[EricH]

Originally Posted by techhelpbb

Best way to be absolutely sure about the legality of something with FIRST FRC is to ask in the official FIRST forum. I would ask early as this is a pretty straight forward question.

Generally, from what I have seen, people manage to get batteries that are not FRC legal into carts and pits as long as someone does not catch it. That is not exactly the most reliable tactic in the end and I prefer not to encourage people to find ways to stash things that really could be dangerous if done improperly or with people unaware.

You are implying that having a non-FRC-legal battery anywhere in the venue is illegal*. This is simply not stated anywhere in the rules. Because it is not stated as illegal, it should be considered to be legal** until an official source--including Q&A--says otherwise. Which is why two people have asked for a source for the illegality ruling at one event.

The above does NOT apply to batteries used to power the ROBOT, because that is specifically covered by the Robot Rules as illegal.


*Besides the obvious laptop/cell phone/camera/other integrated batteries that aren't in a prohibited device, of course.
**Unsafe should be considered to be illegal, per the rules. Also note that this approach follows the same approach as the rest of the rules--if an item/action is not prohibited, it is permitted.