Power Rules at competition

[Dave Campbell]

Power use outside of the pits is usually venue specific. At the CINTAS Center where the Queen City event happens next week, for example, teams are not allowed to use the outlets in the seating areas. There will be "charging stations" for teams on the mezzanine outside the arena, we see mostly phones, tablets, and laptops there. Also, there is an assigned scouting area with outlets for equal access for all teams in the upper levels of the arena.

Check your local listings for each event venue policy. Be sure to ask the planning committee, event managers or pit admin, don't just assume that you'll have access to power outlets. We are still visitors at the venues.

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by Dave Campbell

Check your local listings for each event venue policy. Be sure to ask the planning committee, event managers or pit admin, don't just assume that you'll have access to power outlets. We are still visitors at the venues.

Actually we are paying customers, at least for the most part. Having said that, you only get what you pay for. Venues have drastically different rules and power availability. Dave has good advice.

[ayeckley]

In what I believe is a departure from 9 (possibly more) years of past policy, teams at Buckeye this year were prohibited from using the power outlets in the stands. The reason cited was "The Fire Code", although it's not obvious to me why an AJH would prohibit use of fully-NEC-compliant outlets. In previous years many teams used that as a source of power for their scouting efforts.

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by ayeckley

In what I believe is a departure from 9 (possibly more) years of past policy, teams at Buckeye this year were prohibited from using the power outlets in the stands. The reason cited was "The Fire Code", although it's not obvious to me why an AJH would prohibit use of fully-NEC-compliant outlets.....

Common practice. Site safety concerns to prohibit action that you do not want for other reasons. . How ever one valid safety concern could be tripping hazards of extension cords stretched across passageways or congestion in a passageway.

[ayeckley]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

Common practice. Site safety concerns to prohibit action that you do not want for other reasons. . How ever one valid safety concern could be tripping hazards of extension cords stretched across passageways or congestion in a passageway.

At Buckeye there are many ways to mitigate that risk; it's not necessary for cords to cross passageways or cause congestion. Just one of the many things that I (speaking only for myself here) don't understand about this particular regional. I appreciate the planning committee and their efforts and I understand that most of these issues are probably out of their control, but still...

[mfalk]

Originally Posted by ayeckley

... Just one of the many things that I (speaking only for myself here) don't understand about this particular regional. I appreciate the planning committee and their efforts and I understand that most of these issues are probably out of their control, but still...

Not going to disagree with that.

After they kept making that announcement to the pits, some of my team members decided that they want to build their own UPS for the stands using old competition batteries and an inverter. I shot down the 4-cycle portable generator idea...