WCA Hardware Team Idea?

[abunickabhi]

Sushant Shah (an active Indian cuber) is thrilled to present a proposal that he believes could greatly benefit our cubing community. As we all know, WCA has been instrumental in fostering the growth and development of competitive cubing worldwide. To further enhance our experience and push the boundaries of innovation, he proposes the establishment of the WCA Hardware Team (WHT) to work alongside the esteemed WCA Software Team (WST).

Purpose and Goals:

The WHT’s primary purpose would be to focus on advancing hardware development related to cubing in several key areas:

1. Timers: Creating next-generation competition timers that are accurate, reliable, and equipped with user-friendly features.
2. Scrambling Bots: Developing intelligent scrambling robots to ensure fair and unbiased scrambles in official events.
3. Puzzle Mechanisms: Exploring new puzzle mechanisms and materials to improve existing puzzles or invent innovative ones.

Why a Hardware Team Is Needed:

While the WCA has seen tremendous growth and success, the focus has primarily been on software-related aspects. A dedicated Hardware Team would complement these efforts, ensuring that hardware advancements keep pace with software developments, leading to more enjoyable and efficient competitions for all participants.

Call for Enthusiastic Members:

To kickstart the WHT initiative, we will need enthusiastic members from our community who have expertise in various areas:

• Hardware Design and Engineering
• Electronics and Circuitry
• Mechanical Engineering
• Industrial Design
• 3D Modelling and Prototyping
• Project Management

If you possess any of these skills and are eager to contribute to the cubing community, I encourage you to step forward and express your interest by adding your valuable knowledge in the replies. Together, we can make a significant impact and drive cubing innovation to new heights!

Collaboration with WST:

It’s very important for the WHT and WST to work hand in hand. By nurturing strong collaboration between hardware and software development, we can create seamless integration between timers and software platforms, ultimately improving the overall cubing experience for everyone involved.

Next Steps:

To move forward with this proposal, we need to gather support from the community and present a solid case to the board or directors. I invite you all to share your thoughts, suggestions, and expressions of interest in this endeavour.

What do you guys think? Feel free to comment below with your feedback and willingness to contribute.

 

[Thom S.]

Timers: Creating next-generation competition timers that are accurate, reliable, and equipped with user-friendly features.

Timers have a Power Button, a Reset Button and two Touch-Sensitive Pads. Adding features will just bloat the experience.

Scrambling Bots: Developing intelligent scrambling robots to ensure fair and unbiased scrambles in official events.

This is an idea I can get behind, but I imagine a standard competition would Bottleneck with only one scrambling bot and buying multiple would up the price, gating the competition experience.

Puzzle Mechanisms: Exploring new puzzle mechanisms and materials to improve existing puzzles or invent innovative ones.

Has your friend thought about this one for 3 minutes? This will only lead to drama and a recession in hardware. We've seen similar situations in many racing series around the world, this is a bad idea.
Imagine this team really finds a breakthrough in Hardware, which Cube manufacturer will they give this information to? Giving it only some is obviously a bad Idea, so the natural thought is to give it to everyone.
So if there's a team advancing cube hardware, why would the companies try themselfs? There is no inherent incentive for outpacing the competition if said competition is told to do the same as you.
Also, I don't know the situation in India, but I guess you don't exactly have injection molding machines laying around? 15 years ago, someone I know bought a 30 year old(at that time) injection molding machine used fron a chinese factory that they discarded for 60k plus shipping. Not sure what a machine that is actually capable of holding needed tolerances would cost.
3d Printing would produce different finishes due to heating and cooling plastic differently than injection molding, so for testing new materials, it's out of the question as well.

 

[Spencer131]

My skills are mostly in software so I'm not sure how helpful I would be here.

That being said, here is my initial reaction to the proposals.

1. Timers - Not sure what value the WCA would provide here. What is wrong with current timers? I would not completely write this off, but I am curious to hear more about this.
2. Scrambling bots - This is my favorite idea of the 3. If it works, it would cut down on errors and human labor. It would be challenging to get it to work on the entire spectrum of puzzles (NxN, pyra, mega, clock, squan)
3. Puzzle mechanisms - My least favorite idea of the 3, but I don't have much insight to add here as it is not my expertise.

I'm also curious, does anyone know what the bottlenecks are in competitions, as in, why do competitions not allow more competitors? Is it generally space, scrambling, demand? If scrambling or volunteer labor is the bottleneck, then that could be a good argument for scrambling bots.

 

[Tabe]

I like the idea of a Hardware Team but this version is a bit misguided. The WCA doesn't need to be involved in developing puzzles or any other hardware. At most, they should be approving hardware or advising those doing the developing.

