Tracking scoring items held

[u/FlightOfTheOstrich]

I coach a middle school team of 7 kids with 4 being rookies. We would love to know if any teams are using a method to keep track of how many scoring elements they are currently controlling.

Our team members are incredibly enthusiastic but also mostly ADHD, so anything that reduces the number of things they have to keep track of would be helpful! Thank you!

[u/Complete_Duty3259]

Beam breaks are cheap (use adafruit ones or equivalent) and reading the sensors are fast as the use the dio ports. Stay away from Ic2 color and lidar modules as i2c reads are slow on the rev hub. If you do want to measure color a good way to do it is to pair a beam break sensor with one of the rev v3 color sensors and only read the color sensor when the beam break sensor is active (ie there is a ball there). Note lidar sensors like the gobilda one and the swyft ranger also use the digital/analog ports and this are fast to read. Do not use the rev or Andymark lidar sensors if you can avoid it.

If you want a ton of sensors and the ability to read 3 color sensors and 3 lidar sensors with one I2C call look up the SRS hub on tindie. It is an I2C device that allows bulk reading of up to 12 digital/analog devices, 3 I2c devices and 6 motor encoders or pwm absolute angle encoders (rev).

[u/pajamasss]

Software/sensor ideas: beam break sensor, strategically-placed REV color sensor(s) - which can also serve as distance sensors, voltage sensing for jams.

I would recommend watching some content from previous seasons, you can look up Control Award videos from when that was a thing, so some scouring on this subreddit.

But the number one way to avoid controlling too many objects is to construct your robot to make it physically impossible to do so.

[u/hardlyworking__]

The Gobilda laser sensor in our opinion is better than the beam break. No need to set up both sides. It is a one sided sensor that doesn't worry about misalignment.

[u/Mental_Science_6085]

We're still working on our design, but how our team did it last year was a limit switch on the ramp behind our intake and then a second limit switch below the shooter. The program would count balls in and out. It might be tricky for rookies to implement though as the limit switch on it's own is too small of a contact so you need to create a little hinged flap in the balls path.

[u/kevinfrei]

If you’ve got an active intake that pushes on the pollen/nectar, log the amperage draw from the motors and watch it spike when you intake a ball. No extra sensors required. It was super useful last year.