One of the mentors on my team wants to know more about the withholding rules, specifically what can we withhold within the 30 pounds? Would that include the minibot/can we withhold the minibot?
“<R33> Teams may bring a maximum of 30 pounds of custom FABRICATED ITEMS (SPARE PARTS, REPLACEMENT PARTS, and UPGRADE PARTS, plus all WITHHOLDING ALLOWANCE items) to each competition event to be used to repair and/or upgrade their ROBOT at the competition site. All other FABRICATED ITEMS to be used on the ROBOT during the competition shall arrive at the competition venue packed in the shipping crate or lockout bag with the ROBOT.
There are three exceptions to this rule:
A. the OPERATOR CONSOLE is not included in the incoming parts weight restriction,
B. the MINIBOT is not included in the incoming parts weights restriction, and
C. any competition legal12V batteries and their associated half of the Anderson cable quick connect/disconnect pair (including no more than 12” of cable per leg, the associated cable lugs, connecting bolts, and insulating electrical tape) are not included in the incoming parts weight restriction.”
Hope this helps…
So, the minibot is not included in the withholding wait restriction. Does that mean that the minibot can’t be withheld, or does it mean that they expect you to?
Your minibot can be up to 15 pounds and does not have to be shipped with your robot and is not included in your 30 pounds of withholding allowance. I hope this clarifies.
Cass
It might be too late to design your robot AROUND the withholding allowance, but we did that for the past two years.
We used modular construction so that various components (the drive system, the “kicker”, the “brain”) could be bolted and unbolted easily from the robot chassis.
That allowed us to ship the robot, and then keep the systems that we needed to work on at home, either using a full practice chassis or a simpler mock up.
The withholding rule is one of the most significant rule advances in FRC during my time with the program and allows plenty of opportunities for teams to reduce the stress of build period if they think about the allowance from day 1.
Jason
But, what is the withholding allowance? For instance, can you hold out your electrical box?
Anything that is not specified as exempt from the 30 pounds that is withheld counts towards your 30 pound limit.
For example, you want to keep your cRIO for you programmers to keep working. Subtract the weight of the cRIO from your 30 pounds, and that’s what you’ve got left to withhold.