We are going to be using a flash light for aiming. What type of flashlight is the best for this?
While we have never used a “photon cannon” you want one that that is coherent/bright enough to deal with arena lighting as well as easily adapted to being powered by the PDB all while making it follows all other electrical rules.
Ben,
Be aware of R8 (it includes the vision of the drivers). If it violates this rule, and other complain, you may be asked to remove it.
Last year 4265 was one of the few teams that used a flashlight for aiming. I believe it was an Ultrafire (Surefire ripoff brand) that we wired to be controlled by the robot. I can check the exact model if you want.
If you wouldn’t mind would you get the model.
Do you think that we would have a problem violating this rule.
We used a Streamlight Polytac HP last year for targeting. The HP has a small and bright hot spot with a good throw, making it good for this use. The whole head of the light screws off and it *can *be wired directly to the regular 5V converter.
For that whole distracting the drivers thing, you can turn the light on and off depending on when you want to aim and shoot. Just set it to a button for momentary on/off. You’ll also want to mount any light you pick inside a tube or something to block out the spill so you don’t blind opponent drivers under the goal.
Just be responsible with the light and you shouldn’t have any issues, but just like others said, others can always complain about the light. We didn’t have any problems at the two regionals we attended last year. We found that our photon cannon was way less distracting than those ridiculously bright LED rings.