IR Legalality in '08 Season

[JaneYoung]

I would make no assumptions regarding the upcoming rules manual or game. I would have fun, play with the 'gift' that has been given and opened, and use some common sense (I know, a rare commodity during the hint season but hey...).

[GaryVoshol]

Under previous incarnations of the rules, you can think about it, you can rough-design it, you can prototype it, you can attempt to program it. You just can't use any of that work on the competition robot. Your thinking after Jan 5 may be very different from today, or it may be very similar. But that doesn't mean you stop thinking now, or you can't use any shop tools.

[Qbranch]

The complexity level on the side of the user (programmer interfacing with the RC) is so simple that I don't think it would matter either way. I mean, lets face it, you teach an IR code, you hit the button, the pin goes high as long as the button is down. Bada bing, bada boom.

What were you planning on prototyping? You could easily emulate the output of the IR reciever with a bank of four switches and avoid any possible guilt/red tape.

-q

[Hieb]

I has seemed to me that it is always in the spirit of FIRST to plan, prototype, "tinker" if you will, during the "off-season." Just remember that if you create a really awesome custom circuit it will probably have to be tweaked and almost definitely have to be rebuilt in order to use it in competition. I doubt FIRST sent this to us with the intention of its use as a piece of decorative desktop art--plan, design, and come up with a million and one creative uses--but wait to build your competition plan until after the 5th.

[Bharat Nain]

They gave it to you so you can become familiar with its workings. That way you cannot complain that FIRST gave us the hardware so late so we could not use it. I am not sure how you are supposed to design something when you have no idea what the game is going to be. Putting down ideas is never against FIRST rules or spirit.