Is it legal a laser pointer be fixed to the robot as a site, and be turned off once the match has commenced?
why dont you just take it with you?
From my interpretation of the non-functional decoration rule, the lazer sight MUST not affect the outcome of the game (it might show up along with the IR signal) and it MUST be powered by the on-board battery, not it’s own battery.
Question, why would you do it? It just seems like way too much work for nothing IMHO.
First of all, I would say that laser pointers are illegal to use on your robot. When used as a site, they couldn’t count as a non functional decoration. And, since they conduct electricity, you would have to build them out of parts from one of the approved electronics suppliers.
Furthermore, I would guess that laser pointers would be disallowed completely due to the risk of eye injury. Last year, the real time scoring operators squatted along side the field, probably at about the level you would be pointing the laser at.
This is a question for FIRST Q/A, though.
If it’s anything like last year’s rules, no. I think they said that you could not bring anything on the field with you to assist in aligning the robot for the beginning of the match, and I think that using it as a sight for pre-match placement counts.
I’ll point out that she’s talking about using the laser pointer as a sighting mechanism to line up the robot properly before the match. I honestly have no clue as to the legality of this. I don’t think sighting mechanisms, positioning jigs, etc. are covered at all by FIRST in the rules or on the Q&A. Atleast I haven’t seen anything. I’ll go with ToMMan and say that if you take it with you I wouldn’t see a problem. Just machine some sort of cradle on the robot to hold it in while you’re sighting.
I’d say both of these are good FIRST Q&A candidates. Ask your original question, and then ask if it is legal to use it ask a sighting mechanism while setting the robot on the field, and then remove it and take it with you.
If you do indeed want to use it to line up your robot, here’s another alternative that works great. Just grab a sharpie, align it properly on a practice field, and draw a dark black line right above where the white tape is. Worked great for us last year, we never once missed the bins throughout all 3 of our competitions (gyro-based also, but proper placement was critical)
Along that line of thought, you could also make a ring-pin gunsight kind of thing as well.
ok… say we made something like a little channel on our robot for the laser pointer. Could we like, align the robot to where it needs to be w/ the pointer in the set-up for the match, BEFORE the match even starts. Then after we’re all set… remove the laser pointer?
that might be an issue. Last year, we made a wooden triangle to align our bot with the side of the ramp so it would run smoothly in auto mode. This didn’t fly with the judges tho, and we weren’t allowed to use it. If it is simple to make what you want, I’d say go for it, but it is more than likely the judges will make you stop.
It would be my interpretation that is would be perfectly legal. IMHO the preople on these forums seem to like to shun that which they have not seen before or which in not commonplace, or is not specifically specified to be legla. Look at the intention of the rules. Somebody at the kickoff said somethign about not being lawyers here. Use your common sense people. Its not all that hard.
If you’re using it to line up at startup, I’m not sure.
As for having a pointer on your robot during a match to help align, it should be fine.
Why? Because we did it last year.
Last year we mouned a class 2 laser from radioshack in the center of our bin grabber. It was used to align to the center of a bin. Made it easier for the drivers to see were they were facing. It was a class such that it would not cause eye damage.
It passed inspection, and yes, they did question it, but when our motives were explained, it passed.
Now, we didn’t even use it cept for maybe once since we dismantled our stakcer, but I just thought I’d ought to say that there indeed has been an occurence of this passing inspection.
And It didn’t directly effect the outcome of the match at all. It simply helped the drivers align with objects on the field.
If someone could post on the Q+A system about this, but referring more generally to any sort of alignment assistant, that would be great. I can’t seem to find a relevant section in the rules, so i don’t know what to put it under.
Thanks for the suggestion! It sounds like an excellent idea.
I’ve not seen anything in the rules THIS year about it (I’ll re-read the Tournament tonight), but last year alignment aides were specificly illegal to help place the robot. The wooden angle and other sighting devices were not allowed, but landmarks on the robot itself were.
It only made it easier for the driver to pick up bins, increasing the multiplier, so it didn’t affect the outcome of the match?
Wetzel
It didn’t directly effect the outcome of a match. The laser pointer didn’t stack bins and protect them.
But it doesn’t matter anyway, we never used it.
I was just saying that be did in fact get through inspection ok with it. It was determined to be legal.
I agree that you should check with FIRST first to make sure it’s ok this year.
But if it’s just for alignment, I also agree that you don’t need a light. Just something to line up on the line with.