Retro agenda 2018-04-27¶
On-the day retro (https://github.com/sourcebots/minutes/blob/master/2018/2018-04-22-Mini-Retro.md)¶
Let's review how to fix the below things:
Carpet tile alignment¶
- Rolls might work?
- Action Point We need to buy these.
- THESE ARE EXPENSIVE ARGH
- Small creases in rolls are worse than the ridges from carpet tiles.
- Carpet tiles take up loads of space.
- They arrived on time.
- Possible Action Point cool idea - make our own carpets, printed :D
- Place boards underneath tiles
- Double sided tape?
- Tiles actually aren't square (need to be placed in alignment of pile)
Seat Slats¶
- Remember to do them next time
- Looks bad
- Risk of people climbing them
- Lots of hand-squishy mechanisms behind it.
- shouldn't have been left our after the event
- Action Point ask SUSU to fix it
- Action Point tiles took a long time to arrive make this quicker?
Arena Network Cables¶
- make a plan, forgot to install several cables around the arena
- action point make a plan for cables and layout
- We found the reel in Mountbatten
Tape¶
- Action Point We need more fluorescent tape. Keep a larger backlog
- Action Point have at least 4 of each fluorescent tape
Kit storage¶
- No plan of getting in / moving kit around / what to do with empty things, etc..
- Wood Cages would be useful to move things.
- Action Point Confirm with Mike Bartlett (Zepler institute guy) about scheduled maintenance
- Ask them to put physical signs out!
- Actually make sure we've got Lvl4 mountbatten booked for the whole time
Mountbatten Lift Broke¶
- There is a second lift!
- Ask Security for access
Team pits / fire exits¶
- Action Point Spend a bit more time designing the Floorplan such that it isn't changed during the day.
- Don't block fire exits.
- There's a regulation for people per exits, which we were probably far from.
Measuring from sides is inaccurate¶
- Measure from absolutes
- Use chalk line like method for straight lines
Trolley Return¶
- Remember to do this!
- This turned out okay, but we should make sure we do it.
PXE boot¶
- Action Point We should network-boot the pis. (possible with pi3s without SD)
- Makes testing kits easier, boot from wherever you need to
Table for cutting wood¶
- Action Point Get a 'workmate' bench
- We got in trouble.
- shouldn't be cutting wood on wood tables (so we don't damage tables, and wood doesn't slip)
Wood fell down staircase and got smashed¶
- Action Point Brief Volunteers on health and safety.
Wood on Trolleys¶
- Trolleys used not adequate to move wood.
- Action Point Get the red trolley for the weekend from the engineering faculty
Mountbatten closure¶
- Discussed earlier ^^
Pizza on signage¶
- Be more careful
- Better organisation
- Pizza was good though, but a waste of paper
Shepherds struggled to find teams¶
- action point Give Shepherds a Floorplan.
Columns falling over¶
- Better measurements would mean velcro made more contact with carpet than tape
- Construct the pedestals better
- Measure from the pedestals
- Action Point Draw an actual square from the centre of the arena to get exact measurements (absolute measurement needed)
Volunteer Scheduling¶
- Better specification of volunteers
- after finals plan
- Scheduling: Generate ical files.
- People should stick in their roles for longer, staggered switch-over
Hot mornings¶
- Fans worked well
- Action Point Turns fans on earlier
- Open door on balcony sooner to let air escape
- More fans
Communicated well¶
- Did ok without radios
- We should still get radios. (See below)
Livestream was cool!¶
- Action Point Lie about the start time so SUSU does it earlier
- Integration with their kit wasn't tested
- Should be running for the whole event in some form.
Cable through door¶
- Network cable to bar 2 screen was running through door, and got worn down
- Needs replacing now.
- Kajusz ran it through the door :(
- Wireless??
- Flat network cables?
- (they're terrible)
Team given red taped arduino¶
- Quality control
- Seemed to work fine for a while, was the tape right?
- They should have been purple taped or something.
Timelapse obstructed¶
- Action Point Put it on the balcony next time¶
Radios¶
- For station or for persons
- We could try for one radio per person. (but it's hard)
Network went down¶
- Run DHCP/DNS/etc ourselves, as we've done before.
