One of Those Days

So, you ever have one of those days? You know the ones. I get them all the time.

Woke up this morning, saw that it was 07:30, figured that I could sleep another couple hours (had a group meeting at 10:00), set my alarm as such, and went back to sleep. Woke up to the alarm at 09:00, and decided to get up. I blinked, and the clock said 10:40. Fucking A, eh? Turned on my computer and sent an apology to the group I had just slept through, an email to FRE because I just remembered that I had a physics exam at 18:00, an email to PSG for same reason, and headed out the door to my next group meeting.

Things went pretty well after that, until I remembered that I had left my calculator (and bag, but that's OK) at the ATDC last night. My TI-89. The one that I frequently need to do basic arithmetic, not to mention kinematic equations with calculus. Bugger all. After the group meeting, I went to my room, resurfaced my skis, and skied up to the ATDC. I got my calculator, and skied back down. Note: don't try using cross-country skis to ski downhill over ice. It doesn't end well for the rider of said skis...

Got back to the room, fiddled about online for a few hours, and went to my exam. It was 30 questions worth four points each, with 90 minutes allotted for the whole. I went through, carefully studied each question in full, even derived an equation for one of the problems (I kinda forgot the equation sheet attached to the back of the test booklet for a few minutes), and finished the exam. I looked at my watch, and saw that it was only 18:30. I checked everything over, and turned the exam in, and walked (well, limped a bit, see above note re: ice) up to the ATDC for the 857 build meeting. I got there, and the electronics team was humming along with the list of things I gave them to do (I had planned on using 90 minutes, plus a 15-to-30-minute walk up, not knowing the calibre of PH2100 exams). They finished quickly, then went and extorted a decision out of the lift team as to how many motors they needed on their winch. Of course, it turned out that they needed a second one, so we went in search of another Victor (speed controller unit). Found one on an old robot up on a shelf, so I tied myself to the shelf and went to work on it for an hour to get the blasted thing off. We mounted the Victor on the board, connected it to everything, and all was well. The electronics team was finished with everything we could possibly do until the lift was reassembled.

I was in great spirits! It was one of those really good days right about that point. The meeting was over, the kids were leaving, and things were finally done. Chris (one of the programming kids) tells me to look at the 2008-1-29 Team Update because there's a problem with the gear-tooth sensors. I figure, "OK, no problem. Errata sheets are fine, I can fix it no problem." I open up the PDF and scroll down to the third page of four, where "Section 10--The Kit Of Parts" is. There, the following "errata" is posted:

Gear Tooth Sensor Boards We would like to thank the teams that brought the Gear Tooth Sensor board issue to our attention. We are grateful to the industrious teams that discovered the misplaced resistors and tested the solution! You, the FIRST community, continue to impress and humble us. $SUPPLIER the donor and manufacturer of the boards has graciously offered to repair any boards that have this issue. To have your board repaired, please send the boards to $ADDRESS. For questions, you can contact $SUPPLIER_CONTACT_GUY directly at $PHONE_NUMBER. The $SUPPLIER crew will repair the board and return it to you promptly. If you have the resources, skill sets, and are comfortable making the repair yourself, you're more than welcome to do so. Thank you again for your gracious response to this challenge!

(information removed because I don't feel like acknowledging them right now, you can look up the info on the PDF yourself)

So...I am welcome to fix the issue, but I need to find the error, if my boards have it, and fix it, if I can. Or, I can send these guys my boards, six days before the robot ships, and before the code monkeys have tested code to work with said sensor boards. So much for my happy feelings. Katie, bless her soul, is going to call $SUPPLIER_CONTACT_GUY tomorrow to ask whether all boards are borked, and what exactly the problem is.

/me pounds head on table and cries.

OK, done with the sob story. I should have expected issues, of course, given FIRST's talent for fux0ring things late in the build season. Or, rather, finding out about fux0red things late in the build season. It all works out to the same thing...oh, well.