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Unread 30-07-2015, 10:23
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Mechanical Marauders - Alumnus
AKA: Paul Mangels
FRC #0271 (Mechanical Marauders)
Team Role: Mechanical
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Rookie Year: 2011
Location: Bay Shore, NY
Posts: 404
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Re: General Motor Rules

Full disclaimer: I am not a robot inspector, nor have I ever been, but I have been at all of my teams robot inspections from 2011-2014, and I feel that that qualifies me to say what I'm about to say, which has already been echoed in this thread.

Why are we going to make the inspectors' jobs more difficult? Any team that cannot accomplish what they want to build with the motors currently available has bigger issues that the available motor selections. Any team that is going to gain a slight performance boost from some obscure motor somewhere probably already soars above the competition with regard to whatever they are trying to improve.

So, back to the big question, why make inspections harder? Every interaction I've had with an inspector has led me to the conclusion that they are there to make sure that our robot gets on the field and doesn't explode/hurt people/break other robots with fire/anger insurance agents, and THEY ARE THERE FIRST AND FOREMOST TO HELP. Opening up the motor rules would require teams to bring in documentation and prove that their motors are indeed what they claim they are (with data sheets, etc, that teams will inevitably forget to provide). On top of that is the problem that motor spec sheets don't always have accurate data in the first place (BaneBot 550), so now inspectors have to judge whether those high school kids with the wire birdsnest plugging in random motors they found on eBay that draw 100+ amps of current are safe and within the confines of the rules. Rules, I might add, that solved a problem that didn't exist in the first place.

So, in short, opening up motor the allotment solves a problem that doesn't exist and creates unnecessary headaches for volunteers that already have a lot of stuff on their plate, all while lengthening the inspection process, and in the process slowing down the teams that followed rules to the T and now want to get on the field on practice day.

My vote would be, go back to the motor rules we had in 2011. There were enough motors there to do whatever we wanted, not enough for a drivetrain arms race, and just enough limitation that teams were forced to make tradeoffs on design. For posterity, those rules were: 4 CIM's (we could say now and/or MiniCIM's), 4 Banebots, FisherPrice Motors from the KOP, window motors from the KOP, and maybe now a couple AndyMark or BAG motors
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