Scioly.org

Well I was at Norcal with kube and star. Managed to pull off a 2nd place at states. My ev was off my 2cm and my time was about 0.2 seconds off from the predicted. I'm using a mechanical braking system so I did qualify for the 30% score adjustment.

starpug wrote:Well here are some pics of the NorCal winning EV.
[gal2]1057|41/IMG_6431.jpg[/gal2]
[gal2]1020|41/a2j_IMG_0202.jpg[/gal2]
and a vid of their run
http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=1065

Starpug, did you ask permission from the coach or the competitors, to post a picture of their vehicle on this forum? This team has gone to Nationls every year for the past 5 years, and the kids building the vehicle have won numerous medals at nationals with a reputation for some pretty inovative ideas. It kind of sucks that you would post pictures of their work 4 weeks before Nationals. Posting pictures of other peoples work without permission is one of the reasons that some competitions have had to make picture taking illegal at competitions.

The video is mine. I didn't think it was harmful to show a video. While everyone was taking pictures, doubt you can imitate their work in 4 weeks . I mean they did such an incredible job.

I also understand the feeling of being copied, I mean our device from Trajectory last year was so blatantly stolen by Franklin and half of sac regional . They couldn't pull it off though most of the designs that copied ours didn't do so well, except for franklin's which did pretty good.

starpug I just noticed that you are say you are a member of the Mira Loma B team, what were you thinking posting pictures of your own A team's EV, before Nationals?

Take it to PM's guys.

Hey we are switching to a computerized car. My partner went around to local electronic shops and the people had no idea what to use as the computerized part. Isn't it just a micro-processor? and do you know any (oddly) commercial place we could get one or from what device we could get it from...hopefully besides a computer.

starpug wrote:The video is mine. I didn't think it was harmful to show a video. While everyone was taking pictures, doubt you can imitate their work in 4 weeks . I mean they did such an incredible job.

I also understand the feeling of being copied, I mean our device from Trajectory last year was so blatantly stolen by Franklin and half of sac regional . They couldn't pull it off though most of the designs that copied ours didn't do so well, except for franklin's which did pretty good.

Honestly, we had never seen loma's design before making ours.. Don't tell me Loma was the first school to come up with the idea of having a 2x4 on a hinge with a PVC pipe as the barrel. its a simple design, you cant claim ownership of it.

tehkubix wrote:

starpug wrote:The video is mine. I didn't think it was harmful to show a video. While everyone was taking pictures, doubt you can imitate their work in 4 weeks . I mean they did such an incredible job.

I also understand the feeling of being copied, I mean our device from Trajectory last year was so blatantly stolen by Franklin and half of sac regional . They couldn't pull it off though most of the designs that copied ours didn't do so well, except for franklin's which did pretty good.

Honestly, we had never seen loma's design before making ours.. Don't tell me Loma was the first school to come up with the idea of having a 2x4 on a hinge with a PVC pipe as the barrel. its a simple design, you cant claim ownership of it.

I don't mean to claim it I'm just saying that in building events where everyone can see the devices the winning device, and the devices of good schools, will always have people who attempt to copy it.

starpug wrote:

tehkubix wrote:

starpug wrote:The video is mine. I didn't think it was harmful to show a video. While everyone was taking pictures, doubt you can imitate their work in 4 weeks . I mean they did such an incredible job.

I also understand the feeling of being copied, I mean our device from Trajectory last year was so blatantly stolen by Franklin and half of sac regional . They couldn't pull it off though most of the designs that copied ours didn't do so well, except for franklin's which did pretty good.

Honestly, we had never seen loma's design before making ours.. Don't tell me Loma was the first school to come up with the idea of having a 2x4 on a hinge with a PVC pipe as the barrel. its a simple design, you cant claim ownership of it.

I don't mean to claim it I'm just saying that in building events where everyone can see the devices the winning device, and the devices of good schools, will always have people who attempt to copy it.

that's just how it works, you'd be stupid not to follow a good idea and improve on it. not everything good comes from closing yourself from the outside and thinking of something totally new, people improve on other people's ideas, that's why pictures are always great to have!

To be completely honest, there's really not much revealed in the photos that (a) most of the other teams at Nationals already have (a stable chassis, a working drivetrain, a control circuit, etc.), and (b) you haven't already described previously. If anything, the only thing a fellow Nationals competitor would be able to glean from the Gallery is that you weren't using speed regulation for your states run (ahem?) and that you're very protective and serious about EV.

However, I have wonder if you have given thought to the contradiction that by posting photos of your vehicle, the poster is discouraging innovation. The reason why events need to be rotated out, and the reason this site exists, is because teams can observe other teams' progress in an event and improve upon them, to the point where nearly everyone is on the same high level of performance. Only then will you have any innovation, because innovation is the only thing that will win the event for sure, and not simply refining other people's ideas.

If every team had to wipe their memories and start anew on events with each season, we'd end up with the same naive ideas each year as people try what they had feeling in their guts upon first reading the rules. You'd have more variety, sure, but definitely not much innovation, since everyone has to start from scratch.

Nevertheless, it is an extremely impressive EV entry and I congratulate you on the win. I can understand you feeling robbed, but you really don't own the photos other people took (when you let them have the opportunity, in a public place), so I'm afraid there's not much you can do about the uploads in the Gallery.