[Help] OI Modification

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by zachriggle

What is the legality of opening up the OI and, say, replacing some of the LED's with piezoelectric speakers? I'm thinking a lock-on tone (when the camera has a lock on the target at 5ft., and has aligned the launching mechanism accordingly) would be a lot better than a lock-on LED. Taking your eyes off the robot to keep checking for a lock = bad.

Not even remotely legal. Remember though that the OI has LED outputs available on some of the joystick ports - but you can only draw 10ma of current from them.

Another consideration is that the competition venues are extremely noisy and it might be very difficult to hear a buzzer or sound.

[Mike Schroeder]

definatly illeagal, but also if you screw up and break your OI you void your warrenty...

[EricH]

The definitely legal way to do this: attach a portable computing device (see <R74>, <R77>, and <R78> for applicable rules) and rig it to give the sound. This is assuming you can hear the noise in an arena with loud music and cheering, of course. I'm not sure that modifying the OI in this way is legal, even if it were a good idea (which it isn't).

[zachriggle]

How many portable computing devices are we allowed to bring? (I was thinking along the lines of a laptop for software reprogramming/modification, and my PDA to link to one of the serial ports to display performance data, etc.).

[sciencenerd]

Originally Posted by zachriggle

How many portable computing devices are we allowed to bring? (I was thinking along the lines of a laptop for software reprogramming/modification, and my PDA to link to one of the serial ports to display performance data, etc.).

You may bring as many computers as you want to the competition, for use in the pits. However, that doesn't mean you will be allowed to use them on the field.