- We should bring a pre-configured router
- There was a miscommunication on how the router was set up.
Nobody looked into socket issue in robotd
¶
- No one knew the correct place to log these issues
- Action Point Review issue tracking software
Wristbands tightening throughout the day¶
- Action Point Use crimped ones
- Remind teams the wristband is required for entry (i.e. "If you cut them off, bring them anyway")
- Ordered far too few (need 200+ish)
Sharp cable ties¶
- Point them downwards
- Cut closer to the edge
- Snips
- Action Point Better instructions on this
- HS inspect stuff after built
- (Arena-building plan on docs?)
No Linesman score entry training¶
- Train linesmen on how to enter the score.
- May be solved by staggered role switching (keep linesman A on for changeover of Linesman B)
Score Entry role unknown to most¶
- People didn't know what to do
- Peter was doing score entry.
- There should be a laptop running the score entry software for entering scores.
Overhead view¶
- Overhead view looked great
- Means those on balcony could see better
- Need to add to kit/tech plan
- Non fisheye camera would be better
- Only half was, not high enough quality, lots of artifacts
- Action Point Find some way of Recording it for posterity.
Teams seemed happy¶
- Besides some kit issues, teams looked to have fun
- Action Point Create a questionnaire and get some feedback from them.
Game balance¶
- Missing teams and unbalanced games.
- Less incentive to go through the middle.
- Action Point Simulate the game in the simulator (Possible hack day?)
Bar 2 / Cube flow¶
- Cube wasn't crowded
- No rush moving between pits and arena
- People were running, which is bad.
- Action Point Mention they don't run in the safety brief.
- Music flow worked well.
Issue handling¶
- Action Point Favour fast workarounds over teams missing matches.
- Get a possible fix for an issue rather than trying to find the correct solution
Zone USB sticks¶
- Zone USB sticks should be mandatory in arena matches
- Investigate issues correctly, and announce to put teams minds at ease
- Possible timing issue with the pis.
Hoover issue¶
- Don't dismantle 4 ways...
- Don't break hoovers
- Store things better overnight.
Rematch necessity¶
- Better efficiency
- Identify issues with linesman earlier. Scheduling person should care more about the matches themselves.
Handling of a rematch¶
- Don't go into a state of panic
- Calm teams as required
- Judges decision should be sought sooner.
- Action point Judge should not be too busy to make decisions on this.
- Action Point Add to comp controller so it appears correctly, as it look odd in the match list.
Volunteer parking¶
- Team parking was documented, volunteer was not.
- Action Point send an email about parking.
- Friday parking is hard to find
Volunteer Accommodation¶
- Action Point: If we have budget, get someone to sort out accommodation.
- Inform people about lack of accommodation.
Match points vs league points¶
- Action Point: Teams should be given a briefing, ideally separate from the intro briefing.
- Action Point Scoring should be in the rules.
Packdown plan¶
- Action Point We need to plan this.
Road closure¶
- Should have known and warned teams.
- We were aware but we didn't inform teams
- We didn't check the emails weren't sent.
- We should delegate emails.
Lighting¶
- Test using actual kits
- Think more about possible lighting issues
- Additional scaff lights as part of standard setup.
- Test cameras before competition on realistic setups. (thresholding)
- Unreliable once we have changed, change them sooner
Practice carpet¶
- Give teams a carpeted test area.
- Make sure we have spare carpet to make the test area
- Practice arena (chairs with markers on them).
Pi system clock¶
- Teams claimed issues with times on pis (match timeout)
- Research into
- Log times in logs?
- Network Pis, serve NTP (wont work)?
- NTP won't work because it's not designed for it
- Idea: Use a special radio to signal starts and ends.
- Only need 4, use them as Zone sticks
We forgot to measure the RF noise in the Arena¶
- This is bad.
Account for collisions¶
- Game mode was designed for all teams to get to other side of arena as quickly as possible
- 4 way collisions very likely
- Already discussed
Cloth wrapping of scaff looked bad¶
- Action Point Better Training
- Cloth wrapping was done incorrectly, leaving large lumps and exposed scaff
- Installed by crew.
- Meant to be looped around, rather than cable tied around.
