Hi VEX forum. I want to ask the community about your opinion on a game rule question before I go to Karthik.
So after actually building a multi-stage scissor lift, I realized how annoying the issue of slack is. We placed a lot of elastic assist on the upper levels of the lift so that the lift cannot fold down to its lowest position under normal circumstances. That means it is above size limit. However we found out if we legally preload a cube on it, the lift would be compressed down and thus it would be legal prior to a match. However, obviously we cannot go to inspection with a cube on top.
I wonder if anyone has encountered this situation, in which you’ll have to use the preload to ensure the legal size.
In the game rule it states “at the beginning of a match” is when size limit is required, and we do not violate this rule. However we are not positive that we can go through inspection. Although we are likely to re-adjust the elastic assist, we just wonder what the forum would say about this case.
Maybe you could ask to borrow a cube for the inspection. You could also bring a cube for inspection. I don’t think it breaks any rules.
Also, does the cube exceed the 18 inches? if it does then whether the robot is within the 18 inch height limit or not it would difficult to measure the robot with the cube in the way.
If I were the GDC, I would probably say no. The reason being that if your robot is so close to fitting or not, chances are that it might be too large in a match or if the cube isn’t placed quite right.
Generally, it isn’t good to cut it so close anyways. Build yourself a sizing template 17.5" in size, and use that when building.
Yes, I agree that it is better to cut it clear. We don’t have any trouble with the size of the base because we followed the 17.5 rule. It’s just the lift. We will very likely tune the lift and fix it tomorrow.
The problem you’ll have here is that referees can do on-field size inspections too in addition to the off-field hardware inspection. For this reason alone using a cube to weigh down you lift is a huge risk especially since the opposing alliance is allowed to request size inspection (not necessarily granted though).
Maybe look at other solutions such as a hold down latch?
The game manual says that if your robot were to be placed in a sizing box, it can’t touch the sides or roof, so your robot would not pass. Same thing goes for if you were using a field wall to hold your robot in size. Also, any constraint you use to start in size must remain attached to the robot for the rest of the match.
You can ask karthik but it seems pretty clear that it would not be legal.
Use part of a 1x25 bar to make a “lock” to hold it down. Make the “lock” movable so that it can remain on the bot but not hold the lift down. Then, you can use the cube to hold it down at the beginning of a match.