Are COTS shop vacs legal? They have motors

[EricH]

Originally Posted by RoboMaster

Yes, but posting on Q&A is a hassle since you can only use one account. We just wanted to quick see what CD said.

One account, and I think they're only really answered once a week at this point in time. If you're going to develop this and you have a Week 4 event, you'd no sooner get a ruling than you'd have to pack up the vacuum.

Also remember: some of the folks on CD are inspectors of various stripes. Those are the folks who'd ultimately have to pass the robot or not pass it at the event. They can contact the GDC if they need to, but they'll usually use the checklist or the Manual first.

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by EricH

One account, and I think they're only really answered once a week at this point in time. If you're going to develop this and you have a Week 4 event, you'd no sooner get a ruling than you'd have to pack up the vacuum.

Also remember: some of the folks on CD are inspectors of various stripes. Those are the folks who'd ultimately have to pass the robot or not pass it at the event. They can contact the GDC if they need to, but they'll usually use the checklist or the Manual first.

In that case, this is the man to talk to
Al Skierkiewicz

[EricH]

Originally Posted by jamie_1930

In that case, this is the man to talk to
Al Skierkiewicz

I happen to be an inspector, though not a lead inspector. Yes, I did pass the certification test.

Al is one of the people I was thinking of when I wrote that post. Dave Brinza (LRI at Los Angeles) was another.

[Mark McLeod]

Here's a related Q&A:
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=13981

It addresses COTS clutches, but the GDC makes it clear that while the COTS part is legal, if it uses any non-Kit motors, those are not-legal.

[EricH]

There are a couple of others, as well.

http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=14498
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=13928 (Note on this one: I think that if you made it work using only KOP motor(s), it would be legal, but because that wasn't specified in the question, it was declared not legal.)

[Jeff Pahl]

I'm not the LRI at your regional, I'll be at the one across the street that weekend...

However, in spite of the fact that "Nothing on CD is official", I can assure you that a shop vac with the original factory motor, will not pass inspection. It has to have the motor replaced with a motor that came in the kit of parts.

If you would like more confirmation, send me a PM and I will get in touch with you.

[Ramiro_T]

COTS are considered illegal since there was never any in the kit. It's like trying to use last year's globe motor this year. I suggest you replace those with a fisher price moto.For our robot, we took these little mounts from an ROV rotor and retro fitted everything to work. Always read the manual.

[RoboMaster]

Ok, so I notified my team and we realized that it wasn't legal. Apparently the people I talked to looked at this thread that I sent them or had realized beforehand it wouldn't work. We are going to see if we can get it to work a different way. Thanks for all the suggestions and discussing this with us.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Thanks for the confidence but Eric is pretty much on for his postings of the rules and Jeff is a right hand man and division LRI. I also will be at your regional helping out. WildStang is currently using two vacuum blowers coupled to FP motors in the exact duty you describe.

[LLogan]

My team gutted a handheld vacuum and replaced the motor inside with a fisher price. It's basically just an enclosed impeller assembly on the inside. The most difficult part was replacing the motor. The impeller was pressed onto the shaft of the old vacuum motor, so we had to cut the shaft of the old motor and press the impeller onto the shaft of our fisher price.

We showed the inspector pictures (that prominently displayed the fisher price's serial numbers) of the process and we were good to go.