Side Panel

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
1

We are thinking of have a side panel on the side of our robot.

Could we just print it out on a piece of paper, then laminate it?

Help?

Thanks :smiley:

2

I think it depends on how successful your robot is. If you donā€™t qualify for worlds or nationals then they are pretty much pointless

3

I think Bot-E Builders Was asking about the legality. You have to be careful with side shields. Technically, youā€™re not allowed to have non-VEX-approved materials come into contact with game objects.

4

Is it legal to laminate a printed piece of paper? It is just for show, it will be NON moving, just a decoration. Please clarifyā€¦

Thanks!

5

Yes it is legal. We use it, 254 uses it, iobotics use it, Iā€™ve seen many teams this year use it.

6

I know that the person above said it is legal but if you really want to make sure you will have to post it in the official answers forum.

7

Take a look at this thread: https://vexforum.com/t/answered-painting-and-stickers/19248/1
As long as the paper isnā€™t doing anything like holding in game objects or something, you should be fine.

8

If there is room for it. :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

9

were going to have some and it is legal they are ā€œdecorationsā€ and as long as they ā€œdonā€™t affect the outcome of a matchā€ they are legal.


here is Team 27ā€™s robot side

10

The rules lawyer in me wants to say that making laminated paper side panels is illegal in most cases Iā€™ve seen because the panels help keep game objects and other robots from becoming entangled with your robot. If the panels are protecting part of your robot I would consider them functional, not decorative. If this is a correct interpretation of the rules then you could use lexan panels and attach the decorations to them.

It would be more convenient to use laminated paper, but I would want to make sure that the panels would not be ruled illegal.

Jay

11

We had decorative side panels on our robot for most of last year. We went thru several discussions with the inspection judges at both the National Vex tournament and the Worlds. We were told many times that as long as they are decorative, they were legal. Some would say as Jay did that they helped with entanglement, but most judges did not rule that way. In fact, the side panels generally did not help in that manner as we still managed to get tangled a couple of times. The bottom line is, they were deemed legal by most, but a team has to be prepared to remove them if you run into a particular tournament judge that wants to rule they help a robot and are therefore functional. We only had them on because the team thought they really improved the robots ā€œprofessionalismā€ and possibly would help teams remember us at larger tournaments, which could be a good thing or bad. LOL There was a long debate on this last year in the forums, it seems to draw attention.

12

Haha, i am not sure what bot this was but at worlds there was a robot with a picture of charlie sheen on it, that is how i remember that robot, so they do attract attention i think!

13

So i was kinda thinking of making something like this, what program did you use to create this panel or side plate.

14

I would use Photoshop. (But thatā€™s just b/c I have experience with it.)

One other thought about the panel would be to use your polycarb to cover it (if you have some left), instead of (or in addition to) laminating it.

//Andrew

15

Put some of the black drawer mesh behind the paper and that can be the item that is legal and blocks the game pieces while the paper is now just decoration.

16

i used Autodeskā€™s SketchBook Designer 2012, its easy to use once you figure out the small things like canvas size and how to import pictures. The best part is its free for students like every other Autodesk product.

17

What would be another option for a side panel type thing? Besides laminated paperā€¦

18

We personally print off our logos on paper or photo printā€¦ We also do laminate oursā€¦ If you are worried about the whole ā€œprotecting the game pieces from interfering in the robotā€ excuse, just put a few pieces of 1x__ behind the paper. Thus, even if the paper wasnā€™t there, the game pieces still wouldnā€™t be able to interfereā€¦

As a general rule, we usually wait until the very end to attach any decorationsā€¦ Sometimes, we even put them on at the competition.

Not sure if anyone else has the patience, but you can also color the robot parts themselves. Some inspectors might rule against you if you color the parts that touch game pieces, but our teams have never been stoppedā€¦

19

We actually sharpied our robot orange last year. We are looking at polishing our robot, then adding an orange side panel (some how). Any more suggestions?

20

if you color the parts next year when you go to reuse them they look terrible half the time and if you paint them the paint chips and cracks and it docent look good either