While doing some final tweaking on our prototype we came across the need to have a fisher price on a worm gear. We decided to tear apart a '08 keyang window motor and coupled the output shaft of the planetary to the input shaft of the window motor.
Our question now is if this is legal? We plan to put it up on the Q&A but we figured if we could get the window motor off the shelf it would be legal but who knows.
If you can’t buy that gearbox anymore, and it was not a past KOP part, then you probably can’t use it. But I might be reading the material use rules wrong…how many times have you read them? do you have any fledgling lawyers on your team who might be able to help you figure it out?
I think it’s legal - provided that it’s unmodified. My reading of the rule below is that the part must have been in its stock condition at the beginning of the build season, although it could be read as saying that the part must be used on the robot in its unmodified condition. Please correct me if something in the Q&A has changed this.
[quote=FRC Game Manual, ] COTS items from ROBOTS entered in previous FIRST competitions or COTS items that are no longer commercially available may be used under the following conditions:
A. The item must be functionally equivalent to the original condition as delivered from the
VENDOR (e.g. a part that has non-functional label markings added would be permitted, but a part that has device-specific mounting holes added would be prohibited), and
B. The item must satisfy ALL applicable 2011 FRC materials/parts use rules.
[/quote]