Hi Karthik,
You recently ruled the following question as correct thus making Joystick power adapters illegal.
Please could you help us understand the reason behind this as it has the potential to make every power adapter a good paperweight. Teams want to know if the reason is a technical one (you can break your joystick) or there is another reason behind it.
Does using of a power adapter damage the joystick of interfere with robot comms?
Are teams breaking too many power adapters? This is a very real issue here in NZ as teams just walk away while still connected.
Good question. The intent of this rule was to disallow teams from using home made battery packs in lieu of the AAA batteries. If an event chooses to provide Joystick power adapters for all teams at an event (i.e. if they setup power adapters at the field, and teams plug in when they plug in their ethernet cable), it would then be legal for teams to use them in lieu of the AAA batteries.
Please note, we’ve seen fewer and fewer events using the option of providing Joystick power at the field, because of the inherent difficulties of troubleshooting and supporting the system.