[CJO]

For those who don't remember, the old rules allowed building functionally equivalent replacement parts to be built in the 4 days after each regional - the big debate then was "what is functionally equivalent?" One year we built a new lift out of a different material, and took it straight to the judges to see if we could use it; if they said no, we were prepared to accept that even though it would have had a major impact to us. I think everyone should weigh all the options available to them for building spares (it's too late to do anything about shipping them at this point), and be willing to accept the decision of the judges at each competition if confronted.

Here's what I want to know, what about things that get damaged during a regional. I realize that we are supposed to design hardy robots, but there are somethings which occur which are un-avoidable (i.e. another robot breaking your lexan covering and ripping your control panal to shreads).

Say for instance, you have a hook which gets bent during the matches. dlavery would tend to say that you need to build a new one at the next regional, not in between, even if the second hook was identical (same design, same material, same construction method). Fair enough. So our team has figured out a way to make a new hook, which can be built in the pit, without a mill. However, this new hook (which we will make on thursday) would not be the same as the origional hook, because we will not have a mill. So, either we build a replacement at the regional which is different, or we build an identical hook in the intervening time. Finally, as the hook is a solid piece of metal, could we bring a new one in anyway.

Another example of what was mentioned earlier about rules which are "understood" by older teams, but are not necesserily widely known, was the time-out in the elimination matches. I was completely unawares of the fact that each alliance got a time out, and even older teams seemed unsure of the exact peramaters. Our alliance mates, Chief Delphi (47) thought that you could only use the time-out in the finals, while Cheesy Poofs called their's in the quarter-finals. I do appreciate FIRST trying to simplify the rules, nobody likes dictionary sized rule books. But there are some "legacy" rules which really ought to be included for newer teams.

On that note, if anyone can think of any other un-spoken rules which it might behove a team to know could you please post them.

~Christopher