Is it legal for an Intake be programmed to run continuously during competition - Squared Away

#1

My team has a conveyor belt intake made with tread to pick up balls.

Instead of holding down the button to operate it, is it legal to have a button control it to turn it on and off during competition ?

Thank you,
Gary

#2

As you review the game manual (https://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/viqc-squared-away/GameManual20190816.pdf) you will see that is mostly tells you what you can’t do. If the manual doesn’t say “a toggled control on a mechanism is illegal” (It doesn’t), then it’s perfectly legal. It would be impossible to write a manual that tells you all the things you can do, so instead it is written to tell you the few things you can’t.

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#3

Note that, if you do this, you will need to turn the motor on separately in autonomous and driver control, as the field control system will turn all motors off when autonomous ends.

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#4

You are allowed to do this, but I would probably recommend that that you make a toggle to turn it on and off with a button, but you don’t need to hold it down. This will help save battery and that would be a huge help in IQ.

#5

I think he is talking about viqc not vrc

#6

Good point – I missed that!

#7

We used some similar stuff last year. You can use a trigger that starts when the match starts to begin the motor, then turn it off with a timer.

To start a motor when the match actually begins. Put some code that watches for wheel rotation. As soon as it goes about some small value (like 45 degrees) then turn on your motor. Note, you will need to watch for absolute value so it will catch forward or reverse motion.

The same ‘motor start’ command can also start a timer. When timer is done then have it turn the motor off.

#8

From what I understand you’re allowed to run an entire auton in Vex IQ during driver control if you desired. However it is not recomended.