"Regional Competition Edition" of Fresh From the Forum

[Ken Leung]

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V. Confusing issues at regionals
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About Battery…

The rule about battery limit this year was very unclear. At one point FIRST was limiting teams to only use charger from this years, at some other time, two batteries only. This is finally changed and cleared by FIRST’s e-mail to teams, because without sufficient chargers and batteries, it is very difficult for teams to have running robot every match during finals.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&threadid=2922

From FIRSTOps:
“Battery Chargers - Teams can bring as many chargers as they want to the regionals; however, chargers must not exceed 4 amps. Furthermore, avoid using any rapid charge feature as you may destroy the battery.

Batteries - Teams as now allowed to bring extra batteries as long as they are only the 2001 or 2002 batteries. No other batteries will be allowed.”
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&threadid=2987



About tether/extension…

Another confusing issue is about whether certain go-home devices are legal or not. At some instances when FIRST said they were going to be strict about entanglement issues and devised going under a goal… Then at some other competition time anything that passed inspections are legal as long as you don’t intentionally go under a goal… Some say they saw teams using a tape measurer device without getting DQ’ed even though it was unacceptable from FIRST’s ruling earlier… There was once when a tether was DQ’ed when pushed under a goal, there was another time the team got DQ’ed when they were the one pushing the goal to a tether…

Different competition seems to have different ruling on this issue, so I suggest teams to take their time and talk to FIRST staff at each competition they attend, to get a clear understanding of what is and isn’t allowed. Listen to FIRST announcement about this issue at competition. Mean while, you should prepared to remove the device if asked to.

Couple of rules we know for sure. If actual damages happen to field objects, referee WILL call. If actual damages happen to robots, referee WILL call. So, watch out for what your robot might do on the field, use common sense, and remember one important thing… Gracious Professionalism.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&threadid=2927
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...?threadid=2933
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...?threadid=3027


About shipping parts between competition…

FIRST also wasn’t completely clear about shipping parts from competition to competition. When they say teams have to ship “ALL PARTS” to the next competition, some think they mean all parts of the robot, some other thinks they mean all parts as in everything including spare parts. Again, talk to FIRST staff at the regional, and figure out what’s allowed and what isn’t…
Check out teams’ argument about this @
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&threadid=2895


About Drafting…

There was some confusion as to whether or not top 8 can pick each other as alliance partners. Teams was looking at the rules with different interpretation (like many others ). At the end, FIRST made their final ruling by allowing teams to pick each other at each of the regionals. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...?threadid=2790