custom LED lights on FRC robot

[jack488]

For the 2010 FRC competition, we're investigating adding LED lights to the robot to aid with robot driving. Is it legal to hook up custom LED lights to the output of speed controllers (e.g. Victor)?
We're trying to use a relay because the digital I/O outputs on the cRIO don't provide enough current to drive more than 1 LED.

-Jack

[apalrd]

You could hook it up to a Victor, but it would probably be a better idea to use Spikes. Since you probably want them either on or off, connect them to a Spike relay and get two channels of control from one relay port. On the software end, set it to OFF for M+ and M- to be OFF, Forward for M+ to be on and M- to be off, Reverse for M- to be in and M+ to be off, or ON for M+ and M- to be off. Connect the + wires from your LED's (assuming they can handle 12v) to the M+ or M- output on the Spike (you could have a different color on the other one, btw) and the - wire to any black connector on the PD board. We happen to have 3 automotive cold-cathode lights on our robot, driven by two Spike relays off of 20 amp breakers. These fit under "custom circuits" in the rules and must be driven off of either Low voltage supplies on the Analog or DSC or a 20 amp breaker.