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difficult answers...
FIRST has made it quite difficult to interpret this year (imho).
As best as I can figure it, the following covers 99% of the rules concerning the light:
You have to have the light mounted bottom side down to meet the "upright" requirement and not just in the starting position. Essentially, except when going under the bar, the light must be bottom side down. If you fall over like Beatty did last year you have to have your light keep its bottom side down both before and after the fall (perhaps by mounting it on a swivelling base for example).
You have to have at least 4 inches of the light "exposed." "Visible" is not good enough. For example, it cannot be behind clear sheet of polycarb. Exposed means exposed -- why? Because that is what FIRST wants, that's why!
You can (for brief periods of time) retract or dip the light to get under the bar.
You may not have the bar hit the light to retract or deflect it (for example, you cannot mount it on a spring that just gets deflected by the bar as the robot runs the light into the bar).
You can have the bar activate a switch that would tell the controller to retract the rotating light but you cannot have the bar itself retract the light.
In my mind it is still not clear if you can have a bar hit a lever that retracts the light, but I think not as it would run afoul of the rules against reacting against forbidden field surfaces. But... ...I could be wrong on this point.
So...
...have I got it about right?
Comments welcome.
Joe J.
P.S. A summary from FIRST would be very helpful -- if anyone from FIRST is out there reading, please take note.
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