[EricH]

Originally Posted by Ed Law

Thanks for the replies. I am getting conflicting opinions on this subject. I am sure this question was asked before. What was FIRST's official position on this? If veterans team can reuse a 2-speed transmission assembled together in previous years which was not modified, why can't a rookie team reuse a 2-speed transmission assembled together that was put into a prototype to learn how things work? The only difference is the time saved in assembly which is not much. But I can not afford to make them not legal and have to buy new ones. Does it mean if I disassemble them and put them back together after Jan 3 then it is okay? Very strange rules.

Ed

The veterans did it during the build season (presumably) and it's a COTS item, which could under the 2008 rules be used if in unmodified condition, despite being used before.

I did a bit of digging through the 2008 and 2007 Q&As (as these particular rules haven't changed a whole lot since then). In 2007, the Q&A ruling was that COTS mechanisms are permitted, providing that they were unmodified. (Source: http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles...007-Export.pdf, page73, rulings on what was then <R17>)

You're right, the rules in that section are strange. The timeline rules are perhaps the strangest, but the most necessary.