Aiming lamps

[sdcantrell56]

As one of the teams who was called out for our flashlight this past weekend I think I can speak on this matter some. We have a flashlight with an aspherical lens that allows focusing the beam tight enough to see the LED die outline on the wall. We have been lazy and had it powered straight off of a power regulator so that it is always on. It is mounted on a stick that is approximately 5' off the floor. Most of the time this wasn't a problem, but if we bumped into the opposing alliances wall, it was positioned pretty perfectly to blind the drivers. We didn't really think about this as we very rarely drive in that area. When it was brought to our attention we quickly added a spike and set it to be on momentarily so that we only turn it on while aiming from the outerworks when the beam is high up on the tower.

I think it is fair to ask teams to put it on a switch and keep it off except when aiming. The only excuse for not doing that is laziness. Trying to enforce rules about intensity is not the way to go.