Florida FTC 2024-25 Newsletter #7

October 31st, 2024

Greetings Florida FTC Teams, Coaches, Volunteers, and Sponsors:

We’ve kicked off the season with our first League Meets! The AeroCoast and North East Florida leagues led the way, completing their first events on October 19th. As we head into a busy schedule with nine League Meets in November and eight in early December, this newsletter provides tips to help coaches and teams prepare for these upcoming events. In December and January, I’ll share more insights on preparing for League Tournaments and the Florida Championship.

The following topics are covered in this Florida FTC newsletter:

Tip: Preparing for League Meets – Inspection
Servo and Motor ROBOT Rules
Definition of “Event Ready” (Repeat)
How to Register to Attend League Events (Repeat)

Newsletter Details

Tip: Preparing for League Meets – Inspection – With the busy INTO THE DEEP season ahead, it’s essential to prepare for Robot and Field inspections. The first step at any League Meet is inspection, so I encourage all teams to review the Competition Manual, especially:

Section 3.3: MATCH Eligibility Rules
Chapter 12: ROBOT Construction Rules

Recommended Best Practices:

Self-Inspection: A week before your event, conduct a self-inspection using the Inspection Checklist, which you can find in the "Season Materials" section under "Additional Materials" on the [FIRST webpage](https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc).
Use the Self-Inspect Feature: The Driver Station includes a “Self Inspect” feature (accessible from the main menu in the upper right corner). Review the checklist for both the Driver Station and Control Hub, ensuring everything is highlighted green. Any red Xs indicate issues to address before attending an event. Additional self-inspect info can be found on [GitHub](https://github.com/FIRST-Tech-Challenge/FtcRobotController/wiki/FTC-Self-Inspect).

Please verify that your team is using SDK version 10.1.

Servo and Motor ROBOT Rules – Chapter 12 of the Competition Manual defines rules for legal motors and servos. Rule R501 provides a list of allowable motors. Ensure your team’s motors comply with this list, primarily from FTC-approved vendors such as AndyMark, goBILDA, REV Robotics, Studica, and TETRIX.

For servos, Rule R502 specifies power limits:

<= 8 watts @6V
<= 4 amps @6V

Teams can pass inspection by confirming their servos are on the list in Rule R502. If your servos are not listed, you’ll need to verify they meet the power requirements. Use the servo power calculator on the FTC website to confirm compliance.

Definition of “Event Ready” (Repeat) – Some coaches have noticed they are unable to register for League Meets due to the “Event Ready” requirement. Being “Event Ready” is mandatory, defined by FIRST, and involves:

Completing the FIRST registration process, including the $295 season fee.
Registering two coaches for the team through the FIRST Dashboard.
Ensuring both coaches sign the FIRST consent and release form.
Completing and passing the FIRST YPP screening for both coaches.
Ensuring each student team member signs the FIRST consent and release form, ideally through their FIRST Dashboard.

Currently, 10 Florida teams are not “Event Ready.” Coaches can confirm readiness by visiting the Teams page on the FLFIRST website. A “0” in the “Ready” column means the team is not ready for registration. Click “Coaches, get ready now” for guidance on completing requirements.

How to Register to Attend League Meets (Repeat) – Dates and locations for League Meets and most League Tournaments are now available on the FLFIRST website. To find your event:

Navigate to the "Events" page: Florida-wide events are at the top, followed by league-specific events organized by date.
Important Details: Each event listing includes address, registration dates, and the number of registered teams.
Registration: Coaches #1 and #2 should create an account using the email associated with their FIRST Dashboard login. Scroll to find your league and event, then click “Register.” If the “Register” button is gray, the registration window is not yet open. You will need to create an account on Region Manager. [This video](https://youtu.be/AoQfTYcof1Q) explains the registration process.

– Hans Wolf

Florida FTC 2024-25 Newsletter #6

October 17th, 2024

Greetings Florida FTC Teams, Coaches, Volunteers, and Sponsors:

It has been a challenging few weeks for many Florida FTC teams impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton. I hope everyone is safe and recovering well. I apologize for the delay in sending out this newsletter, as I was without power and internet due to the storm. (On a lighter note, my daughter’s family found a lost cat after the hurricane and named him Milton!)

