We are have an argument with a fellow team from our school. They are using V5 and have four 393 batteries as seen in the image below as counter weight. Is it legal?
If I were inspecting your robot, I would say it’s illegal. But looking at the V5 inspection sheet, I can’t find anything that would lead me to that conclusion. Ask on the Q&A for an official answer
I was about to say no, but I’m not finding anything in the rules that would clearly indicate that you cannot do this. R14 involves electrical power but these aren’t used for power. It may fall under R5b since it’s being used outside of the intended use?
This is a great question, and maybe one for the Q&A. I would err on the side of caution and say no, it is not legal, because of <G2>. I’m not sure if that’s the case, but until its officially answered, I would say it is illegal, and any inspectors at a competition would probably believe the same.
Most likely illegal. They’re pretty obviously not non-functional if they’re used for counter weights and they aren’t legal under <R14>.
I would also say illegal because they are clearly functional and not non functional decoration. Plus everything else regarding 393s and V5 components they do not allow such as having both types of motors, I would not see why it would be any different for the battery. But if I’m wrong I’d love to hear it because then my team would also use batteries as counter weight XD. I would say ask the official Q&A to get an official ruling on the matter.
Regardless of what is said, G2 would rule this as illegal. But to get into logical reasoning, you can only use one battery with the CORTEX and one battery for the Power Expander. Because you are using V5, you won’t be using a CORTEX or Expander to plug into the 7.2V batteries, thus making this illegal.
if you read R14 this is clearly not legal
The answer to this question is not nearly as straightforward as “<G2> would rule this as illegal.”
Batteries exclusively for weight were legal in previous years with the Cortex system. Because there were and still are no rules (except maybe <R14>; see below) specifically concerning use of batteries not for power, common sense (<G2>) would suggest such practices are still legal.
The reason a Q&A is warranted is because…
…<R14> is ambiguous with regard to this use case.
<R14> first says it only concerns sources of electrical power but then, in the rule body, implies its battery restrictions are for all batteries on the robot rather than merely batteries used for power.
I am misinformed. See below.
It was ruled illegal last season.
https://vexforum.com/t/answered-are-nonfunctional-decorations-which-use-vex-electronics-allowed/41897/1
it is not legal. one of the teams from my school tried it and they didnt pass inspection. so dont try it even with v5.
Instead of batteries, you could try stacking up steel slide tracks. Those are pretty heavy. If you have enough extra space, omni wheels are surprisingly heavy. I used them as counterbalance for a different project, and almost used steel slide tracks last year to counteract my DR4B CG change, but decided not to.
@Long Earth Society
Try high strength axles, they are steel just like slide tracks, except they can be stacked and bundled together much easier.
Are they as heavy, though? Slide tracks have those convenient hiles for screws, which makes them pretty easy to bind in my book.
@Long Earth Society
They are steel, so they are pretty heavy, especially if you bundle a lot of the together. They are more space efficient since they are not filled with all the holes. I was thinking you could bundle them with rubber bands ands zip ties and put mount them in place of the batteries using more zip ties.