Use of Flashlight as Aiming Aid

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by IKE

Just like with headlights, be careful not to blind folks with your flashlight/headlight/...

We had one incident at a previous event where a team with a light temporarily blinded the opposing team while hanging. I was asked to check out the drivers box at the end of the match, and you could not see through the drier station due to the glare. This caused that team to miss their hang which is covered under R08:
R08ROBOT parts shall not be made from hazardous materials, be unsafe, cause an unsafe condition, or interfere with the operation of other ROBOTS.


Examples of items that will violate R08 include (but are not limited to):
A. Shields, curtains, or any other devices or materials designed or used to obstruct or limit the vision of any drivers and/or coaches and/or interfere with their ability to safely control their ROBOTB. Speakers, sirens, air horns, or other audio devices that generate sound at a level sufficient to be a distraction
C. Any devices or decorations specifically intended to jam or interfere with the remote sensing capabilities of another ROBOT, including vision systems, acoustic range finders, sonars, infrared proximity detectors, etc. (e.g. including imagery on your ROBOT that, to a reasonably astute observer, mimics the VISION TARGET)
D. Exposed lasers other than Class I.
E. Flammable gasses
F. Any device intended to produce flames or pyrotechnics

G. Hydraulic fluids or hydraulic components

Teams should provide MSD Sheets for any materials they use that might be considered questionable during ROBOT Inspection.

Emphasis was mine.

And that is the exact reason I would recommend putting a cross-hair on the camera image instead of using a flashlight to aim.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by Woolly

And that is the exact reason I would recommend putting a cross-hair on the camera image instead of using a flashlight to aim.

Unfortunately due to bandwidth restrictions..this could be a problem.
Camera feeds are the first thing that the FTA will shut off if the field goes nuts.

[Woolly]

Originally Posted by John_1102

Unfortunately due to bandwidth restrictions..this could be a problem.
Camera feeds are the first thing that the FTA will shut off if the field goes nuts.

As long as you make sure your alliance partners are running their cameras at sane resolutions and compression rates, you shouldn't run into an issue. Though, as this is the 1st year of bandwidth restrictions, your mileage may vary.
We have our camera running at 320X240 with 33% compression for a bandwidth usage of around 3mbps. The only issue we've had with bandwidth was Thursday at GKC where an alliance partner was running their Kinect camera 1920X1080 or some outrageous resolution.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Woolly

And that is the exact reason I would recommend putting a cross-hair on the camera image instead of using a flashlight to aim.

Just don't use a bright bulb. You don't need to have a bright light to put a unique target on the board to look at and fire at. Look at 180 and 25's aiming mechanism from last year. 1648's aiming mechanism wasn't very bright, but had a unique pattern that was visible from across the field.