Thank you for following along on our fifth FIRST Tech Challenge Season. We are an all-girls team in NW Montana. Please bear with us as we get used to a new website. The newest posts are at the top.
We are going under the sea!!! This season we are exploring the depths of the ocean. The 2024-2025 FTC game is #INTOTHEDEEP.
5/6/2025 – We are getting ready for next season! Interested in joining us? Please plan to come to our open houses later this month or fill out our interest form and we’ll get back to you. https://forms.gle/eatfPouZW8BnMyjB7
2/7/2025 – Houston, we’re coming back!
We won the 2nd Place Inspire Award and were on the Finalist Alliance at the Montana FTC Championship. This accomplishment earned us a spot to represent Montana at the 2025 FIRST Championship. Please visit our fundraising page to see how you can help us get ourselves and our equipment to Texas to compete on the world stage, make new friends with kids from around the world, and meet with colleges and employers like NASA, Gene Haas, Disney Imagineering and more.
Sorry our blog is behind, we’ll catch up and post additional season details later.
10/30/2024 – Ursula v5 almost ready for the scrimmage
We have been super busy working on Ursula. Our intake concepts seem to work well, the lift mockup works and the extension works. Now that our custom panels have arrived (Thank you, Nomad) it’s just getting it all put together and hope that the combination of functions works as well as the individual parts. Thank you Guiffrida Enterprises for cutting our team number signs, gear/sprocket safety covers and pieces for our hanging assembly. Only 2 meetings between now and the scrimmage coming up on Saturday 11/9.
10/28/2024 – #TeamREV 2024-2025
We are thrilled to announce that RoboScout Squad is part of the #TeamREV class of 2024-2025!
Check out Rev Robotics Blog Post listing out all of this year’s FTC member teams.
https://www.revrobotics.com/blog/2024-25-ftc-teamrev-sponsorship-awardees/
9/8/2024 – Kickoff Wrap-Up
Kickoff was amazing, we’ll get some photos posted soon.
8/18/2024 – Kickoff in Kalispell
RoboScout Squad is hosting NW Montana’s #INTOTHEDEEP Kickoff in Kalispell on Saturday, September 7th at 9:00am.
We are planning to have a guest speaker, local tech company representatives and full in-person field reveal.
All are welcome, but please RSVP to info@roboscoutsquad.com, so we can plan food and tables.
7/31/2024 – Competition Manual v0 Released
Here is the link to the INTO THE DEEP Competition Manual. Version 0 has been released.
In previous seasons FTC had 2 Game Manuals. GM1 came out in late July and contained general robot build rules, “evergreen rules” (rules that don’t change from year to year), advancement and awards. GM2 with game specific rules and field parameters was released at kickoff. GM1 was usually updated at kickoff as well.
Starting this season there will be only 1 manual. It will be called the FTC Competition Manual. It was released on July 31st with all game specific, field, advancement and awards sections redacted. It will be updated on September 7th at kickoff and will be updated weekly (Thursdays) once the season is in full swing to contain rulings from the Q&A. This will give FTC teams, event organizers and referrees one place for a source of truth for all game rules and it will be important to review the updates weekly. Here is the FTC Blog post about the permanent manual changes.
Important rule changes that stuck out in v0:
R104: Horizontal expansion limit.
Imagine a rectangle 20″ by 42″ around the robot, at no single point during a match can a robot exceed those dimensions. No vertical limit. There will certainly be more clarification coming out. Lots of discussion being had on the FTC Discord.
R401, R402, R403 – Robot Sign Rules
Gone are the days of themeing your team numbers to your robot design. We now have mandated 6.5″ x2.5″ license plates. White horizontal numbers on red and blue backgrounds, interchangable with alliance assignment. Cannot be power dependant. There still need to be 2 of them, but no longer need to be on opposite sides of the bot, just at least 90 degrees from each other. For example, there could be one on the side and one on the top.
R503, 503, 505 – Servo restrictions
4th wire position feedback is still allowed (new rule last season), however there is a list of allowable servos and a note that if your servo isn’t on the list you need to provide documentation as to its specs/power draw. Please read all the rules carefully if you are using something outside this list as there has been discussion about servos eliminated this season.
R505 – Servo Power Modules: There’s a new SPM allowed
R702 – the Digital Chicken Labs OctoQuad was added, notably left out was the SparkFun OTOS, which is included in the FTC SDK, so this was likely an oversight in the manual and will be corrected.
R703 – likewise the Limelight 3A was added and the HuskyLens was left out. It was approved last season, likely also an accidental ommission that will be fixed as it is mentioned as a legal in R714.
And what we are sure is exciting news that many teams have requested the last few years…..
R601 – Batteries
The goBILDA offset cell (nested) battery is now competition legal. The benefit of this battery is that it will fit inside goBILDA U-Channel.
Note: The rules and screenshots shown above are subject to change and may not be updated here, please always check the manual for the most recent information.
With the vague comments about worlds advancement from the recent FIRST Blog post, it was disappointing to not see the advancement rules included in the manual as was historically expected with GM1.
As FIRST continues to grow, it becomes more difficult for teams to advance beyond their local and regional events. Today, only 0.5% of FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge and 2.5% of FIRST® Tech Challenge qualify for FIRST Championship, and as we add additional FIRST® Robotics Competition teams and events, the use of tools such as the priority wait list is becoming more necessary.
To help mitigate this issue and to help ensure that as many teams as possible can participate in FIRST Championship and other larger events, we are evaluating several potential adjustments to our advancement protocols.
Everyone is anxious to see what changes there are (if any) to FTC advancement protocols.
5/20/2024 – Pre-Orders for Game Sets
Pre-orders from AndyMark are now open. Game sets usually ship the week after kickoff. Here are the links to purchase the new products and our thoughts:
With the difference in price between the partial and full set being so small, only $70, we think it’s likely that the partial will include everything for a full field, but only the red or blue alliance game elements, not both. If that’s the case, it is also likely the field structure(s) is larger and more central and not smaller structures for each alliance.
There are definitely more tools in this year’s tool kit which leads us to believe it will be at least a little more complex than the last 2-3 seasons.
What are your thoughts on the season? Any guesses about the game itself?
Partial Game Set – $390 – necessary structural field elements and one alliance of game elements to practice the game
Full Game Set – $460 – everything you need for a full competition match, all structures and game elements
Field Assembly Tool Kit – $49 – all the tools needed to assemble this year’s field – note, you can get these tools cheaper at the hardware store / Amazon.
Tapes – $43 – 165 ft each of red, blue and white 1″ gaffing tapes for marking the field – note, you can get rolls on Amazon for $10 each
4/20/2024 – New Season Reveal
Get ready for…….
RoboScout Squad 