Legality of cold cathodes?

[mwong]

Hey, so our team is planning to decorate our robot with a few cold cathodes, but we're not sure about the legality of our method for powering them (or even whether they're legal in the first place).

We have them hooked up to a 12v AC inverter, which is connected to the battery terminals on the power distribution board.

Is this acceptable/are cold cathodes even allowed? We couldn't find anything in the rules regarding decorations aside from the prohibition on anything that interferes with gameplay/other teams' robots, which cathodes don't seem to do.

We're a rookie team, so we're sorry if this question is a bit out of place.

Thanks,
Team 3419

[PhilBot]

You must at least put them on a Spike Module so they can be disabled by the control system.

Phil.

Hey, so our team is planning to decorate our robot with a few cold cathodes, but we're not sure about the legality of our method for powering them (or even whether they're legal in the first place).

We have them hooked up to a 12v AC inverter, which is connected to the battery terminals on the power distribution board.

Is this acceptable/are cold cathodes even allowed? We couldn't find anything in the rules regarding decorations aside from the prohibition on anything that interferes with gameplay/other teams' robots, which cathodes don't seem to do.

We're a rookie team, so we're sorry if this question is a bit out of place.

Thanks,
Team 3419

[Al Skierkiewicz]

mwong,
These are considered to be "non-functional decorations" and are covered under several different rules in section 8. This one answers the question of electrical...
<R51> Decorations may draw power from the 12 Vdc electrical system as long as they are powered via a dedicated 20 amp circuit breaker on the Power Distribution Board, and do not affect the operation of other control system components. You may control them using a Spike and software but that is not a requirement.
That being said, cold cathodes are a bad choice for this year's game. The g forces encountered when coming off the bump will damage cold cathode devices. For this reason, inspectors will be checking to see if the lamp is fully enclosed so that we are not forced to clean up glass fragments on the field when they break. We are also concerned that the inverter you use for power is safe and installed in a manner that poses no threat to your team or other participants.

[Jon Stratis]

A better option might be to use LEDs. Last year we used some blue ones for decoration, and this year we're using red (combined with photo detectors as a functional part of the robot to detect the white stripe on the field). If you go back to the automotive section of Walmart, they have some LED lighting options. We're using the flexible, adhesive backed LED strips available there. They're designed to run off a car's 12V supply, which conveniently makes wiring them to the robot extremely easy. Plus the adhesive works really well, making mounting them a lot easier than anything else. And if that wasn't enough, you can even route them around corners because of the flexibility! Walmart usually has them in both blue and red.

As a bonus, you could run both the blue and red ones through a single Spike relay, and pick which one to use (through a switch on the OI, for example) through code, letting the LED's match your bumpers for that match :)

[apalrd]

[QUOTE=eagle33199;926122As a bonus, you could run both the blue and red ones through a single Spike relay, and pick which one to use (through a switch on the OI, for example) through code, letting the LED's match your bumpers for that match :)[/QUOTE]

Or better, you could have the robot detect alliance based on Get Alliance. It tells you what alliance you are on and what position your controls are at (NOT what position on the field).

[Jon Stratis]

And that's what i get for switching over to be the electrical mentor and having almost nothing to do with programming anymore. Definitely do what apalrd suggests, and ignore my talk about a switch :)