If we, for some reason, needed to use another team’s tag because we don’t have access to ours, would that be a problem?
For bag-and-tag? In the past, you could always use any serialized number tags, including from previous years or from other sources. Interestingly, the manual doesn’t seem to say too much on the topic (R15 is the closest I see).
Yeah, R15 was the only thing I could find too. I’ve never seen an inspector check a database or anything, but then again, I don’t know if there’s some kind of pattern to the tags that they’re doing a mental check on.
Tbh I’ve never payed that close attention to when they check the tag, but I assume they just check that the tag number matches the one on the lockup form.
I’m an inspector. We only check that the tag matches the paper. There is no team assignment.
Tag numbers are random. I believe last year it was answered that team can use any tamper proof tag, does’t have to be FIRST supplied tag. Generally pit admin will have spare tags to borrow, our team has done this in MI.
Teams can help out as well. 2815’s 2012 robot went to Championship in the bag 1293 brought theirs into for Palmetto.
2815’s bag was in a van that had to run to the hospital for a medical emergency during playoffs (the kid turned out fine), which wasn’t a problem until we won and couldn’t leave the venue unbagged without incurring Al’s wrath in St. Louis. 1293 was done for the season after Palmetto, so once we found out (a good bit after awards) their bag was still in the building we snagged it so we could begin cramming everything into the bus.
You can also get them from either Spare Parts or Inspection Desk at a competition.
423 got about 50 of them from a Walgreens that was planning on throwing them out. Not quite sure what they use them for, but they didn’t need them anymore and somehow our mentor figured this out before they were tossed. Maybe try going around to your local shops and asking them if they use these tags and have some they would donate.
We are hosting them on Stop Build Day as they are not allowed in their school. We have plenty of extra bags and tags for them.
Using tags from the same sheet helped us out last year when a mentor wrote down the wrong tag number. One of the digits in the middle was not what it was supposed to be. Because the rest matched up with all the previous tag numbers on the form the LRI figured it was an honest mistake.
An inspector last year gave us a hard time during load-in for using an old one. We used a red one or something instead of blue or whatever it was last year.
Afterwards, heard him telling the next team over how they were good to go with no issues, unlike the last team that used the wrong ziptie.
In 2015, we won a berth to CMP as a #42-ranked robot at Bayou Regional. We did NOT expect to play after lunch Saturday that year, much less go to CMP, but we wound up meeting a peculiar need of the #2 seed (3937, Team Breakaway of Searcy AR) and their partners (3039 Wildcat from Destrehan LA) – we could get an RC off the step to where they could score it. We had not brought a tag, nor a spare bag, and borrowed them from 1912. (Northshore High, our cross-town football rivals, no less, what GP!) No issue at all at all. Bring spares to loan other teams, or feel free to borrow if you’re surprised.
I am an inspector myself and I don’t understand this reasoning.
The first year of bag and tag they didn’t give out enough… we had to purchase our own… In Districts you often use many more because of the out of bag time that is allowed in lieu of the Thursdays that Regional events get.
There is no official color… use whatever tag you can get your hands on as long as it is serialized. It does NOT have to say robot or anything else other than the serialized number.
Don’t be afraid to ask for an LRI to come over if you ever have an issue with an inspector. You may have a legitimate gripe over something but then again you may not… a third party can help assess what to do.
I am not disparaging your inspector… but some inspectors have strange ideas about what they are supposed to be doing. Primarily this is because they haven’t had much training Their hearts are in the right place.
We had an inspector last year not believe us when we told him the gauge of our wire. He actually got a caliper out to measure it. Of course it was fine. This year we are making a board with all of the wires we use attached to it so it will be easy to observe this type of information. We want to make it easy for the inspector to get the information that they need. WE also pack an inspection camera (snake cam) in case an inspector wants a closer look somewhere that is tough to see.