Such a team could help and guide Timebase AKA Project DST, for example.

 

[An Animating Cuber]

Scrambling Bots: Developing intelligent scrambling robots to ensure fair and unbiased scrambles in official events.

I'm a bit hesitant on this, it would be cool to have these but I would bet any design would only be able to scramble one event (I bet it would be impossible for it to scramble 4x4-7x7), for efficiency multiple would be needed and with the aforementioned point evemore machines would be needed this would cost a lot, unsustainable for a non profit or leading to more expensive registration fees for comps.

 

[Tabe]

I'm a bit hesitant on this, it would be cool to have these but I would bet any design would only be able to scramble one event (I bet it would be impossible for it to scramble 4x4-7x7), for efficiency multiple would be needed and with the aforementioned point evemore machines would be needed this would cost a lot, unsustainable for a non profit or leading to more expensive registration fees for comps.

Good luck building an affordable bot that can do squan, clock, 7x7 and pyra.

 

[Clock_Enthusiast]

Good luck building an affordable bot that can do squan, clock, 7x7 and pyra.

There’s actually this insane clock-solving robot! Not sure if it’s affordable to mass-produce, however.

 

[Cuber Score]

I certainly love the idea of a team specializing in hardware, but realistically speaking it wouldn't be of much use. However, here are a couple suggestions, say this is put into place:

- Work with cube/timer companies to develop affordable timers that can see previous solves. It isn't a common problem, but competitors have DNFed because of timer resets, resetting the timer too early without realizing it, etc.. So, it would be great to have a timer that can look a solve back, and one that doesn't drain wallets.

- Look into cheaper timers. As everyone knows, the WCA only uses timers from SpeedStacks, the same company that makes those black bags people put cubes in, and it just happens to be that even though they are of great quality, those timers are expensive. Also, when you really think about it, does it really cost $30-50 to make a singular timer, or do the leading companies specializing in these timers just capitalize on the needs of the WCA and people looking for a good timer? The same reasoning can be applied to a cube like the GAN 13. It probably costs at most 10 or slightly more dollars to produce a single cube, or maybe even less, and yet the company sells it for 80 because of some fancy packaging and a good reputation. With all that in mind, would it not be a good idea to start working with other cube companies to purchase or produce a decent cube timer that won't cost a ton? I understand that the timers that come from other companies are known to be lower in quality, but if the WCA were to buy lots of them, (I'm not an expert in any of this, so correct me if I'm wrong.)

- I don't really see the need for cube scramblers. Intentional misscrambles don't occur very often, so it isn't a huge problem. Rather, I would actually discourage the use of them, partially because it would take up space (that is, if you were to have more than one timer for each event), would require a new system to be designed to run the scramblers, would ruin the experience of scrambling, and would still require someone to be there to place cubes in and out of the machine.

- There are plenty of cube companies innovating existing puzzles and coming up with new ones, so leave that kind of innovation to them.

Again, I don't hold a lot of expertise in any of this, so feel free to criticize my suggestions.

I hope that helps

 

[Tabe]

There’s actually this insane clock-solving robot! Not sure if it’s affordable to mass-produce, however.

Yeah, but can it also solve squan and 7x7? And pyra? Cuz that was my point. A bot that can do one type of puzzle is a waste.

 

[quanloh]

I dont think making a new timer is necessary. However I think we may need WCA to access and certify other timer, it now accepts speedstacks and speedstacks only. In my country (Malaysia), if something like this happens, we automatically label it with "corruption". Certainly this is not the case here, but I think the price of speedstacks does make holding competition in some countries more difficult. Yes, in some places, even the best budget cube RS3M Series (non-v2) is not exactly cheap/budget.

Also, other than scrambles bot, I do think it's more practical to make and app to check if the scrambles is correct, which should be easier than making a scramble bot to adapt all brands/shape/size.

 

[Tabe]

I dont think making a new timer is necessary. However I think we may need WCA to access and certify other timer, it now accepts speedstacks and speedstacks only. In my country (Malaysia), if something like this happens, we automatically label it with "corruption". Certainly this is not the case here, but I think the price of speedstacks does make holding competition in some countries more difficult. Yes, in some places, even the best budget cube RS3M Series (non-v2) is not exactly cheap/budget.

Cost isn't nearly the barrier people think. The WCA gets a big discount on Speedstacks items AND has a good pool of money available for regions that need financial assistance with buying equipment.

 

[quanloh]

Actually I and just selfishly want to bring down the price of a speedstacks timer.
To me, the only reason we are paying that kind of money for a timer is just because it's the only comp qualified timer.
"You want the closest experience to the comp? Gotta pay for it."