I’m hearing reports from some teams at week 1 events that their limelights are being ruled illegal due to the brightness of the LED’s.
Has anybody else getting this ruling on their robots as well, and what rule are the LRI’s citing to rule it illegal?
Obviously those teams with limelights need to read the manual and the QA and know that they are going to have to devise method to limit those lights and have pre-made solutions in place. Obviously, if the GDC had meant for teams to use high intensity light sources then they would put retroreflective tape on targets on the field and since they clearly haven’t done that…
Besides, who could have seen this coming? The manual has very clear and concise rules about high intensity light sources.
Brief isn’t defined and neither are the limitations on those light sources. This rule is 100% unenforceable as it stands.
FIRST, you need to fix this one.
Yet, there is no definition of “brief” the GDC has punted the definition to 50+ people because they don’t like hard and fast rules. Right now we are not all playing under the same rules because clearly LRI’s all have different opinions. Also it says “while targeting” if i’m targeting the ENTIRE match so i can keep my shooter on a turret always aimed at the goal then 2:30 seconds is brief.
The manual says the build season is brief:
"The build
season is brief, so the VENDOR must be able to get their product, particularly FIRST
unique items, to a team in a timely manner. "
Let’s not forget WHAT we are all targeting. Retroreflective tape. TAPE. THAT. SHINES. LIGHT. BACK. AT. THE. SOURCE.
If you don’t want teams using bright light sources then stop making targets that require them.
Brief is defined in the manual. Section 9.1 I believe…
The build season is brief
I am also not sure of any vision products with LEDs being marketed as “military grade”, and I would not consider limelight’s super bright when compared to other intense light sources such as the sun or a welding ARC, making them legal.
and/or putting those targets in line with the driver stations, and/or letting/incentivizing teams to target from 40+ ft away
Perhaps FIRST could start designing fields that don’t utilize retro-reflective tape, but field side lighting a la 2014 hot goals.
Takes the responsibility of generating a light source away from teams.
Or if they didn’t want to do that but just a actual number to rule off of, a lumen limit on LEDs on a robot
Or you know, put fiducial markers in place… like that other robot based league… you know, the one they let ABC make fun of the other night… what’s it called… ohh yeah, FIRST Tech Challenge… yeah, that one.
LimeLights are military grade now? 
or self-defense.
Answer to Q106:
The parenthetical examples are just examples, and not intended to be an exhaustive list. Any high intensity light source on a ROBOT, regardless of how it is marketed, may only be illuminated for a brief time while targeting.
Brief means 8 weeks though according to the manual, so you could keep it on the entire time.
Oh goodie, another undefined term meant to be used for enforcement. Just what we needed!
Realistically, the only way they could make a ruling on the limelight would be a official update with a lumen limit due to how subjective it is at the moment
OK, so on a more serious note… we do not have a Limelight, but we have green ring lights. The same green ring lights we have always used on our robots, and have never had to cycle on/off to comply with this rule. Nobody has ever complained. We have always just let our vision system keep running, as a result.
We’ll have to be ready for the possibility of complaints…
