**Wireless Security, Karthik at TEDx and a Pop Safety Quiz!
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**Blog Date: **Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 10:26
Wireless Security
In the wake of the events on the Einstein field in 2012, FRC has been working to improve the security of our wireless system. No wireless system is perfectly secure, and within FRC there is a definite need to keep the system we use practical as well as secure. However, we know any system can be improved, and with over 2,500 FRC teams competing at more than 70 events in 2013, we expect you will run into situations and come up with ideas that were not included or considered as part of our testing.
We’ve set up a website for teams to submit identified security vulnerabilities or suggestions for security improvements related to our on-field systems. You can find it here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/wireless-security-web-form. These suggestions will go straight to the FRC Engineering team. We won’t respond to all submissions but they will all be read and considered. You’re free to remain anonymous in your submission, if you wish. If you are open to contact from the FRC Engineering staff, please provide your contact information.
Thanks for helping FRC improve our systems!
Karthik at TEDx
Check out this great presentation at TEDxUTSC by Karthik Kanagasabapathy, mentor for the 2012 Chairman’s Award winning Team 1114, Simbotics. My favorite quote: “Life is too short to spend 40 hours a week doing something you are not enthusiastic about."
How many power strips can you safely ‘daisy chain’ by plugging one into another? The answer is…zero. Don’t daisy chain power strips, at your build site, at home, or at events. The Safety Advisors at our events are very friendly, but when they see this, they will politely ask you to reconfigure.
100% agreed. I was interning in FIRST’s Marketing department this past summer (while the investigation was going on) and while I wasn’t too involved with FRC projects, it was clear to everyone around us that Frank was taking up the mantle of Acting Director incredibly well. He even reached out to me as an FRC mentor/participant/die-hard and asked me what I thought teams would want to see come out of this situation. Listening and taking feedback was a big one, and it’s clear that’s become more important to FRC lately.
Frank is just plain awesome. I hope ‘acting’ gets removed from his title if it hasn’t been already - he’s doing some great things with FRC, along with the whole team there. They’re good people.
On the power strips, you’ve got to be kidding me. It’s not about how many you hook together. It’s about the load being put on them. So long as the load is well below spec, I see no issue in daisy-chaining power strips. If they are truly going to stop us from daisy-chaining power strips, they better provide us with at least 4 outlets per pit. Either that, or someone needs to point me to a 20-outlet power strip/squid. Or, can we use a triple-tap outlet adapter in each outlet in a power strip? This is silly.
What’s more of an issue is half a dozen teams each with half a dozen laptops getting power for scouting all from one outlet in the stands, which is the same outlet powering the field camera. Why doesn’t FIRST contract to have their cabling guys run power to the stands?
Yes, this made me laugh too. The number of power strips is unimportant. Only the load matters. Yet more misguided efforts at “safety” based on no facts.
We’ve set up a website for teams to submit identified security vulnerabilities or suggestions for security improvements related to our on-field systems. You can find it here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...urity-web-form. These suggestions will go straight to the FRC Engineering team.
And thus, the greatest thing in FIRST I hope no one ever has to use comes to life.
Daisy chaining is plenty safe, we (my school and work) use it all the time.
The safest way is that the first power strip in the chain has a breaker that is rated at or lower then any other power strip’s max current. In case for some reason the circuit can provide more then 15amps/the rating of the strip.
While you may be correct, Fire Marshall Bill says no daisy-chaining. We’ve been dinged in our workshop for that in the past. So, right or wrong, what he says, goes.
Read the OSHA regulations and National Electrical Code for more information. This is all covered and pretty widely accepted as safe practice. Same goes with power strips plugged in to extension cords, extension cords plugged in to extension cords, etc.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe UL also has requirements to state what can and cannot be plugged in to extension cords, power strips etc. It usually says on the device “do not plug in to another power strip” or something like that. Doing any of these things violates the UL listing, which in turn goes against the OSHA and NEC requirements to use UL devices per their recommended listings.
Power strips are approved by UL under UL1363 which states:
1.7 A cord-connected RPT is not intended to be connected to another cord-connected RPT.
(RPT is what UL calls power strips or surge protectors).
29 CFR §1910.303(b)(2) requires that “Listed or labeled equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instructions included in the listing or labeling.”. Thus by plugging in a power strip to another power strip, you are not following UL1363 and 29 CFR §1910.303(b)(2) and that is why OSHA cares.
I clarified in my post right as you posted to make it clear to others where the requirements actually exist.
“Doing any of these things violates the UL listing, which in turn goes against the OSHA and NEC requirements to use UL devices per their recommended listings.”
In more seriousness, when you first Google “daisy chaining power strips”, the very first thing that comes up is the Office of Compliance Guidelines, which talk a lot about the OSHA Regulations.
If you read carefully, they do agree that the main problem is drawing too much current:
However, interconnecting these devices is a violation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and the National Electrical Code because doing so can cause them to become overloaded, leading to their failure and a possible fire.
But the reason this is such an issue is because people don’t sit down and figure out how much load they are putting on the circuit, where their power is coming from, etc. So people do stupid things like Daisy chaining power strips and using 16/18 ports and attempt to draw way more than the allotted 15 or 20 Amps for that circuit.
How many times have you walked into a pit to see giant powered displays, 8 battery chargers plugged in, someone running a corded power tool, two kids working off of laptops someone running a compressor off of AC and 5 cell phones plugged in? Did anyone in the pit sit down and figure out the power draw? Probably not. Are they really drawing more than is allotted? Maybe not… But the point is no one figured it out.
And when people do dumb things, safety inspectors make rules in order to prevent the dumb things. It may not be exactly the right rule, but its a rule based on the majority of people. Yes FIRST people are smart (in general). But I’ve not been to a single competition where I heard anyone trying to figure out how much power they were drawing from the pit outlets (except when they blew the breaker!). So safety advisors make rules to attempt to help prevent issues before they happen. An electrical fire is NOT something we want to have to deal with. Is this rule exactly right? No. But can I see why they made it? Yes.
Teams do stupid things with power because it is easy. I’ve seen a team running battery chargers from an AC-DC converter that was plugged into their cart power strip, which was plugged into a DC-AC converter being run off of some sort of Marine battery. REALLY? Too many teams/people don’t know the subtleties of AC power draw, thus OSHA makes rules to prevent the majority of them from doing stupid things. Thus… this “safety quiz”
Each of the individual receptacles are only rated for a few hundred watts. That’s why they also say not to use them with space heaters. It should be easy to see why daisy chaining power strips with many small loads may not overload the overall rating, but may overload an individual receptacle.
Okay, so, regulation (and Travis and Joe) say I’m wrong, and I’m fine with that. Clearly I am not an expert on OSHA and UL regulations.
However, if FIRST is concerned with making any actual improvement in electrical safety, they should mandate the installation of Anderson SB50 connectors on battery chargers. The potential to short a battery across aligator clips while charging is a HUGE fire risk. The way some teams charge their batteries with alligator clips into the battery connector means you’re just milimeters away from a 600-Amp dead short of very very little resistance. All it would take is a bump or a tool to land on it. And it’s really no better if the alligator clips are down on the battery terminals. It’s still exposed and prone to a spark-throwing short circuit.
Let’s stop playing safety theater and impose regulations that reduce actual serious risks, rather than preventing things that are likely to never happen.
