I really hope someone can help me. I am most likely starting a social media account and I was wondering the legality of putting a GoPro on our team’s robot to capture the footage. Would this be against any of the rules FIRST has in place?
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nope many teams do this for content, match review , and even match vision
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Turn off the WiFi hotspot it generates by default. No problems other than that and the normal dimensions/safety rules.
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As Troy said the wireless needs to be turned off, partially because of interference but also because you could use it as a remote feed bypassing the driver station system and the bandwidth limits that the field network system imposes.
Imagine a game where the field disables all cameras during part of the match as part of the game challenge, but you used your GoPros feed to get around that (idk why this would ever be a challenge but who knows). This would be another reason first stipulates that the remote feeds go through the field network only.
Just start local recording when the drivers place the robot on the field and turn it on during the prematch setup (You can turn it on in the pit to get a cool shot going from pit to field but you’ll want to stop it while in the queue to save battery). Also make sure the mount is very secure. The double sided tape bracket it comes with is fine when you’re riding a bike as it’s on your helmet. But when the bot gets hit full force going across the field that GoPro will become robot barf. There are tons of 3D printed brackets or even metal mounts you can get and bolt the mount permanently onto the chassis in a safe location.
Otherwise you are good to go! If your team is getting a GoPro for specifically this purpose you should check local pawn shops, eBay, etc for older generation models. They can record 1080p still but you aren’t paying for the wireless features you’ll never be using.
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I used one on my team’s robot this year and it stayed on fine. It was pretty low and attached to a non-actuated part of the robot on acrylic. I’m not sure if the material would affect how well the camera sticks, but it seems possible.
My personal camera is a go pro clone that records in 4K and has wireless which can be good for other set ups like shop time lapses. Cost was somewhere in the range of $50. I’m sure there are other cheaper options, but just wanted to point out the possibility.
We did it for a few matches at champs this year. Make sure you have a stiff mount, we did it with kinda improvised mounting.
if you are interested, it can be found here:
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you can put pretty much any action camera on the bot, we used both a knock-off gopro and an insta360 4k camera throughout the season
the VHB tape to the claw scares me still
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“the jump will be fine 
”
the jump in question frying the arm LED’s somehow
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Some of the 2016 obstacles were also a “Duke of Hazzard” style jump if you had enough speed. Many a bot busted parts on the rough terrain or the jumping the moat thing. Made for fun shots though.
We didn’t have a go pro that year sadly. I don’t think it would’ve done well with tape that year. 2015 on the other hand tape only was perfectly fine
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