[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

This discussion raised a new question for me, though. We have some of these planetary transmissions laying around and plan on using them. They are currently unmodified. The wording of this rule almost makes it sound like no modifications can be made at all (we were planning on shortening the output shaft). Does anyone else read it this way?

Just as another FRC participant (I'm not a robot inspector or FIRST representative), my understanding is that you can't use parts that were modified previously to this build season. However, you can take an old, unmodified (COTS) 2007 Banebots transmission and use that on the 2011 robot. You can also make any modifications you want to that COTS transmission (such as shortening the output shaft), as long as the modifications are made in accordance with the 2011 build schedule, and use it on a 2011 robot.

However, in 2012 if you want to re-use that specific gearbox (which was modified in 2011), you won't be able to, since the output shaft was modified outside of the 2012 build season.