30 lb withholding question

[hobbes20xxx]

So, regarding the withholding allowance, my team has already withheld ~29lbs from our robot. If we put this assembly on in one of our 2 hour segments, can we fabricate ANOTHER ~20 lbs and add it later?

Ive been around for a little while, but this is the first year our team has wanted to do this...

[Jon Stratis]

There was a team update on 2013-02-08 which addressed this:

R21





The intent of the Robot Access Period is to provide Teams attending 2-Day Events comparable ROBOT access to that which Teams attending 3-Day Events receive during practice day. R21 has been updated to improve parity in the use of FABRICATED ITEMS between Teams attending 2-Day Events and Teams attending 3-Day Events.

Teams may bring a maximum of 30 lbs of FABRICATED ITEMS to each event to be used to repair and/or upgrade their ROBOT.

For Teams attending 2-Day Events, these FABRICATED ITEMS may be used during the Robot Access Period and/or brought to the Event, but the total weight may not exceed 30 lbs. FABRICATED ITEMS constructed during the Robot Access Period and bagged with the ROBOT are exempt from this limit.

The OPERATOR CONSOLE, BUMPERS, and any ROBOT battery assemblies (as described in R05-A) are exempt from this limit.

In other words, if its held outside the bag at any point, it's part of your 30 lbs. If you build it while the bag is open and then put it in the bag before you close it, it's not.

So the answer to your question is no - that 29lbs is part of your 30lb allowance. If you want to spend your unlock period building another 20 lbs and then lock it up, that would be allowed.

[FrankJ]

There is a Q&A that addresses that. But no. You are allowed 30lb total per event. The pre event access periods are considered part of the event. Presumably if you had another event you could have a different 30 lbs withholding.

See updated R21. It is pretty clear.

Post 2 beat me to it.

[hobbes20xxx]

Thanks guys, cant believe i missed that...

[thefro526]

All of the above being said, look at your 29lbs of withheld components and see how much of that would fall into the realm of 'COTS' parts.

Motors, Gearboxes, Wheels, etc that were purchased from a vendor are exempt from the rules when in their COTS form. If it's easy enough, it may be worth removing these components from your assembly prior to the unbagging period. Who knows, if you've got a couple of CIM's and a decent transmission, you could find 10lbs hiding in there.

[ToddF]

Remember that many gearboxes in COTS form are completely disassembled with no lube. We are using RS550 motors with banebots gearboxes. Even though both the motors and the gearboxes are COTS parts, once they are together, separating them to COTS state is nearly impossible. To return the motor to COTS state we'd need to unsolder the leads, clean the solder from the terminals, and remove the pinion. To return the gearboxes to COTS state, they would need to be disassembled and the grease cleaned from the parts in a parts washer, then reassembled to the state they were in when delivered.