The following are the topics covered in this Florida FTC newsletter:

How to Find League Meet Dates/Locations
New Florida FIRST Tech Challenge Website (Repeat)
SDK 10.1 Released: Use REV Hardware Client to Update
Robot Design Ideas
Florida Championship T-shirt Design Contest
Dean's List Student Nomination

Newsletter Details

How to Find League Meet Dates/Locations – All league event dates and locations are now published on the Florida FIRST Tech Challenge website. To find your league event information, select the "Events" page at the top right of the website. Statewide events are listed at the top, followed by league-specific events. Event details include address, registration window dates, and the number of teams registered. If registration is open, the "Register" button will be blue. Feel free to provide feedback on this new website by replying to this email.

New Florida FIRST Tech Challenge Website (Repeat) – A new Florida FIRST Tech Challenge website was launched on September 17. We plan to incrementally add features to enhance usability. Two initial features are:

**Event Registration**: Teams can register for events without the previous 5-digit team code. Coaches #1 and #2 can use the same email as their FIRST Dashboard login to create an account on Region Manager and register. [Watch this video for more on the registration process](https://youtu.be/AoQfTYcof1Q).
**Event Readiness Check**: Ensure your team is "Event Ready" by verifying that both coaches have signed the online Consent & Release form and completed the YPP background screening. Check the "Teams" page for your team’s status. A "Yes" in the bottom right indicates readiness, while "No" provides a link to complete requirements.

A big THANK YOU to AJ Foster, Jeremy School, and Kyle Hoyt for their hard work on this project.

SDK 10.1 Released: Use REV Hardware Client to Update – The FTC SDK was released on September 20, 2024. Teams should update to SDK 10.1 using the REV Hardware Client. Simply connect your Driver Hub, click "Update All," and then update the Robot Controller software. Remember to update backup devices as well for smooth operation.

Robot Design Ideas – Teams are encouraged to explore robot design ideas by reviewing videos from past seasons and other resources. Some recommended videos include:

**REV Robotics Starter Bot for INTO THE DEEP**: [REV Starter Bot](https://www.revrobotics.com/duo/ftc-starter-bot/?mc_cid=ff0f386b72&mc_eid=2d47985a2d)
**Gobilda Starter Bot**: [Gobilda Starter Bot](https://www.gobilda.com/ftc-starter-kit-2024-2025-season/?srsltid=AfmBOooTRq70wzGgLff4X3N8koZfo8RSYqzN-C9oG81avIc4XtAwrZ04)
**Ri30H Videos**: - [Video 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JU4qY0d6T0) - [Video 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACaSMCjWXo) - [Full Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkZ6_Ld1x9Y9gDrQusVzXpB_OPDQigr7e)

Florida Championship T-shirt Design Contest – The volunteer T-shirt contest is back! Submit your design by November 30, 2024, for a chance to receive a guaranteed invitation to the Florida Championship from February 28 to March 1, 2025. Contest requirements:

Email your design to [email protected] by midnight on November 30, 2024.
Submit a high-resolution JPG, single-color logo design.
Include "Florida Championship 2025" and the INTO THE DEEPSM logo. The winner will earn an automatic invitation to the championship, or a $200 credit if they qualify through their league.

Dean's List Student Nomination – The deadline for Dean's List nominations is December 15, 2024. Coaches can submit nomination essays through the FIRST Dashboard. Each team may nominate up to two 10th or 11th grade students who embody FIRST program values. Nominees will be interviewed at each league tournament, and four finalists will be announced at the Florida Championship on March 1, 2025. The World Championship in April 2025 will select ten winners from among these finalists. Learn more in Chapter 10 of the Game Manual Part 1.

I encourage all coaches to visit the Dean's List page to learn about last year’s Florida winner, Ramsey McClure.

– Hans Wolf

Florida FTC 2024-25 Newsletter #5

September 21st, 2024

Greetings Florida FTC Teams, Coaches, Volunteers, and Sponsors:

The Florida FTC season theme this year is Robot Design. Therefore, this newsletter will cover several technical topics including some pointers to videos that can be helpful in robot design. My first design recommendation is to encourage teams to look at game element collectors from the Freight Frenzy and Rover Ruckus seasons. Both of these games included the yellow waffle block game element. The following YouTube video is an example of what you might see: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdaD5qsfuZ8). The other thing that is great about this video is that there are several examples of the team explaining how specific game rules influenced their robot design.

