[FRC Blog] myRIO Expansion Port - What's the Deal?

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by compwiztobe

FIRST probably won't allow any custom components in the power pathway. Only official KOP relays and speed controllers.

Rather, an active device is one that modifies the signal sent to the Talon or Spike (or Jag or Vic). If the connection to a speed controller is not directly from the roboRIO pins or MXP headers, through passive devices (PCBs, bumpers, etc.), to the speed controller signal port, then the intermediate device has to be approved in advance.

I have long since stop trying to predict what the GDC will do. But speed controllers & relays fit into the blogs definition of an active device. The proposed rule says one active device. NOT one active intermediate active device connected to a second active device. The blog has an approval process for active devices. Part of the approval process seems to be that you will need the resources to make the device commercially available to all the teams. So the approval bar starts off pretty high.