Team Leaders, welcome to the Minneapolis events, the Medtronic Foundation and North Star Regionals (https://mnfirst.org/minneapolis-regionals/ ).  Please share this information with the appropriate people on your team.

No food or beverages

The Minneapolis competitions are held in the U of MN sports arenas that have vendor contracts that prohibit the public from bringing their own food and drinks to an event (including load in).  This rule applies to teams and spectators.  Your cooperation in getting this message out to your team and all the spectators is greatly appreciated.  Team members are encouraged to bring empty water bottles.  Special diet issues will be accommodated just let me know (markblawrence@comcast.net).

Team Lunches

Forms have been posted (https://mnfirst.org/minneapolis-regionals/minneapolis-lunch/ ).  Due date is March 23rd.

Bus/trailer parking

Bus and trailer parking maps can be found on the load-in page (https://mnfirst.org/frc/minneapolis-load ).

Load in/out

Pit setup is Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  On Wednesday night from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, teams will unload their trailers at the appropriate door (see map: https://mnfirst.org/frc/minneapolis-load ).  A driver must stay with the vehicle at all times.  Only 5 people will be allowed in the pit for load-in and setup.  For safety purposes, robots will be directed to a holding bin so that they are not in the pits during pit setup. The pits close promptly at 9:00pm.  When you complete pit setup, you can move your robot back into your pit.  Teams loading-in on Thursdaymorning will follow the same procedure beginning at 7:45am but cannot work on their robot until 8:30am.  Teams that finish pit setup on Wednesday will not be allowed back in the pits until 8:30am.  Please tell your students and appropriate mentors. Also, don’t forget your safety glasses!

Invited Guest Ambassadors

Teams are invited to have one student per team sign up to be a Regional Event Ambassador.  Ambassadors will be called upon throughout the event and immediately after the Invited Guest Breakfast on Friday at 8:15am. Please register at Pit Admin.  Training will be on Thursday at 12:00pm noon in the Williams Arena (Medtronic Foundation event location) Club Room. The Club Room is on the 3rd floor above the Oak Street lobby with access is via an elevator at the end of the concourse going to the lobby.

SWEet Eats

The Robettes (2177) are teaming up with the U of M – Twin Cities chapter of Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to host this FIRST Ladies lunch and networking event.  Female students and mentors can relax, meet other women in FIRST & STEM, and chat with the SWE members about what it’s like in STEM fields beyond high school!

When: Thursday, March 30th, 12pm noon
Where: Mariucci Arena Concourse

RSVP by March 23 by emailing SWEetEats@therobettes.com with the following info:
•       Team Name
•       # of Ladies Attending (student/mentor)
•       Any dietary restrictions we should be aware of

For more info, please see https://mnfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SWEetEats2018Flyer.pdf
Space is limited, so RSVP soon!

Seminars

Team seminars are in the Club Room of Williams Arena (Medtronic Foundation Regional).  To get to the Club Room follow main concourse (outside the basketball arena) to the end (just before the lobby) and take the elevator to the 3rd floor.

Invited Guest Ambassador Training 12:00 – 1:00pm
Team 1816 The Green Machine – Core Values 1:00 – 1:45pm
Team 2502 Talon Robotics Chairman’s Exchange 1:45 – 2:30
Team 2502 Talon Robotics Women in Engineering 2:30 – 3:15
Team 3313 Mechatronics Dead Battery Project 3:15 – 4:00
MN FIRST Mentor Roundtable 4:00 – 4:45

There are two new seminars in this list.

Core Values: The Secret to Discovering Your Team’s Mission and Vision
Gracious professionalism is a fundamental core value in FIRST that serves as a foundation for every FIRST team.  Like other effective organizations and teams, individual FRC teams would benefit from developing team core values that, together with gracious professionalism, can serve as guiding principles that dictate ethical behavior.  This presentation will discuss core values, and describe an inclusive, engaging process by which student team members can discuss and develop a set of core values that will help a team fulfill its mission and realize its vision.

The Dead Battery Project meeting will be a women-only seminar to talk about the issues facing women in our society, focusing on sexual harassment and how to deal with it. This project is a great way to connect women towards a common goal of creating a safer environment around STEM.

Team choir

The team member choir that sings the National Anthem will meet for practice on Thursday at 4:00pm in the Sports Pavilion at Williams Arena (Medtronic Foundation Regional) by Pit Admin.  Please look for Mr. Diers.  This is a voluntary selection by students and all singers are welcome. The choir will perform at opening ceremonies in Williams Arena on Friday and on Saturdaymorning at Mariucci Arena.

