It's About Time C

[knightmoves]

Often you find fairly lax enforcement of these kinds of rules at invitationals ('cause they're run by people who haven't thought about how to run the event much), and then teams go to regionals and/or state, and meet the rules being enforced properly for the first time. So I'd be really careful trying to rely on "well, it was OK before" as an argument.

[Robo5k]

My team can not figure out how to create something which signals when the end of the time is over. I just got put into the event last second and probably failed the written part miserably (were online) and the building part is in 2-3 weeks, I cannot think of any way to signal, and am wondering if somebody can tell me any commonly used ideas or lead me in the right direction.

[Celerity]

My team can not figure out how to create something which signals when the end of the time is over. I just got put into the event last second and probably failed the written part miserably (were online) and the building part is in 2-3 weeks, I cannot think of any way to signal, and am wondering if somebody can tell me any commonly used ideas or lead me in the right direction.

Sorry, timings a little off. But for anyone in the future...

One option could be to punch a hole in something like a 2L soda bottle and let water drip out of it. And once the water hits a certain point and/or line, that would be your signal. However like knightmoves said, water crossing a line could be a little iffy. At Solon they allowed it for us, but did make clear that it may not be distinct enough.

My partner and I ended up using a triple beam balance (something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_beam_balance) and doing a similar process to the option above.

In my experience, a score in the 43/44 range just relies on getting a ton of data.

[Godspeed]

My team can not figure out how to create something which signals when the end of the time is over. I just got put into the event last second and probably failed the written part miserably (were online) and the building part is in 2-3 weeks, I cannot think of any way to signal, and am wondering if somebody can tell me any commonly used ideas or lead me in the right direction.

Sorry, timings a little off. But for anyone in the future...

One option could be to punch a hole in something like a 2L soda bottle and let water drip out of it. And once the water hits a certain point and/or line, that would be your signal. However like knightmoves said, water crossing a line could be a little iffy. At Solon they allowed it for us, but did make clear that it may not be distinct enough.

My partner and I ended up using a triple beam balance (something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_beam_balance) and doing a similar process to the option above.

In my experience, a score in the 43/44 range just relies on getting a ton of data.

By the way, you are allowed to use a digital scale as long as you remove it prior to your time trials (from my and SoCal's interpretation of the rules).

[knightmoves]

My team can not figure out how to create something which signals when the end of the time is over. I just got put into the event last second and probably failed the written part miserably (were online) and the building part is in 2-3 weeks, I cannot think of any way to signal, and am wondering if somebody can tell me any commonly used ideas or lead me in the right direction.

Sorry, timings a little off. But for anyone in the future...

One option could be to punch a hole in something like a 2L soda bottle and let water drip out of it. And once the water hits a certain point and/or line, that would be your signal. However like knightmoves said, water crossing a line could be a little iffy. At Solon they allowed it for us, but did make clear that it may not be distinct enough.

My partner and I ended up using a triple beam balance (something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_beam_balance) and doing a similar process to the option above.

In my experience, a score in the 43/44 range just relies on getting a ton of data.

By the way, you are allowed to use a digital scale as long as you remove it prior to your time trials (from my and SoCal's interpretation of the rules).

Celerity used a triple beam balance as part of his device. It's a way to get some kind of mechanical signal when the weight of a bucket exceeds some set level, in a fairly clear and sensitive way. He would not be able to use a digital scale as part of his device.

[Godspeed]

Sorry, timings a little off. But for anyone in the future...

One option could be to punch a hole in something like a 2L soda bottle and let water drip out of it. And once the water hits a certain point and/or line, that would be your signal. However like knightmoves said, water crossing a line could be a little iffy. At Solon they allowed it for us, but did make clear that it may not be distinct enough.

My partner and I ended up using a triple beam balance (something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_beam_balance) and doing a similar process to the option above.

In my experience, a score in the 43/44 range just relies on getting a ton of data.

By the way, you are allowed to use a digital scale as long as you remove it prior to your time trials (from my and SoCal's interpretation of the rules).

Celerity used a triple beam balance as part of his device. It's a way to get some kind of mechanical signal when the weight of a bucket exceeds some set level, in a fairly clear and sensitive way. He would not be able to use a digital scale as part of his device.

Ohhh ok, I didn't realize that it was actually part of his device, sorry.