I saw a number of teams at nationals running their camera lights and underglow directly from the power distribution board: at least I assumed they were because the lights were lit while the robots were disabled.
Even if these were being powered from a custom circuit, in the game manual, in the robot section, it states that all electrical loads should be run through an approved power-regulating device.
[R50]
All electrical loads (motors, actuators, compressors, electric solenoids) must be supplied by an approved power regulating device (speed controller, relay module, or Digital Sidecar PWM port) that is controlled by the cRIO on the Robot.
I thought I remembered from years past (did a search for decoration in the manual) that non-functional decorations didn’t have to go through power regulating devices.
So my question is this:
Is it legal to directly wire lighting like the camera light and the underglow directly to the PD board?
Having the camera light on so that you could use your targetting system for lining up your robot (via the driverstation feedback) would have been a nifty trick this year.
This should cover the underglow lights as they are non functional there is no requirement to run them through a spike (or other device). I don’t have this years rules but was their something simmilar?
As for the Camera lights, is it possible to power them off the side car (I don’t have the documentation with me) if their is enough current available to run the LEDs then there is no need for a sperate power circuit.
Tom,
There was a rule change in R46 (last year’s R42) that dropped lights from the required list of loads controlled by speed controllers or Spikes. There were no questions on the Q&A that asked the question. I have interpreted the LED rings as custom circuits and check for electrical rules accordingly.
James, the rules from 2010 changed for 2011 and then changed again for this year.
I make no interpretation on whether robot alignment during placement on the field is legal under game or tournament rules.