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Originally Posted by wilsonmw04
maybe I read the rules incorrectly, but wasn't there an exemption on battery power when in came to on board computing? Laptops can use a battery. what's the significant difference in that RPI and a laptop?
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Quote:
R34
The only legal source of electrical energy for the ROBOT during the competition, the ROBOT battery, is one of the following 12VDC non-spillable lead acid batteries:
A. MK Battery (P/N: ES17-12) or
B. EnerSys (P/N: NP 18-12)
Exception: Batteries integral to and part of a COTS computing device or self-contained camera are also permitted (e.g. laptop batteries), provided they’re only used to power the COTS computing device and any peripheral COTS USB input devices connected to the COTS computing device and they must be securely fastened to the ROBOT.
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You can probably squeeze a real time clock battery under this.
However the Raspberry Pi does not ship with a battery to power it.
I've sent a question over to FIRST in private to see if they'll let a battery or large capacitor integral to an approved power conditioning device onto an official competition field. Of course getting approval is a process in itself.
Fundamentally I think the answer to why integral batteries to COTS devices are allowed but not custom circuits has to do with the chance that someone builds something strange or unsafe that leaks power into unexpected places with the potential to cause movement when disabled or powered off. Also it goes back to the rules about devices that store energy of any type. Though I grant that custom circuits are not supposed to be connected to actuators of any sort so how exactly the power gets to movement must be left to the imagination (many laptops have fans that spin in them as well but again...they are within the laptop itself).