The following are the topics covered in this Florida FTC newsletter:

New Florida FIRST Tech Challenge Website (www.flfirst.org)
AJ’s Tech Corner
SDK 10.1 Released: Use REV Hardware Client to Update
Robot Design Ideas

Newsletter Details

New Florida FIRST Tech Challenge Website (www.flfirst.org) – Some of you might have already noticed that a new Florida FIRST Tech Challenge website was release late on Tuesday evening, September 17. Our plan is that we will incrementally add more features and make it easier to use. The first two features that have been included are a new event registration process and a feature for coaches to determine what needs to be updated in the FIRST Dashboard to ensure that your team is “Event Ready”.

Teams can now start registering to attend events within your league by going to the “Event” page on the www.flfirst.org website. The big change is that you will no longer need the 5-digit team code, and you will now create an account using the same email address that you use to login to your FIRST Dashboard. Find your league and the event by scrolling down on the events web page and then select the “Register” button. If the “Register” button is grayed out it means that the registration window for that event is currently not open. You will first be asked to create an account on a system called Region Manager (the following is short video that explains the event registration process: https://youtu.be/AoQfTYcof1Q) .

The second new feature is that you can now validate if your team is “Event Ready”. FIRST requires that each team must have two coaches, both coaches must have signed the online Consent & Release form, and both coaches must have an active YPP background screening. You can determine if your team is event ready by going to the “Teams” page and locating your team number. If you see a “Yes” in the bottom right corner of your team’s information box on the screen, no further action is needed. If you see a “No” you can select the “Coaches get ready now” link to be taken to Region Manager to determine what actions are required to enable your team to be approved by FIRST to attend an event.

A big and loud THANK YOU to AJ Foster and Jeremy School for all of the extra time in the last several months helping re-engineer our website and to Kyle Hoyt for his continued guidance on this journey.

AJ’s Tech Corner – AJ’s Tech Corner is now world famous as FIRST has started to promote his videos to help teams. I encourage all Florida FTC teams to visit the following YouTube channel to see the latest tech advance for our Florida lead FTA AJ Foster: https://youtube.com/@ftaaj. AJ has some great videos that include advice on field setup, reviews of some of the robot design ideas seen in Robot in 30 Hours (Ri30H) videos, and a detailed review of the Competition Manual changes.

DK 10.1 Released: Use REV Hardware Client to Update – Last week you should have received a FIRST Tech Challenge Team Blast included an announcement that the FTC SDK would be released on September 20, 2024. I encourage teams to update to the latest SDK so that you can test and practice with this software well in advance of your first league meet. The SDK can be updated through the REV Hardware Client when your Driver Hub is connected to your computer. You will just need to press the “Update All” button in the upper right corner of the screen. The final step is to connect to the Robot controller and update the software. The final recommendation is to make sure that you also update your backup devices.

Robot Design Ideas – FTC teams are encouraged to learn from other teams and past games. In this newsletter introductory paragraph, I referenced a video from the Freight Frenzy season that can provide some insight to your game element collector design. Another great source of design ideas is the Ri30H videos available on YouTube and some videos from the FTC parts/kit providers. The following are a few additional videos that your team can review for design ideas:

REV Robotics has created a basic robot for the INTO THE DEEP game challenge that can be build from their starter kit: https://www.revrobotics.com/duo/ftc-starter-bot/?mc_cid=ff0f386b72&mc_eid=2d47985a2d

Gobilda has also created a starter bot that can be build from their starter kit: https://www.gobilda.com/ftc-starter-kit-2024-2025-season/?srsltid=AfmBOooTRq70wzGgLff4X3N8koZfo8RSYqzN-C9oG81avIc4XtAwrZ04

The following are a few video links to some of the Ri30H videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JU4qY0d6T0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACaSMCjWXo
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkZ6_Ld1x9Y9gDrQusVzXpB_OPDQigr7e

– Hans Wolf

Florida FTC 2024-25 Newsletter #4

September 4th, 2024

Greetings Florida FTC Teams, Coaches, Volunteers, and Sponsors:

Only four more days until we DIVE℠ INTO THE DEEP℠ presented by RTX. Given the number of changes being implemented this season, I encourage all teams to attend either one of the local, in-person kick-off events or the Florida virtual kick-off event on the FIRST in Florida YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/live/CH24ZmS9GWM). This is the year of change and the year of robot design. Tune in to the kick-off event at 11:15am EDT to learn more.

