Binoculars?

[Gary Dillard]

Yeah, we were thinking about that; right now the camera is on the other side and we couldn't get a good view but I wouldn't be surprised if it moves by the end of the compeition.

[cmh0114]

I'd say your best bet is to go with the camera. Make sure you place it at such an angle that its view is completely different from what you can see from your post. There's not much use having a camera that sees only what you're seeing, only closer. It's much more useful to have it at a completely different angle so that you can get two separate views and make sure that it's secure before elevating.

[BrendanB]

Have you thought of a neon hook so it is easier to see if it is on the bar? Or a sensor on the hook that can sense when the bar is contacting multiple parts of the hooks?

Could be helpful!?! Good luck!

[EricH]

40 in 2007... According to the Behind the Design book for that year, their arm lit up with LEDs or something similar in red and white when a tube was in grabbing range. How hard could it be to hook up something that would do the same thing, but for the bar?

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by EricH

40 in 2007... According to the Behind the Design book for that year, their arm lit up with LEDs or something similar in red and white when a tube was in grabbing range. How hard could it be to hook up something that would do the same thing, but for the bar?

I was going to quote that, but didn't think anyone would remember it and it is kinda hard to see in the vidoes.

Shouldn't be too hard lights are very effective to signal to drivers, and look really cool!

Check out some of these pictures and you can sort of see the lights on the arm. The light washed the out in the pictures but were very distinct on the field. http://checkmate40.com/gallery/BAE%2.../IMG_6642.html

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

Yeah, we were thinking about that; right now the camera is on the other side and we couldn't get a good view but I wouldn't be surprised if it moves by the end of the competition.

We did move the camera and it worked quite well. Turned out we didn't need it to see if we grabbed the tower but to make sure the bumper was in contact with the tower prior to deploying (since we were grabbing prior to the finale) - the tower blocked our view so binoculars wouldn't have helped anyway.

[sanddrag]

If you need binoculars to determine if your robot is ready to score, I suggest you change your design. This is a fast game, and it will only get faster. No time to be certain of things; the mechanism needs to take care of that for the operator.