I’ve seen a lot of speculation and guessing to what the KOP will or will not include this year. Here is my humble opinion:
From the enviromental regulations that were passed in 2006 in the EU and California, I can guarantee there will be substantial changes. Everything in the KOP will need to be RoHS compliant. There are now 6 hazardous elements that cannot be used in the KOP if FIRST wants to market it to teams in the EU and CA. To find out more about RoHS, do a Web search.
Many older motors will probably fail the litmus test along with many of the controller’s components. Solder needs to be lead free, which means higher soldering temperatures to get proper bonding.
It is pretty astounding task to get one commercial product in compliance, let alone a whole collection as in the KOP. Fortunately, most electronic component mfgs. have already converted thier product lines, but expect some changes to motors, and maybe some material finishes.
Maybe I’m just missing something, but from what I just read, the RoHS directive is just that–a directive, not a law. So, I don’t see why the KOP manufacturers would change based on a directive.
Now, I could be wrong, but that’s what the Wiki article says:
Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) 2002/95/EC [1] was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union. The RoHS directive took effect on July 1, 2006, but is not a law; it is simply a directive.
It does seem that these requirements would not be fun to comply with, but I don’t see anywhere that the kit of parts must comply.
Yeah, I havent read it being a law anywhere. So, in the future maybe FIRST will make everything meet the RoHS requirements. But it might not happen this year.
It would probably typical FIRST to install the RoHS requirements–after all, it presents an engineering challenge worthy enough of a FIRST competition to try and implement over the long haul.
I hope they don’t switch to lead-free assembly on the RC until the processes seem to be a little more robust. The lead-free joints don’t seem to take physical abuse, like the shock of a robot running into something, as well as the lead based processes. As far as I know, all space and military electronics in the US are still using lead based soldering processes for reliability reasons. We are not even talking about converting at my workplace yet.
Don’t expect to be getting the highly favored ADXRS300EB/ADXRS150EB gyros anytime soon. Due to RoHS pretty much everyone is sold out. Digikey is getting 5 a day in starting 4/9 (in time for Atlanta), but other then that you’re more or less out of luck.
I can verify this in relation to military electronics - National Instruments has converted about 90% of our products to be RoHS compliant, but on some product lines we’ve been forced to have dual designs and specifications. This is specifically due to the fact that our military customers demand the leaded products because the RoHS products just aren’t as reliable and dependable. We’ve also had to watch our backsides because our vendors have also been changing out parts we use to be RoHS compliant without telling us. One day an entire batch of a certain very expensive board just started failing the first-pass tests - it took us significant engineering time to determine that the problem was related to a new batch of parts from a vendor containing RoHS-compliant parts (without changing the serial numbers or product codes) and the new RoHS-compliant part had significantly different operating characteristics!
For the forseeable future we’re going to be forced to produce leaded products just for military contracts, and we’re also forced to produce RoHS compliant products because many vendors/OEMs in Europe and the rest of the world refuse to use non-RoHS compliant products. Yuck!
I’m glad to see some great inputs on this subject. If FIRST does make this a requirement, it will be the ultimate challenge for teams, regardless of the game challenge.
Last year, they intruduced bumpers. These will likely be repeated. They also discouraged tipping, crashing, and other hard-contact collisions. Are they anticipating the change? After all, they had this years game designed LAST September. That 'may mean they needed time to ensure the field would be built RoHs compliant.
Dean K. has warned on CD earlier of purchasing parts before Kick-off. If there are teams that as B-A-U design and/or paint frame components in non-RoHs finishes, (many powercoats contain cadmium), they and their sponsors will be disappointed.
Talk about leveling the playing field! If it does come to fruition, I expect a spirited Q&A session afterward.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but it was my impression that the KOP is largely comprised of “surplus” parts. In other words they were constructed sometime in the past and are thus grandfathered in. These guidelines/directive/law apply to new construction, right? So we shouldn’t see an effect this year. Perhaps in the near future.
As far as the ADXRS300EB/ADXRS150EB gyros go, I’ve been ordering them directly from the source…
All the lame acronyms you have to deal with nowadays in Engineering is fun. :yikes:
I think my favorite now is ITAR and not RoHS.
Only certain customers even care about RoHS although we are almost fully compliant as well, unless otherwise specified by a customer.
(I work at a place that makes connectors and cable assemblies, and antennas so I see solder being used on a daily basis - lots of it!)
I’m sure you can relate being a military supplier as well Dan with the whole ITAR situation.
Fun stuff. :eek:
I don’t think surplus parts matter. The EU compliance directive states that there cannot be any non-compliant materials impoted or stiff fines will be levied against those countries that allow it. Laws? I don’t know. There may be some language translations here that mean different things for different countries.
California’s laws are not as pronounced as Europe’s (yet), but are setting the bar in the US. Newark-in-One is already pushing for national legislation.
Remember, your team is building a NEW product, not peddling some surplus material. I can’t fathom how many prebuilt assemblies sit on shelves in the US and Europe that will probably be shredded as electronic fodder because they contain one or many of the 6 banned elements. Last year, they were an asset: if not sold in products soon, scrap. :mad:
:mad: