Hey guys, I’ve got a question based around the painting of sensors/motors.
I searched a few different strings regarding painting, robot-rule 7, and robot-rule 15, and could not find anything. As such, I am here.
The team is painting the robot for the World Competition. It is a mainly red and black scheme. The dilemma lies here: The green tops of the 393 motors and red of the sensors contrast the team’s palette, and make a rather ugly robot.
So, we looked again to the rules and found this little guy.
<R7> d. i. Anodizing and painting of parts would be considered a legal nonfunctional decoration.
Then, reading farther down, we found this conflicting rule.
<R15> Parts may NOT be modified as follows:
a. Motors, extension cords, sensors, controllers, battery packs, reservoirs, solenoids, pistons and any other electrical component or pneumatics component of the VEX Robotics Design System may NOT be altered from their original state in ANY way.
Are we to take it that ‘alter in any way’ means something physical that changes, while painting is merely a ‘decoration’ that doesn’t change its physical properties?
As well, I’ve seen teams at regionals with electrical-taped batteries to make them stand out less. Is this an illegal modification, or a ‘decoration’?
Those are the questions I pose today, and I thank you for the time.