at the top of any event want as few changes as possible and those in the middle would like to see it opened up to where they might be able to compete for top 10 or so.

I am in the same state as windu. Our team will not beat him in this event, regardless of the rules. Our team will not go to nationals either, but it would like to be competitive. The team can build a good car, but do not have the dollars for top of the line electronics and no one at this school has a spare couple hundred hours to learn programming.

The name should reflect the event, so it should be electronic vehicle or autonomous vehicle.

[windu34]

The national SO committees will start meeting on Sunday to make changes for next year, so why not remove the back up being allowed. If the difficult part is getting it to go fast and still hit the mark, removing the backup will certainly make it harder. It will also allow some teams without the programming money or time or equipment to possibly be competitive.

It is the annual situation. Those that are at the top of any event want as few changes as possible and those in the middle would like to see it opened up to where they might be able to compete for top 10 or so.

I am in the same state as windu. Our team will not beat him in this event, regardless of the rules. Our team will not go to nationals either, but it would like to be competitive. The team can build a good car, but do not have the dollars for top of the line electronics and no one at this school has a spare couple hundred hours to learn programming.

The name should reflect the event, so it should be electronic vehicle or autonomous vehicle.

First things first, my vehicle is not expensive. The Arduino microcontroller costs $20 for a real, genuine one (mine is NOT genuine, I use a knockoff from EBAY for ~$3). That's it. Our encoder was donated by a company. Our Brushless motor system was the only expensive part of our vehicle (~$100 for the ESC and motor), but the ESC and motor that we have are just as good as the $40 one I saw on Amazon. If I was on a budget, I could build an identically preforming vehicle with ~$50

[retired1]

You left a few things out that you have in your car which would run the price up a bit. $100 on the cheap would probably do it.

At this hour, 2016 SO competition is over, so what do you want to see them change for next year. You know that they will make sone significant modifications.

This is open to anyone that wants to voice an opinion.

[JonB]

Nope, he didn't really leave anything out. He uses knock-off electronics for the whole thing (much to my dislike, but it's cost effective). Rotary encoder was donated. Carbon total cost was maybe $20. Wheels are nothing all that special. 3d printed parts are from a makerbot which I would argue many schools now have access to.

If the encoder was not donated then yes, it would be more expensive but sometimes all you have to do is ask, ask, ask companies for help.

It came down to brilliant programming and COUNTLESS have hours they spent working to balance speed and accuracy.

[windu34]

I did not leave anything out. i spent the summer teaching myself how to program in arduino C from online resources. I have had no help from anyone through my endeavors in electric vehicle other than the online arduino forum. All it takes is effort and willing to take countless hours to learn and experiment. Instead of shifting the blame to the design of the event, that time may be better spent learning the valuable skills I have learned in pursuit of excellence.

[Fluorine]

I did not leave anything out. i spent the summer teaching myself how to program in arduino C from online resources. I have had no help from anyone through my endeavors in electric vehicle other than the online arduino forum. All it takes is effort and willing to take countless hours to learn and experiment. Instead of shifting the blame to the design of the event, that time may be better spent learning the valuable skills I have learned in pursuit of excellence.

I want to add something here. Even though I have absolutely no knowledge of this event I wanted to communicate something. In my time at SO there was always rumors about successful teams (In Florida I think all teams are subject to rumors but Boca gets a lot), how they have "extra resources", "extra money", "extra help" , extra something....... However, after talking to these teams and knowing some of them for an extended time period they are DEDICATED to SO. I can say with a 1 million percent certainty that their success doesn't come from material objects it comes from hard work and HOURS of practices. I end up getting upset when people blame material things for their lack of success. Because honestly at the core success in SO involves a lot of work and an infinite amount of money and resources cannot replace that. Being resourceful and having motivation will take you way further in SO than any of that. Again, if you want to discuss the design of the event go ahead and do that. I think we all know that all the events in SO are not "perfect" and never really will be. However, don't discredit the hard work of someone else.

[ChocolateLove]

We should compile a list of the top 10 scores at nationals

Harriton
Time : 1.978 seconds
Distance: 2.7 cm
Score: 22.48
Placement: 6th

I'll get the ball rolling

[windu34]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but my guess based on my memory is:
Boca Raton Community High School
1.79 sec
2cm
19.9 final score
2nd place

[ChocolateLove]

Oh man, the clump was a lot closer than expected, i thought 2nd was MILES ahead of me. I.e. like 5 points which is a huge difference at nats. But from 22.48 to ~19.9 only 3 points difference is insanely close

[fishman100]

Heard from the guy who did EV on my team (Langley HS) that he got:
1.93s
3.9cm
= 23.2 overall
7th place