The following are the topics covered in this Florida FTC newsletter:

Florida FTC Remote Kick-off – September 7, 2024 at 11:15pm EDT (Repeat)
League In-Person Kick-off Events (Repeat)
Studica Robotics Team Sponsorship Opportunity
Field Perimeter and Matts Available

Newsletter Details

Florida FTC Remote Kick-off – September 7, 2024 at 11:15pm EDT (Repeat) – The Florida FTC season kick-off plans include combining our traditional online state-wide program with several local league hosted events. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks. The best news is that we are building a kick-off agenda that will allow 5 different activities that will include interactions with teams at each of our in-person league kick-off events. As we finalize the details of our agenda, I will send out another newsletter update in the next couple of weeks with all of the help we need from our Florida teams detailing all of the help we will need.The agenda for the state-wide online kick-off event include the Bob & Sid show and a unique AJ Tech Corner session back by popular demand. The Florida FTC 2024-25 season will officially be started with a kick-off event hosted on the FIRST in Florida YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/live/CH24ZmS9GWM). During the kick-off event, we will provide an update on the season plans as well as perform a walk-through of the INTO THE DEEP℠ game elements and rules.

League In-Person Kick-off Events – I have great news about everyone’s ability to attend an in-person kick-off event. Every Florida League will have the opportunity to attend an in-person event, and all of the in-person events will play the Florida and FIRST online virtual event. Most importantly, teams will have an opportunity to participate in the Florida Kick-off event. We will be looking for some help with introducing each in-person kick-off event, answering robot rule questions, guessing the INTO THE DEEP℠ game element, and ask Bob & Sid any game specific rule questions. The following are the list of in-person event locations and the start time of each location:

AeroCoast League (doors open at 8:00am CDT) – The Doolittle Institute, 1140 John Sims Parkway, Suite 1, Niceville, FL 32569
F.U.N. League (doors open at 10:15am EDT) -- American Heritage Delray, 6200 Linton Blvd, Delray Beach, FL 33484
Gulf Coast League (doors open at 9:00am EDT) – Seminole High School, 8401 131th Street, Seminole, FL 33776
North East Florida League (doors open at 10:15am EDT) – Bolles Bartram Campus, Parker Auditorium, 2264 Bartram Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32207
Orlando Robotics and Space Coast Leagues (doors open at 10:20am EDT) – Trinity Preparatory School, 5700 Trinity Prep Lane, Winter Park, FL 32792
ROBOT League (doors open at 10:15am EDT) – AMRoC FabLab, 2154 University Square Mall, Tampa, FL 33612
South Florida League (doors open at 10:15am EDT) --- Motorola Solutions Plantation, 8000 W. Sunrise Blvd., Plantation, FL 33322

Studica Robotics Team Sponsorship Opportunity – If you have reviewed the July 31, 2024 release of the Competition Manual, you will have seen a new robot parts vendor that has been approved by FIRST. Studica Robotics ( www.studica.com )is selling structural, motion, and electronics components that can be used to build FIRST Tech Challenge robots. Studica Robotics will be awarding a $200 team grant each month during the season and you can apply for this grant by going to the following web page: https://www.studica.com/studica-robotics-grant-application

Field Perimeter and Matts Available – I am giving away (first come first serve) one set of used field matts and two IFI field perimeters to any team that is within a one-hour drive of the northern Tampa area. The IFI field perimeters are the older and heavier field perimeters that can still be used by teams and competitions. I am willing to meet you within a one-hour drive from my house and would like to give the two fields to two different teams. Please reply to this email and let me know where you are located so that we can determine a shared meeting location so that I can give you the field perimeter and/or used field matts.

– Hans Wolf

Introducing the all new Florida First Tech Challenge website!

August 21st, 2024

Welcome! As you can probably see, some things have changed around here. This is the all new Florida First Tech Challenge™ website - if you're not familiar with FTC, you might want to check out this page.

If you're looking for event info or registration, head on over to the Events page! If you're a coach curious to know if your team is event ready, check out the Teams page.

Thanks, and have a great season!

– Jeremy School