Team 1072 - underglow!

[Ben Englert]

Let's see. 2005 robot, still in relatively good working order + extra green cold cathodes from 2006 game + too many spare Spike relays...





It had to be done eventually.

[rachal]

Now if only we had some more cathodes and a better cart...

[Veselin Kolev]

Now seriously, why can't FIRST allow underglow?
And hey, on a spike relay, you can have alternating, flashing underglow.

[Ben Englert]

Unfortunately both cathodes are behind a single spike... for now. I'm sure we have another inverter laying around, so the situation can easily be resolved.

And then, yes, we can have alternating blinking underglow.

[Rohith Surampudi]

FIRST does allow under glow, you just need to be able to change the colors in correspondence to your alliance color if you are planning to use red or blue, and green cannot be used b/c of the green target, if you wanted any other color i am sure they would be fine assuming FIRST doesn't change the target color.

[mechanicalbrain]

Originally Posted by Ben Englert

Unfortunately both cathodes are behind a single spike... for now. I'm sure we have another inverter laying around, so the situation can easily be resolved.

And then, yes, we can have alternating blinking underglow.

Err are you doing this with a spike? Spikes are mechanical in nature, I wouldn't recommend clicking them on and off quickly for extended periods of time. I can just see it now five robots turn to you, lock on, and bury your robot under a small hill of balls. I like the cool factor though. I didn't put them on because I figured an inspector would flag it.

Originally Posted by rvssnake

if you wanted any other color i am sure they would be fine assuming FIRST doesn't change the target color.

I'm not so sure about that. I know for example that white light would throw off the camera. They might ask you not to use it just in case.

[Ben Englert]

I'm sure they would be fine with it if it could be made to reflect your alliance color. However, a consideration on 1072 has always been WEIGHT.

[Rickertsen2]

Last year FIRST allowed our green underglow, but we programmed it to turn off during autonomous. This year cameras a used throughout the whole game. I would think any other color should be a problem. You could even have a red a blue set to match your alliance color. That would be alot more obvious than the flags.

In fact, i think it might even be a good requirement for or strong recomendation for next year. During the heat of a match, there is nothing worse than trying to figure out who the enemy alliance is.

the rotating lights - good
LEDS - pretty poor
Flags - much better than LEDs but not as good as the rotating lights
Neons - awesome

---edit----
On second thought an underglow requirement would create too many overrestrivtive rules about how high the underneath of your robot would have to be, neon placement etc. I still think they should be a "recommendation" as the team color LEDs were this year.

[SamC]

I wanted to put some of those on our cart!

[fimmel]

team 885's cart had side cathodes that i installed.

[SamC]

Did the FIRST officials make you guys turn them off during matches while the cart was on the side of the field? i know the robots with cameras will track anything that is green! At LA and Pheonix they were even trying to trak the 'Exit' signs!