Meeting electrical requirements at district venues

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Mr V

Well I'm not directly involved with the planning of the new PNW District, but I keep up on it and have traveled to some of the venues so I can share information with the teams.

In the typical HS gym around here there will be one or two 20 amp circuits in the main gym where the competition field will be set up. Teams will not be allowed to plug in anything what so ever in that main gym other than their driver's station lap top while at the driver's station.

For the auxiliary gym or common areas where the pits will be located there is frequently only a single circuit. That will be used for the pit admin and any AV equipment set up in that area.

For pit power we are bringing in generators, something I believe was done at one of the University events last season. The generators will be on the smaller side. This is due to the extreme cost of starting up a district which required purchasing 2 sets of field perimeters, floor protection systems, parts to build cases to transport all the equipment, along with AV equipment and a lot of other items.

So for now the plan is to have 5 or 6 teams share a single 20 amp circuit and they will have to supply a 40'-50' and a 15'-25' cord to plug into the spider boxes. Yes it will be minimal power and teams will not be allowed to use items such as shop vacs, large power tools like table top drill presses and band saws. They will also only be allowed to charge 2 batteries at a time.

The pit power will only be on during the times that pits are open so teams will be asked to take their batteries home or to the hotel and ensure that all batteries, including those for lap tops and cordless tools are fully charged upon arrival.

There is some precedent that makes us believe that it is a workable, if somewhat less than convenient solution. For the past two seasons we have held off season events with a regulation FIRST field. There were 20-24 teams at those events and 6 to 8 teams were able to share a single 20a circuit w/o problems. OK, there was one problem and that was when someone plugged in their Leaf on one of those circuits. The car was unplugged and there were no more problems.

There will be a machine shop trailer at the events and in some cases the school's shop will be open. So teams will have access to things like drill presses and band saws along with a lathe, chop saw ect.

In week one there will be only a single event so if this proves totally unworkable then the plan will be re-evaluated.

Whoa. Not saying this to be mean or cause trouble (and we're not eligable for your event anyway) but those power restrictions would keep a team like ours from signing up for the event if we knew about them. Furthermore, we'd be real upset if we showed up and had those restrictions with no prior notice so that we had no time to make an effective plan.