We were inspected at a recent event and we were asked what the torque of our servo was. I looked in the game manual and the only restriction on servos I could see was a maximum cost. Where is there a rule about maximum servo torque?
Thanks.
Try the 2015 Game Manual, R18 (and it was a power rating not a torque rating). It was replaced by “PWM servos” for 2016 and the servo cost rule for this year.
If that keeps you from passing inspection, grab your LRI and ask him.
There is no rule regarding torque. It’s just the price, as you mentioned. However if you plug in high torque (current consuming) to pwm, you may brown out 5v rail. For such servos REV robotics contoller, which is FRC legal.
I do not know of a maximum torque but I will pose two hypotheticals.
Hypothetical 1: The inspector knew of the blue box on page 84 of the manual and was wanting to help you not exceed the max available power from the Rio.
Hypothetical 2: The inspector was thinking back to a previous year when servo specs were limited, not having realized that that limitation had been removed.
There is no reason for any inspector to be thinking of prior years’ rules. FIRST requires every inspector to pass test, which means they must read rules, ALL RLUES, period. If they are not reading rules, they are doing a dis-service to all teams competing at the event. It’s very unfortunate and such inspectors bring bad reputation to volunteers.
I volunteered as inspector this past weekend with bunch of other folks, who were knowledgable and well prepared. Few times I had to tell teams that we are there to help teams go to practice as soon as as they can, fair and square. We had no issue from teams.
Many inspectors volunteer year after year, at some point things start to blur together and it is a lot harder to notice an old rule disappearing than a new one appearing. Ideally this would not happen, but sometimes it does. TBH, this thread is what made me realize that that rule is no longer present.
FIRST requires every inspector to pass test, which means they must read rules, ALL RLUES, period.
It is possible (some would say easy) to pass the test without reading this year’s rules.
If they are not reading rules, they are doing a dis-service to all teams competing at the event.
I hope that all levels of FIRST, from Frank down to the FRC team to the VC to the LRI to each individual inspector, are acting in a way to encourage and empower the inspectors to know the rules to the best of their ability and be willing to look back at the rules if there is a disagreement because that is what is best for the teams. Sometimes, mistakes happen.
It’s very unfortunate and such inspectors bring bad reputation to volunteers. I volunteered as inspector this past weekend with bunch of other folks, who were knowledgable and well prepared.
Thank you for volunteering.
Please remember that this post is expanding on a hypothetical (although completely possible) background to a situation that, to my current knowledge, is just a question that was asked during inspection. I do not believe that stu54’s team was negatively effected. Please don’t jump to conclusions about the quality of the inspector.
Also Hypothetical 3: The inspector was considering using the servo seen on the robot for a personal project and wanted to know if it could deliver the necessary torque for said personal project.
There were actually two inspectors together asking about the servo torque and one of them did have some number he had looked up as a maximum from some game rule. Fortunately we were below whatever maximum he came up with so it was not a problem. We were using a high-torque servo, which is sold by AndyMark. He was not aware about the current booster board that we had on the robot and, as someone here mentioned, was required to drive a high current servo like ours (right out of the 2017 game manual). Thanks for the replies.
I’m betting the number was 4 Watts (speed*torque). If so, the inspector seems to be about two years behind on updating his manual’s Robot section. (And he should be using the current Inspection Checklist, which doesn’t have any particular specs for servos other than cost.)
I apologize. I am not trying to accuse or blame volunteers, especially the robot inspectors. Robot inspector role is not the easy, probably its the next most difficult role after head ref. A incorrectly phrased or bad question can quickly escalate to angry discussion or argument. When I sign up, I take my role seriously, I have gone through rules at least 8 times, even the night before the competition, just to make sure that I am aware of all rules and the latest clarification through Q&A. I am not expecting others to do it, but I expect every robot inspector to be aware of current rules. We are all human beings sometimes we forget or make mistake,but when we are in doubt, we must check rules before we question. Team members in pit will be stressed too, they are in hurry to setup pit, finish paper work and get to field for practice, and lets not forget, every team will have something to work on. Most volunteers strive to give best possible experience to all teams and visitors.
Thanks to all volunteers, especially the robot inspectors for the important role they play.