Off-topic for the thread, but still worth mentioning...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday
IFI designed a superb system from a safety standpoint - it's basically impossible to override the safety features through anything you can do on the User processor.
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Yes, they did good keeping programming errors (or evil-intentioned hacks) from causing unsafe operation. On the other hand, it is still possible to have a robot do dangerous things if you violate the
wiring rules. One team was surprised recently to find that their pneumatics worked when the robot was disabled, because they had wired the Spike control signals to RC digital outputs instead of the required relay outputs. A Victor could run a motor without regard to the disable input if it were wired to something other than a PWM output (I've used servos in disabled mode, and I think you have too).
While I'm sure the new system is going to be just as safe as the old one, it's going to be just as possible to bypass the safety features with illegal wiring. Fortunately, that sort of thing is not hard to catch with a visual inspection.