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First off, a note on the tower sensor. I have been told by someone who was at the FIRST NH Kickoff and went down to look on the field, is that the "sensor" is 3 limit switches, connected in series, positioned equally around the circumference of the target. What does this mean? It means your bot needs to be applying pressure to most of the plate so that all 3 switches trigger. Since it's in series, if one doesn't trigger, the light doesn't trigger/you don't get endgame points.
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Interesting... Was your contact at kick-off certain that the limit switches were wired in a normally open setting? Maybe they are normally closed so any one of them will act as a trigger? If not, then that means that minibots must account for any off-center force vector, or (more likely) at least provide enough margin through trial and error.
BTW, the field drawings show that the sensor assembly does not include any springs, so it looks like its mostly the weight of the 1/4 inch polycarb plate that has to be overcome to get to the limit switches. So the 2-4 newtons number is probably just due to that. But 2.2.5 also says the force depends on where you contact the plate. So somebody (not me) might be able to do enough calculations to determine whether all three switches have to be triggered...
Note also, there are (less forgiving) bolts/nuts/fender washers under the bottom sensor plate centered on a 7 inch square that minibots will probably want to avoid hitting directly.