My team was practicing some autonomous code and our robot accelerated into a desk shattering the plexiglass that our electronics board was on. We disconnected all the components which were intact, but need to be remounted to a solid board. I understand that the weight of the electronics will be counted against the 30 pound limit that we can bring to competition, but are there any rules that prevent us from leaving all of the electronics out of bag and tag? The attached image is everything we had to take off. Thank you for your help ahead of time.
You should be OK!
R18
Yep, you guys are fine here! Good luck!
The most important thing is that if you re-assemble a control board and bring it to your first event, the entire weight of that board including the COTS components, is part of your 30 pound withholding allowance. If you bring in a COTS sized piece of plexi, spools of wire, crimp connectors, and the COTS roboRIO, motor controllers, etc., it’s all COTS stuff and does not count against your 30 pound withholding allowance. You may find it most expedient to go somewhere in between, especially if you are planning to add or work on a manipulator or two between now and your first event. Also note that the COTS rules are slightly more restrictive for withholding than for beginning of season.
Make sure you add this to your “lessons learned” file: Never use acrylic/plexiglass on a robot. Especially in a game like this year, where there’s going to be a lot of bumping and banging and bouncing.
What Geetwo said.
I would take the solid board, prepare mounting points (including what mounts to the board), and run all the wires where then need to go. That shouldn’t weigh too much against your Withholding Allowance.
Separately bring in COTS electronics. In the Pit, mount the electronics, and connect them.
M,
GDC ruled (via Q&A) that the RoboRio does not change COTS status when you remove it from a robot even if you loaded software on it. Other components may transfer to FABRICATED items when you mount/wire them. If you bring each item to your next competition in the COTS state and reassemble it, it will not count towards your withholding allowance. Wires cut and/or terminated (except on certain motor and controllers) are FABRICATED and must count towards your withholding if you bring them to a competition outside of the bag.
Please pick something other than Plexiglass. You now know it shatters and is not suitable for use on FRC robots for that reason. Under R9, damage to other robots, leaving bits of plastic shards on the field fits into this description.
Oh man thats rough. We got rid of all the plexi in our shop for this reason and just have a large amount of lexan on hand. For our electrical board we are using 1/4" perforated polycarb which has held up very nicely and is very easy to mount to.