Quote:
Originally posted by petek
Looks like FIRST has heard of this problem (From Team Update 16):
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Yeah, they heard it from us. We told them that we found that the reset pin (pin 4) on the RC is very sensitive (we've seen our RC get into a constant reset situation from just having an unterminated serial cable connected to it - it acts like an antenna and picks up interference). I don't know if they knew this or not but after discovering this our team is really curious how many unexplained robot resets over the years were due to this very sensitive pin remaining unterminated on everyone's robot during competition...
Unfortunately they didn't answer our question at all - they just told us the same information that we had sent to them! Oh well, I guess they don't much care about the static buildup on the HDPE. Judging by the responses here, few other teams seem to be having issues with it, so I guess we're just out of luck.
FYI, we were doing more investigation of this issue tonight and found that by taking a big wire and holding it to the metal grate and then passing the other end over the HDPE will generate tons of little sparks.
I predict that there will be people getting nasty shocks while handling robots on the HDPE after the match, especially at the Chicago regional (since that's where we're located and the weather is nice and dry around here). If two robots get in a shoving match on the HDPE and start spinning their rubber wheels on it, watch out!