Control System Advisor update

Below are some lessons learned from Week and Week 2 events. This list is comprised of input from the Week 1 and Week 2 FTA, LRI and CSA crews. In addition to this notice, the following information will be posted on the First MN Website under Recent News and the First MN CSA GitHub. Please note this list has been updated and some items have been removed from week 1.

Special thanks to the LRIs, FTAs and CSAs from Duluth and the Great Northern Regional for your contributions to this list!

Please contact the CSAs for further details. Contact info at the bottom of this notice.

General

•       Ensure wires are properly seated and clicked into place.
•       Double and then triple check all fasteners, bolts and screws to ensure they are securely fastened.
•       Double and then triple check wiring terminal ends, battery wire terminals on the battery, main breaker and PDP to ensure they are securely fastened.

RoboRio

•       Ensure power cables are firmly inserted and locked in to the PDP and Rio power connector. Use of ferrules is highly recommended.
•       Ensure power cables have NO copper showing on either end when they are inserted into the respective devices, PDP and Rio.
•       Ensure Ethernet cable is firmly plugged in and locks in, if you don’t feel it snap or click in, push cable in further until it does or replace the cable.
•       Ensure RoboRio image is V17, check using the Diagnostics tab on the left and connected to a safely powered up Robot / RoboRio, the RIO: line should end in _v17, if you have _v16, you need to update the Rio Image using the RoboRio imaging tool after installing FRCUpdateSuite 2018.1.0

Driver’s Station

•       Ensure you driver’s station is ready and appropriate for competition.
•       Boots in < 2 minutes (< 30 seconds is very achievable with a $100 SSD)
•       Has working Ethernet and USB ports.
•       The team has administrative control over the laptop
•       See competition checklist / best practices at http://github.com/firstmncsa/csa_resources for more details.
•       Turn off Windows Updates while at competitions.
•       Turn off Windows Defender Firewall on private networks while at competitions.
•       Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the driver station while at competitions.

Robot Power

•       Ensure battery connector is firmly attached. You should feel it snap closed.
•       Optional: Run a long zip tie between the red and black wires on both ends to pull and lock connector closed. Pull zip tie tight, leave no gap.
•       Ensure battery cable crimps are tight and cables are not bent at sharp angle immediately after crimp. Replace crimps if they are, use heat shrink over crimp and wire to help with wire relief.

Robot Code

•       Ensure you are using the latest version of the CTRE Lifeboat and firmware. Please contact firstmn.csa@gmail.com for further details.
•       Java / C++: Game data should be retrieved in autonomousInit not in RobotInit, please see example code on the First MN CSA csa_resources GitHub, link below.
•       Java / C++: Conditional code should not be used in a CommandGroup constructor, due to gameData possibly not being available during CommandGroup construction. Use ConditionalCommands instead.
•       Java teams need to check for null values from getGameSpecificMessage, we have an example up on GitHub now on one way to handle that, along with a testing mechanism to duplicate FMS behavior.
•       eg; powerup2018-java-example
•       LabView teams, please ensure you have code deployed permanently before going onto the field for competition, preferably before queuing.

PoE injectors

After the connectivity issues in week 1, we secured a generous donation of alternative POE injectors for the week 2 Regionals in Duluth.  At the event, we recommended every team swap to the new ones.  Most teams took this option, and we saw far fewer connectivity issues through the weekend.  While there is still no confirmed issue with the orange KOP injectors, we will be providing alternatives again at the Minneapolis regionals for any team that needs one.

• Please note the above PoE injector needs to be cabled differently than the KoP PoE injector. This model should have it’s ethernet connector plugged into the RoboRio and it’s power lead connected to the VRM, then a standard ethernet cable run from the PoE ethernet jack to the ethernet port next to the power port of the radio. This is opposite of the KoP PoE ethernet cable routing. The power lead cabling is the same as the KoP PoE injector.

Competition Checklist – includes all the recommendations above and much more. Updated often as new items of note are vetted.

• URL: https://github.com/firstmncsa/csa_resources/blob/master/competition_checklist_best_practices.txt

As always, if you have any questions please contact your friendly neighborhood MN CSA, details below. Thanks and see you in Minneapolis!

Contact Details:
Email: firstmn.csa@gmail.com
Slack: firstmncsa.slack.com
Slack invite: https://goo.gl/3yzrJo
Twitter: @firstmncsa
Web: https://mnfirst.org/local-assistance/

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee