[Adam Shapiro]

Originally Posted by EricH

Colored bumper patches were suggested.

I'm not so sure about bumper patches. The flags are hard enough to see as a ref when things are moving fast and you're trying to watch all that you can. It would be a good deal harder to have to look down at bumpers. Also, there are a number of teams that decide not to use bumpers, or make their own (though personally I think they are a great thing).

I would agree with a thoroughly tested light that could be used as both a debugging tool and a status indicator, but if we were to go back to small lights they will need to be a bit more robust, and somewhat brighter, than old ones. This year's lights were certainly able to take a hit (I saw a number of them fly off and end up on the field, but none of them ever broke) unlike the previous years' LEDs, or the even older dome lights. I do like IFI's steps towards a useful on-field debugging system though. You can check radio transmissions all you like, but seeing that a light is not on, or not acting properly, (so long as it works in the first place) is a very good indicator that something is not right.