Getting the scaff baseplate orientations correct (parallel to arena sides)¶
- Causes problems later if we don't
- Action Point can be solved by training, and documenting it beforehand (so the trainer knows)
Kit owner¶
- Didn't keep separate kit which was personal, SB, Personal, and other kit SUSU.
- Action Point Label personal items!
- Action Point Sensible pack-up plan.
- Lead to confusion when packing down
Better scaff tools¶
- Only had 1 Socket wrench, which went missing during takedown
- was Kajusz's tool Action Point Buy socket wrench
- Need more scaff tools to be more efficient
- Scaff team should be four people
- More scaff gloves just for moving wood
No music to motivate during takedown¶
- Audio kit was packed away early
- Keep an audio jack around so we're not working in silence
- Mysterious Sound-web issue should have worked
Smallpeice 2017 Retro (Compare them)¶
(Grabbed from https://docs.google.com/document/d/19uJ1I9vaZhR_-n2JYsYxPbp3mCvncLkKuqy2lXLIHeQ/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=105569840240058538650 )
Game¶
Successes¶
- WE DID THIS, it worked! Two minute matches resulted in better, snappier games
- Particularly when teams so easily get stuck against the walls of the arena
- Allows us run more matches
- Two robot format kept the games easier to organise and to commentate on by building a narrative
- Not clear that this would always be the best for other games
Problems¶
- Balance problems
- Movement point
- 2 points for first crossing
- ACTION POINT Can be fixed by running it in the simulator (as mentioned above)
- No plan for the wall in the centre of the arena until during the week
Arena and presentation¶
Successes¶
- WE DID THIS, it worked! Confetti didn’t get good arena coverage
- This made the clean-up considerably easier
- We didn’t use to prohibited floor tape
- We didn't do this :( Need training
- Get-out timings
- Timelapse/photos was good
- WE DID THIS, it worked! Gopro on truss was good for arena views
Problems¶
-
- WE DID THIS, it worked! Confetti didn’t get good arena coverage
- Solution: Get more confetti cannons
- Confetti is still a ballache to clear up.
- We didn't do this :( Carpet laying issues
- We didn't do this :( Excess, unnecessary enormous fibreboard was brought to the Cube, then not given to the porters, even though it was the most difficult to transport to Mountbatten.
- We didn't do this :) Prize giving started without the prizes and the certificates
- Because the certificates weren’t ready
- Because those preparing them were heavily involved in running the finals
- Because of lack of planning/communication around what the post-finals looks like
- Because you started without the certificates => Don’t start the presentation until the certificates are ready.
- Have correct lens on camera and correct camera mode
- No judge's display
- we sort of fixed this
- WE FIXED THIS, it worked! Lack of power on drills
- Battery problems? For next year
- WE DID THIS, it worked! Rig cannons to arena corners
- Decide some of the
- We sort of did this :| Rehearse the proceedings more thoroughly
- Final match specifically
- We didn't do this :( Get a printer
- Which can print the certificates
- And find a way to fund it (as the Uni will not)
- (very minor) We played the intro music when there were only 2 teams in the arena at some point.
For next year¶
- WE FIXED THIS, it worked! More drills, better drills (contention and power problems)
- We still could do with more.
Kit Transport¶
Problems¶
- WE DIDN'T DO THIS MUCH BETTER The transport team weren’t able to transport all the wood in the manner we wanted
- We’re not sure that the timings of when they were around were great, though it did force us to prioritise things on the Friday.
Tear Down¶
Problems¶
- WE FIXED THIS BY BORROWING BETTER DRILLS (AND LOSING PARTS OF THEM) Drill seemed to run out of power very quickly
- Have more screwdrivers.
- Maybe get a new one.
- Maybe get a mains power one.
(good) lack of bee swarms Sarcasm¶
- no sawms of bees
- SUSU should not have a swarm of bees nearby
- Actions point SUSU to not buy bee hives
- So they are doing so
- Is this not already happening?
- it is hence the problem
- ...?
- increased bee chance next year
- ¯_(ツ)_/¯
- "This is good" - AOFB
- how far can we indent? - more
- "This is good" - AOFB
- ...?
- it is hence the problem
AOFB disagrees with this identation, Thanks