Quote:
Originally Posted by topgun
At some point we broke the ethernet female plug on our Classmate. The connectivity works well, just that a male ethernet plug is not solidly held into it. Any movement of the Classmate during use and the connection is lost, meaning we also lose connection to the robot.
Are there any specific rules preventing us from epoxying a pigtail connection into the ethernet port? Is there a warranty for the Classmate? Has this been an issue for other teams?
The thing that kills me is we had the exact same thing happen to last years blue box DS, which was a known issue with that model.
- Tom
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The rule you want is:
Quote:
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<R84> During competition MATCHES, the ARENA Ethernet cable must connect directly to the Ethernet port on the Classmate PC (making a direct connection via a “pigtail” cable is permitted). Only the Classmate PC may connect to the competition cable – no direct connection of team-provided portable computers, PDAs, or alternate devices is permitted.
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(emphasis mine)
So according to the rules, using such a pigtail connector is allowed. As you'll hopefully be using the classmate for many years of competition, i would be cautious about making any bond too permanent - the rules may change in future years without warning, making the pigtail connector no longer legal, and you don't want to deal with a massive headache if that happens.