KickStart µgames update

[Alistair Lynn]

Hi all-

The KickStart µgames are virtually ready to ship. Giorgos is doing the
final bits of preparation of the props, and the document probably just
needs one final pass over it.

Alistair

[Sophia Maria]

I am assuming that is the document for the mentors?

Or is there another document that already contains the instructions for the students?

cheers
lilafisch

Alistair

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[Peter Law]

Hi,

The only doc I'm aware of is the one you've linked to on the
srobo-game threads, which is mostly a set of notes about what's
planned. I'm currently in the process of creating an instruction sheet
for the teams, and will emit that once it's more complete. If
someone's already done/working on that, please shout!

Peter

[Peter Law]

Hi,

I wrote:
> The only doc I'm aware of is the one you've linked to on the
> srobo-game threads, which is mostly a set of notes about what's
> planned. I'm currently in the process of creating an instruction sheet
> for the teams, and will emit that once it's more complete. If
> someone's already done/working on that, please shout!

This now exists as an early draft within the priv/mircogames repo
which Jeremy was kind enough to create. I've put further details on
the srobo-grame "Kickstart µgames with fewer motors" thread [1] and
hopefully discussion can continue there.

Thanks,
Peter

[1] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/srobo-game/-sFPVHXMQg0/discussion

[Peter Law]

Hi,

> The KickStart µgames are virtually ready to ship. Giorgos is doing the
> final bits of preparation of the props, and the document probably just
> needs one final pass over it.

Many thanks to those who helped get this all shipped. I think I can
safely say that all the London teams enjoyed the tasks.

While I don't think any of them completed them all (though many got
most of them done), I think this is probably the right level for them
to be at as it ensures they're both kept busy all day while also
having some other tasks to come back to if they want more of an
introduction to the kit.

Some notes on things which should be improved for next time (based on
the London microgames kit):
* The kit was missing webcams for on the servos, so we ended up
scavenging a couple from what were believed to be spare kits [1].
* The motor for use in the winch task had the wrong connector on.
Minor, but the provided replacement connector got separated so
again a replacement was scavenged from a 'spare' kit [1]
* We didn't prepare in advance a consolidated list of things which
needed printing at the venue, which meant this caused some
minor delays in being able to do some of the games.
* Almost everyone started on the battery charging task immediately,
and didn't realise that they needed Blueshirt supervision for that.
This (combined with a lack of docs [2]) resulted in a number of teams
not realising what the charging bags were for until they'd already
started charging their batteries.

I think we need to ensure that in future shared components are
provided complete and ready to use and don't rely on the teams kits
being attached.

Overall this was probably the best Kickstart I've been to, so I'd
really like to thank everyone who made it such a success, whether you
helped packing kits, preparing the microgames or hosting a venue.
Thank you!

Peter

[1] until one of the teachers turned up to collect one of them, which
I think we did know about but forgot. We did track which pieces were
removed and were able to restore this prior to handing it out
[2] https://www.studentrobotics.org/trac/ticket/2630

[Murray Colpman]

On 25/10/14 20:50, Peter Law wrote:
> * The kit was missing webcams for on the servos, so we ended up
> scavenging a couple from what were believed to be spare kits [1].

In Soton we just gave them the servos + duck tape and got them to attach
their own webcams, then got the servos back off them when they were
finished. I believe the issue that caused this in the first place was a
general lack of spare webcams, but I might be wrong.

Murray.

[Scarzybrook]

Hi,

On 25/10/14 20:50, Peter Law wrote:

> * The kit was missing webcams for on the servos, so we ended up
> scavenging a couple from what were believed to be spare kits [1].

Spare kits in this sense meaning "We had no reason to believe that the
school was going to turn up later that day", we knew from the beginning
that they were not truly spares.

This essentially leads to what I feel is the biggest failure made with
this kickstart: Every Kickstart venue should have had a box of spares.

We raided other parts from this kit when teams came up to us with eg. a
faulty USB lead [0], having a box of spares would have meant we could
have left the uncollected kits undisturbed.

Other than that I think it was a very good Kickstart! At least from the
London side it all seemed to go well. (And Facebook HQ is really nice!)

Scarzy

[0] again, everything got restored/replaced when the teacher appeared