[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

there is something deeply ingrained in our subconscous, when we see a rotating red or blue light it triggers an almost instinctive emotional response:

"DANGER! WARNING! EMERGENCY! POWER! CAUTION! STAY BACK!"

The old rotating lights had that sense of seriousness: this is a powerfull dangerous machine - stay back!"

You just dont get that same emotional punch from a bunch of blinking LEDS, or bicycle flags.

Yeah on a lot of the robots from 3 years ago, with the rotating light they looked extremely cool

The Good Things about the lights
- They worked and you didn't have to worry about the connectors falling off the RC
The Bad Things about the lights
- They did use alot of energy and in a game like this years the battery would be completely dead.
- They had their share of weight and location issues.

The Good Things about the LEDs
- They too also work and last alot longer then a standard light bulb
- They help identify certain issues with the robot (mainly hardware or software) if they are mounted were they can be easliy seen
- They're virtually weightless
The Bad Things about the LEDs
- They too also have location issues
- There is no way to fasten them to the RC whatsoever so that the connectors don't come off if a robot went head on with a wall or another robot.

I don't like the flags all that much makes the robots look alot less serious. Yeah they help with identifying the teams but only if the team remembers to put them on their robot. They can become a flying projectile, they can break extremely easliy if not mounted the right way. There's just to much problems with having a flag on the robot, and it can confuse the driver as to where the robots position is on the field. At least with light covers & LEDs they didn't waive in the wind or obstruct anothers view.

Too Solve the LED wiring issue if you cut the wires for the leds to the size you need it and resolder the wires you'll be okay but always leave like 3 inches on the connector end and take what off what you don't need from the LED end and mate the pieces together simple 1-2-3 =) and it looks better too.

Heres an Idea: If FIRST set some guidlines that the light can be powered off of its own source but must remain in the electrical circuit and it would not be counted towards the weight & that a mandatory LED must be attached to the robot & clearly visible so that IFI can identify problems with your robot before / during / after a match , would you the teams take the light back. Theres just one catch Teams cannot abuse the amount of wire used. I see alot of teams that have nice looking robots and nicely mounted electronics but a ball of yarn underneath everything in hiding. Use only What you need and dispose of the rest, You'll save the little bit of weight that matters the most that way. Wire doesn't way much but will help in getting rid of that couple of ounces rather then swiss cheesing (Drilling) the chassis which should always be a last resort. And it will make everything look so much more neater and accessible.