Last season, our team made custom breakout boards for the Talon SRX motor controllers.
R13 Physical ROBOT elements created before Kickoff are not permitted. Exceptions are:
D. FABRICATED ITEMS consisting of one COTS electrical device (e.g. a motor or motor controller), connectors, and any materials used to secure and insulate those connectors
Do these satisfy R13 D, allowing us to reuse them?
I believe that they satisfy R13-D since you’ve made the design files available for everyone to download and use.
If you wanted to be thorough, you could submit a new PCB order and use the old PCBs temporarily. Once the new PCBs arrived, you could just swap them.
My read of this is that they cannot use fabricated items that existed before kickoff. They are allowed to use designs that existed prior to kickoff because they published beforehand. Otherwise, it would be an unusable design and hardware.
I don’t believe that this interpretation is accurate. See the quoted rule in my original post.
I’m also doubtful that releasing the design has anything to do with the components satisfying R13-D.
This rule is in place to allow teams to reuse Talon SRX’s and Victor SP’s that have had the input/output and signal leads modified. ex. adding Anderson connectors to your motor and power leads. I do not believe it is intended to allow custom circuits from previous seasons.
I can see the argument a team would make for allowing them under R13D, but I don’t think they quite fit into the intent or letter of the rule.
In the case of a connector being attached to a speed controller output (like a pair of PowerPoles), the connector is semi-permanently attached. R13 was updated for this situation after the new Victors and Talons came out - under the old rules, attaching such a connector would make that COTS part an assembly, and thus illegal for use in future years. Even cutting the connector off leaves the COTS item modified, making it illegal. So the new rule now means you can keep using those controllers year after year, leaving the same old connectors on.
In this case, the breakout board is it’s own independent custom circuit. It can easily be removed from the Talon, returning the Talon to its original COTS condition. That means it doesn’t really fall into the intent of R13D - the Talon in question hasn’t been modified.
If you want to reuse them, I suggest asking in the Q&A. Be careful with your wording, as you don’t want the dreaded “we don’t comment on specific designs” response!
My original answer was just going to be “No, they cannot use them”
That would have been clearer.
I don’ think any of the breakout board parts (R13: physical robot elements) they used last year can be used this year.
They could use the design this year, if it has been improved over what was used last year and published before kickoff. But they will have to make new parts after kickoff.
Better?