HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

does anyone know whether or not we can have our own batteries and/or power outlets at the competition to run the operator interface? please reply
asap.... :confused:
team 1317

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

what do you mean exactly?

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

The power for the operator interface comes from the competition port. There will be NO ac power outlets available at the operator stations.

Tim Tedrow

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

i mean can you have backup batteries to give power to the control panel that the drivers will be using, to power vf displays and such? i already figured out that you can't have ac plugins, but im not sure if we can supply our own power. if not, what gauge wire can i have from the competition port?
:confused: rocko

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

You will have no direct wires coming out of the comp port in the drivers station. There will be a cable that will plug into your OI while in the match in the drivers station. While not in a match for testing, you must use a tether from the OI to the RC to power your bot. And to answer your question on if you can use extra power to run displays in the drivers booth, that is not legal to do.

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

I haven't scoured this year's rules, but in the past I believe the rule was that you could use batteries for powering things like LEDs or laptops/Palms connected to the dashboard. However, don't even think about trying to power the actual OI with your own battery. The OI gets its power through the competition port. When you go up to the driver's station for a match, there's a cable there that you have to plug into your competition port (meaning you can't have anything of your own plugged into it). That cable configures your OI for the correct channel, and automatically controls the enabling/disabling/autonomous activation of your robot.

Also I assume by "vf display" that you mean vacuum-flourescent? You may want to rethink the idea of using that type of device with your robot, since it generates a lot of RF noise and could potentially interfere with your robot communications. If you do decide to use it, try to locate your radio modem as far away from the display as possible, and keep in mind that if you experience any radio modem problems that the first thing Innovation First will probably tell you to do is to get rid of the display.

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

It is legal to have palm pilots and laptops connected to the dashboard port and they have batteries. This question should be posted to FIRST with a little more detail about thing you're going to use.

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

Everyone is assuming that you are talking about at the drivers station? Is this what you mean or do you mean power in the pits?

If this is the case, you do have power in the pits for obvious reasons, but you MUST tether your robot in the pits to do testing.

Re: HELP!!! Referring to power at comp!
 

MY interpretation of the rules would be that you

CAN:
use extra batteries
power off the LED, outputs (although they probably can't source enough for a VFD)
CAN'T:
Draw power directly off the competion port