VEX field trip update

More photos go HERE.

We drove down to Boston University Academy and found that not only did they have a VEX competition, they also had a FLL regional.  In one gym, at the same time.  In short, it was hard to get a handle on what was going on.  Very hard.  For the VEX field, if you were not standing at the edge of the field, you could not see what was going on even if you were 6ft tall.  Did not work well for spectators.  We got to the edge for one match.  To see some experienced competitors going at it look HERE.

We spoke with the kids and although they were busy fixing, altering their robots, they were less clear on the programming language being used.  Ultimately we concluded all teams were using a CORTEX controller and EasyC.  One coach showed us EasyC and it is much more like NXT-G.  No one that we could find was using RobotC or a C based language.

That said, it did not appear to be so advanced that middle school kids could not have fun competing with HS age kids.  Autonomous was less than advanced.  Bots often did not have the maneuverability to get to scoring elements.  Strategy did not seem that overwhelming either.

I think what was lacking yesterday was the celebration of the youth and recognition of both what failed and what worked.  Both are critically important means of learning.  VEX was second fiddle to FLL.

What next?  Not really sure.

EasyC vs. RobotC.

You can look at past posts to dig up info on RobotC.  Based on my research, EasyC may be easier than RobotC for kids who are not yet in love with figuring out a programming language.  No doubt learning RobotC based on THE most common and universal language, C, would be prudent.  But, for the casual kid and mentor, EasyC looks a little less intimidating.

At issue is the "portability" of the language you select accross all the possible controllers.  For a FLL team, you already have LEGO NXT controllers.  For a new VEX team, older PIC controllers are sufficient to get one's feet wet and are readily available with minimal to no investment. But, you would have to buy EasyC twice if you started with PIC.  The last competition said it was PIC ready but when I spoke to a knowledgeable coach, he said he doubted they would be able to handle PIC if we had show up with PIC bot.  In a perfect world you would just start with CORTEX and reduce potential down stream hassles.  An expensive way to start in the event the team does not find it of interest.

		Langauge Options
Controller(s)	NXT-G	RobotC	EasyC
NXT	Y	Yes $74	Not available
VEX PIC	N	Yes $74 for both PIC/CORTEX	Yes $75 PIC version V.2
VEX CORTEX	N	Yes $74 for both PIC/CORTEX	Yes $75 CORTEX Version V.4