Shipping The Control board

[Herodotus]

I looked through the rule book and updates, and also looked on the Q&A and I didn't see anything about this, but I figure I'll ask here first. Does anyone know if you have to ship your control board with the robot this year? I did a search, but I figure maybe someone else has found a rule that I missed.

[Laaba 80]

I think we needed to last year, but I'm not sure about this year. If I find anything I'll post it.
Joey

[Gamer930]

It was posted in the Q&A and mentioned in Team Update 1 or 2 also. The answer is: You have to ship your Operator interface and all the controls with the robot. . . You also have to ship your inferred remote if you plan on using one.

[AdamC]

By control board, I'll assume you mean the board you plug into the driving station, and I'm going to have to say you don't need to ship it with your robot. The past few years we've been carrying it with us to our first competition, then stuffing it in the crate and sending it to our next one.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by Gamer930

It was posted in the Q&A and mentioned in Team Update 1 or 2 also. The answer is: You have to ship your Operator interface and all the controls with the robot. . . You also have to ship your inferred remote if you plan on using one.

I double checked but I didn't see anything yet. If I am just missing a rule do you think you could post the rule and what section it is under?

[GaryVoshol]

Found it: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread...ghlight=device

[Herodotus]

Thank you very much for the link. We were just curious as to how much we can really put into the control board, and if we had longer we could do more of what we wanted to, but we'll make do. Thanks again.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by AdamC

By control board, I'll assume you mean the board you plug into the driving station, and I'm going to have to say you don't need to ship it with your robot. The past few years we've been carrying it with us to our first competition, then stuffing it in the crate and sending it to our next one.

If you have been doing this for the past few years, then for the past few years you have been violating the rule that requires you to ship the Operator Interface with your robot. Nothing you can do about it now, but you may want to thoroughly read all the rules for the 2008 season, and then read them again, to make sure you do not find your team in a similar situation this year (with this or any other rule).




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[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by AdamC

By control board, I'll assume you mean the board you plug into the driving station, and I'm going to have to say you don't need to ship it with your robot. The past few years we've been carrying it with us to our first competition, then stuffing it in the crate and sending it to our next one.

I wouldn't advertise this and I wouldn't do it this year as it is illegal and has been since at least last year. Here is the applicable rule from this year's manual (emphasis mine)

Originally Posted by 2008 FRC manual

During the Build Season: During the period between the Kick-off and ROBOT shipment
deadline, teams are to design and fabricate all the COMPONENTS and MECHANISMS
required to complete their ROBOT. They are encouraged to use all the materials, sources
and resources available to them that are in compliance with the rules of the 2008 FIRST
Robotics Competition. When the ROBOT shipment deadline arrives, all work on the ROBOT
must cease and the ROBOT must be placed in a “hands-off” condition. The entire ROBOT
(including all FABRICATED ITEMS intended for use during the competition in alternative
configurations of the ROBOT) and OPERATOR CONSOLE must be crated and out of team
hands by the shipment deadline specified in Section 4.5.1.1

[aksimhal]

The rules say we have to ship the operator interface system. However, I was wondering if we could ship just the components of the system, such as the operator interface, joystick, chicklet + its power supply, etc., but build and design the board on which everything can be mounted on? Then we could just screw everything onto the board?

Is this legal? All that would be changed is the color/design of the board, and not any of the parts on it.

Thanks in advance,
AkSimhal

[Jake M]

OPERATOR CONSOLE – the Innovation First-provided Operator Interface unit and any associated
equipment, control interfaces, display systems, structure, decorations, etc. used by the DRIVERS to
operate the ROBOT.

Considering the console is defined as including structure and decorations, I'd say no, shipping just the electrical components is not sufficient.

[aksimhal]

After re-reading the manual, I kinda thought the same thing, but I was hoping that I was wrong.

Thanks!