I was wondering about a discrepancy in the rule book about the Team Numbers on the Bumpers(R31). It says that the stroke size has to be 1/2 inch wide, but does not define what the stroke size actually is. To be more specific, we were going to use an ‘8-Bit’ type font, where the corners are taken out. I was wondering if the corners were part of the stroke size, and would be violating R31, or if this is legal. Any help in interpreting this rule would be great. Thanks!
Stroke size simply refers to the thickness of the lines that make up your numbers. As long as you meet the requirements on readability at distance and your numbers are clear and easily identifiable I doubt you’ll have any problems.
As a robot inspector, I will check each of your characters to make sure that no part of any line is less than 1/2 inch wide. If it is you’ll have to fix it before you’ll pass inspection. Does that help?
I’ll reference the Font our team provided last year:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2630
This provides for a 4" font, at .75" stroke (2012 requirement and more readable) and only takes 9.5" for a four digit number and hence fits on a minimal 8" bumper section that extends to also cover the corner space (hence it is approximately 8" + 2.5" noodle + .75" plywood ~= 11.25")
Following up on the OP’s question (and maybe DonRotolo or someone else who’s inspected can comment here). R31 doesn’t seem to mandate that each digit be entirely contiguous, only that it’s at least 4" tall and all line segments are at least 1/2" thick. So it seems that a font with breaks in the lines would still comply as long as it easily readable. Does that make sense?
Just to make clear to MichaelTate97, the rule states
(Bolding mine.) Which I checked because it sounded different than your question of “has to be” (meaning no more and no less). Which brings me to a possible solution. I’m assuming you’re talking about a font like this. Just make the stroke width wider, so the minimum (at the corners) ends up 1/2". In the font I found above, it looks like the horizontal strokes are 2 pixels and vertical 4 pixels, so 1/4" per pixel gives you 1/2" by 1".
I have idle curiosity to dcarr’s question. A team could get fancy with the font and have it pass at one competition and fail at the next – the FRC Manual uses the word “unambiguously” which can be difficult to argue with.
Many years ago I argued with a Landlord about I couldn’t make a font smaller on a storefront – the neon connectors wouldn’t fit enough to hide inside! We did it his way, and yes it was ugly. But it was his building and his rules.
Would it be legal to also put our sponsors on the bumpers? We dont have much extra room on the robot itself this year and are wondering if thats allowed
[quote=] R24 D.
The cloth must completely enclose all exterior surfaces of the wood and pool noodle material when the BUMPER is installed on the ROBOT. The fabric covering the BUMPERS must be a solid Red or Blue in color. **The only markings permitted on the BUMPER fabric cover are the Team number **(see Rule R31).
[/quote]
That would be a no
What kind of room do you have? If you are just wanting a place to put sponsors there are ways to work around having very little room. I have had to work with some interesting positions. 