Legality of Jaguar closed-loop control modes

[rrossbach]

In an official Q&A answer just posted today, it appears that the Jaguar closed-loop control modes are now not considered competition-legal (see the specific question and answer from the GDC here.)

We're interpreting this to mean that ONLY voltage mode is competition-legal - which is surprising, as we'd previously understood that the essential safety feature of the FMS being able to disable Jaguar-controlled motors was achieved via the special heartbeat sent from FRC_NetworkCommunication, and thus completely protected from any team-written software going awry. Hence the reason for the FRC-specific firmware on the Jags - if the Jag doesn't see the FRC-specific heartbeat, it cuts off the motor output regardless of whether a closed-loop control in the Jag is trying to drive it or not.

Due to the implications of this, we'd like to see if others in the community read this Q&A the same way we have, before we ask GDC for explicit confirmation. Please post your thoughts.

- Ron
Team #2607 controls mentor