New Bumper rule interpretation - straight from the lead inspector

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Steve W

We had an issue here in Socal where they said we had to wear gloves when moving the robot and the HP had to use them when throwing the tubes on the field. I politely ask (yes I was nice) them to show me the rule. When they were not able to they called back to FIRST and the answer came back that it was a recommendation and not a rule. It seems that there was a little miscommunication that was straightened out. I found that everyone here in SoCal were great to work with if you asked nicely. There will always be misunderstandings and that is OK as long as people are willing to check with the powers that be to get final decisions.

Wow, I never heard such a thing. We'll I'm glad it all worked out. It does seem a bit silly, and in some instances, perhaps more dangerous.

[BrianR]

Originally Posted by galewind

That being said, we did not adhere to the "Blind fastener" system in figure 8-1 in the manual, yet they accepted them at NJ. We attached small pieces of 1" tubular to the bumper that we then bolted into the frame perpendicularly (our machine frame was built out of 1" tubular). This was actually a lot easier to unfasten than the system they suggest in figure 8-1, that we used last year.

You are fortunate. We used a similar system, and were told they passed on Thursday. On Friday, we had to be reinspected after changing our claw, and the inspector ruled our bumpers illegal. That really threw us for a loop, and we were unable to use them on Friday, although we have now made them legal.

[ChuckDickerson]

Originally Posted by Steve W

We had an issue here in Socal where they said we had to wear gloves when moving the robot and the HP had to use them when throwing the tubes on the field. I politely ask (yes I was nice) them to show me the rule. When they were not able to they called back to FIRST and the answer came back that it was a recommendation and not a rule. It seems that there was a little miscommunication that was straightened out. I found that everyone here in SoCal were great to work with if you asked nicely. There will always be misunderstandings and that is OK as long as people are willing to check with the powers that be to get final decisions.

Same thing at Bayou but they didn't require gloves for the human player. We were REQURIED to use gloves when moving the robot on and off the field. It wouldn't have been a big deal except we should have been told in an update or something BEFORE the regional because on Thursday morning teams were surprised and didn't have enough gloves to go around. It made loading on and off the field a bit slower while teams traded gloves around. Thursday night I think a lot of teams were out buying gloves so Friday and Saturday weren't a big deal. I can't image why or what it would have been like if they had required the human players to wear glove while throwing ringers!