Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis
R79 did not include any wording indicating "at a time".
The wording of the rule is straight forward and strict - all of the compressed air in use on the robot during a match must come from one and only one compressor. You can't mix sources between on-board and off-board, or charge halfway with one compressor and finish it off with another.
Personally, I think this rule could stand to be expanded a little to allow more variation in how pneumatic systems are charged, but as it's written it's very strict. Thinking about the reasoning behind it, I can see safety being one reason, fair play being another (not every team can afford to buy 2+ compressors just to charge their system), and good design being a third (If you can't charge your system without overheating your compressor, then you may want to re-think the design of the system and the constraints you have to work within, rather than just "throw more compressors at it" - not intended to be directed at you in particular, alternating compressors from one match to the other so they have time to cool down is certainly a valid engineering solution).
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And this is exactly what we did. There was simply two independently controlled compressors mounted on a small platform off board and in case there was a rapid turn around issue in eliminations (or a broken compressor) we were prepared to use the second one as a
backup should the primary one be overheated. Per the reasoning demonstrated in some of these posts, anyone who has a broken compressor and replaces it would be breaking the r79 rule if they used the replacement to add air to the system. Head inspectors at two regionals agreed we were compliant. By the way, as I recall we never had to use the second compressor...and we eventually substituted for a Firestone heavy duty cycle ( also legal) compressor that worked fantastic at Champs.
