Weight Specs for FIRST competition

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

Is there a solution? Are there lighter cables to be had/bought?

It is perfectly fine, electrically, to replace the bulky 37-pin cable to the Digital Sidecar with a lighter and shorter ribbon cable. That's not an insignificant weight savings. However, we won't know until the rules are published whether or not it will be legal to do so.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Dana,
Alan (above) is correct, short, custom, ribbon cables can significantly lighten the load. You may also not need all connections within a 37 pin cable and that would allow a further reduction in the weight. Just by shedding the bulky connector housing and hardware, I would guess you could loose several ounces. Packing all the bulk of the control system (fully decked out) into the robot is going to be a challenge as well. The RF rules for the wireless port will be similar for past radios. Mount the unit so that it is not buried down inside the frame where it's output is shielded by metal components and handle all cabling with care. i.e. no sharp bends, pinch points, etc. and secure the case and all wiring to the robot frame.

[vivek16]

Look, FIRST could make the weight limit 200 pounds and teams would still be overweight. The weight limit is a game challenge, just go with it. Now, there are plenty of strategies for weight reduction if you search about a little bit.

Personally, I don't think the weight limit will change.

just my $.02, Vivek

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

You may also not need all connections within a 37 pin cable...

At least one of those connections is a safety signal, necessary in order to ensure that the outputs can be shut off when the robot is disabled. I strongly suggest that teams not try to shave off fractions of an ounce by leaving out "unnecessary" wires between the NI 9403 and the Digital Sidecar.

[artdutra04]

Dear Santa,

Can you please drop the mandatory bumpers and instead give us 10 extra pounds to work with?

We'll leave out extra cookies on Christmas Eve.

Thanks!


P.S. You might want to rethink giving coal to the kids on the naughty list. With the going price per ton nowadays, they might actually start a very profitable enterprise by all coordinating to sandbag their name onto the naughty list and profiting from all the free coal. You should switch to something non-flammable, like basalt.

[Tom Line]

Nooo! I love the bumpers. This was the first year we didn't have our team-sew-er (whom we affectionately named Betsy Ross) sewing on the bumpers inbetween matches because of other teams sharp frames.