As with many things in the kit, the flashing LED boards were a compromise. After all the problems with the flashing lights in prior years, there was a desperate desire to get away from them and use something new.
The folks working on the kit of parts at FIRST found the LEDs used in
TireFlys and found them to be a good, bright alternative. They tested the LEDs for visibity in the Verizon Arena in Manchester, to make sure they could be seen from the 48th row in the nosebleed sections. Then they had to come up with a design that could be reproduced 4500-5000 times (4 beacons per robot, ~1000 teams, plus spares) for less than $4 each ($16 per robot, fully assembled). They found a vendor to supply the LEDs, and a site for assembly of the boards.
Then reality hit. The LED vendor didn't deliver. The assembly company revised their estimates and said it would take them until March 2004 to build the boards. Time to redesign, with only a few weeks left. InnovationFIRST stepped in and volunteered to take care of the assembly (everyone should go and give Tony Norman and all the IFI employees a real big hug
). The resulting system wasn't quite what was originally spec'd out, but it was on time, it was within the price point (the cost of the kit didn't go up!), and it worked!
Yes, it can be improved, and it will be. But for the first year deployment of a new solution, I think what we have is pretty good. Before everyone runs around yelling about "they need to do it this way..." or "I could have done it better like this..." make sure that you understand all the constraints that factored into the current version. Make sure you can make thousands of them, for a very low price, with guaranteed delivery. And they also have to include all the little functions that are there that you have not seen utilitzed yet...
-dave
p.s.
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We wanted (FIRST said no) to run red and blue EL wires up our arms and around our chassis, and connect to the LED's, so that when we were red, the red wires would light up, and vice versa. Not only would it be easier to tell, it would look cool.
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Who told you that? EL lighting has been used by several teams in previous years, and it has always fallen under the legal heading of "non-functional decorations" I cannot find anything in the rules that prevent it from being used this year. Team 116 is using it in their OI this year.