Lap counter, What port? Mounting Rule 18

[ay2b]

Any port will do. The point of this wire is simply to provide power to the lap indicator.

Yes, the male end does risk shorting, and a female end would not. However, since the RC has male outputs, this enables teams to just run a pwm cable up to the flag holder, rather than forcing them to make a female-female cable.

[ALIBI]

I am not sure where the electrical team came up with it, but we have a PWM with a shielded male end that sort of looks like a female end. The shield provides protection for both shorting and damagining the pins.

[MrForbes]

Those hooded connectors are used in R/C stuff like airplanes and cars.

[Phil Ross]

the open radius needs to be 180 degrees i believe and you need a male PWM connector within 4 inches of the flag mount.

[Trav-O]

so it doesnt matter if connect the pwm to a digital in/out that we have set to "off"

(ie. rcdig_in_01 = 0; could we use digital input 01 as a pwm port to power the lap counter)

[danshaffer]

Originally Posted by Trav-O

so it doesnt matter if connect the pwm to a digital in/out that we have set to "off"

(ie. rcdig_in_01 = 0; could we use digital input 01 as a pwm port to power the lap counter)

yup...
digital pins should have a +5, GND and logic line. All of the +5s are connected, all of the GNDs are connected. You have software control over the signal port only.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Trav-O

so it doesnt matter if connect the pwm to a digital in/out that we have set to "off"

(ie. rcdig_in_01 = 0; could we use digital input 01 as a pwm port to power the lap counter)

sure you could set it to a Digital in/out that is off (although the pins are always powered) but I guess you won't want your points for lapping. I am sure the other alliance would have no problems with you doing this.

[Kingofl337]

Team 40 went to Suffield to test our 08 robot this weekend and the Signal wire is not even connected. The Flag basically has a little clear plastic box with a circuit inside connected to the flag pole. The circuit gives the robot zero feedback, it just leaches 5v power from the RC. I hope FIRST has implemented protection for teams that accidentally hook up the flag power to the 7.2v PWM lines.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

sure you could set it to a Digital in/out that is off (although the pins are always powered) but I guess you won't want your points for lapping. I am sure the other alliance would have no problems with you doing this.

What are you talking about? As you note, the I/O pins are always powered, so it doesn't matter what's going on in software.