Question About Withholding Allowance
 

Does the withholding allowance let us keep our control board? If it helps, our control board includes the roboRIO, four Talons, a relay, a voltage regulator module, a power distribution board and a pneumatic control module.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

Yes, you can keep your control board, just this board with all the components and any other items you withhold must be under the 30 pound total.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

Control system and KOP components are considered COTS and do not count toward the 30 pound total

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

Unless they're on the board. Once you've attached them to the board, the whole thing is a Fabricated Item. To have the control system/KOP NOT be COTS, you have to return it to its COTS state--by removing everything from the board.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

and unwiring everything.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

This is the main reason we invested (last year) in a second cRIO and (this year) in a second RoboRIO and control components - we held a special piggybackr campaign to buy the Robo.

Our first two years, we just pulled the 'RIO from the control board before bagging and built a mockup control board so we could continue coding and testing between bag and competition. Then, we just had to re-mount and rewire the one COTS component.

OBTW, we didn't think of this until more recently, but servos would be great for the mockup board - the direction that they point indicates the speed you're trying to drive them as motor controllers.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

After reading through this, I am still unsure what the ruling is. Is it legal to detach wiring, remove the RoboRIO and keep it out of our robot bag? Then put it back in at the competition, not counting towards our withholding? Would also like to avoid having to purchase a second Rio just yet, but would like to have a practice bot with the most up to date controls.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

If the RoboRio is not attached to anything, and has not been modified, then it is COTS and will not count against WITHHOLDING ALLOWANCE.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

Yes. If you remove one or more individual COTS parts before bagging, they do not count against the withholding allowance. Only Fabricated Items (including the weight of COTS items incorporated into the items) count against the allowance.

If you build a new control board to test with, and remove COTS items from it to put on the robot, they don't count against withholding. If you swap out the whole board, the whole board with attached COTS items counts against withholding.

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

Isn't the robot the things attached to the RoboRio, or is the robot whatever you want?

Re: Question About Withholding Allowance
 

The glossary in the game manual defines a robot as:

A "robot" is not defined by what is or is not connected to the control system.