Decorative lighting

[May_Walter]

Hi everyone,
We wanted to know - can we use decorative lighting (e.g blue lightbulb) on our robot? the lightbulb will be inside our robot and nothing will be able to touch it etc.

Thanks in advance,
Artemis #3083

[Foster]

I'd have to guess that the inspector will flag a blue light bulb because of breakage and flying glass.

Want to go for a bank of super bright LED's? Less battery power, lower chance of breakage, no glass.

Lights are allowed providing they don't interfere with other robots (like blinding their vision system)

Remember to check and FOLLOW the rules about wiring.

[Stephen of REX]

These are all rather cool, and 12VDC too!
http://www.crazypc.com/products/case...hting_main.htm

[May_Walter]

So, if we want to use LEDs we have to connect them to the PDB through a spike or somthing or there is a better way?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by May_Walter

So, if we want to use LEDs we have to connect them to the PDB through a spike or somthing or there is a better way?

Connecting it through a spike is the only proper way.

[May_Walter]

And what about the relay moudle or the digital IO on the side car? Not legal or is the voltage to low?

[Nadav Zingerman]

Originally Posted by May_Walter

And what about the relay moudle or the digital IO on the side car? Not legal or is the voltage to low?

Relay module is illegal for things other than pneumatics, sidecar I/O has limited voltage/current. Another legal way other than a Spike is to simply connect it directly to the Power Distribution Board, but this does not allow for software control.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by May_Walter

Hi everyone,
We wanted to know - can we use decorative lighting (e.g blue lightbulb) on our robot? the lightbulb will be inside our robot and nothing will be able to touch it etc.

Thanks in advance,
Artemis #3083

Do you mean like this? BTW, we can produce any color with these RGB LEDs.

[May_Walter]

umm... yeah. kind of.
Can someone pleases direct us to the rule specifying this? and can we do it directly/through the spike?

[EricH]

Rules on decorations:

<R17> Any non-functional decorations included on the ROBOT must not affect the outcome of the MATCH, and must be in the spirit of “Gracious Professionalism.”

<R51> Decorations may draw power from the 12 Vdc electrical system as long as they are powered via a dedicated 20 amp circuit breaker on the Power Distribution Board, and do not affect the operation of other control system components.

<R91> All decorations must be on the ROBOT at the time of final inspection.

I don't see anything saying that they have to be powered through a Spike. I've gone through looking for "decoration" and "spike" and can't find them in the same sentence.

Though it would be a good idea, and probably considered part of the circuit for <R51>.