Pneumatic Restrictions & Improvments

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Hey Al-
I don't have an issue with the rule, and the intent of the rule- as has been outlined by yourself/Q&A. However, the phrasing of this rule was taken to extreme limits at the Groton District Event this year. We were forced to remove our 1 gallon air compressor used for our pneumatic tools from the pit citing this exact rule.

I took this ruling to mean we were basically not to be trusted for even having a shop compressor in our pit. The rule does not say you can't have spares, it doesn't say you can't have a shop compressor in your pit- it says you can only fill your robot with one compressor.

Just wanted to provide that feedback, as this particular interpretation of the rules is not only completely wrong, it is insulting to a team as you are essentially calling them untrustworthy.

-Brando

Brandon - In general we don't like shop compressors in the pits at all, for a couple of reasons. First, the high-current they require at start up can often overwhelm the pit power supply. Doing so can trip breakers and shut down power to a group of pits, not just your own, in many venues (especially when running in high schools for district events). Second, when you have a shop compressor in a pit, there's no way for us, as inspectors, to know 100% that you aren't using it to charge your robot.

What pneumatic tools do you use that can't easily be swapped out for a motor-driven equivalent? In my experience working on these robots, there's nothing we can do with a pneumatic tool that we can't do with a motor-based tool.