are we able to bring spare parts of our robots at comp? like especially polycarbs. Like they might be vunerable to break the most… so. will inspection block me???
Yes you are able to bring extra parts. Full subsystem replacements are not allowed though. You can find specifics in the vex v5 game manual here
In general, you probably want spare parts to an extent. For example, you may not bring a whole robot as a “spare” to competition.
Items that break, like plastics, I suspect is not a problem. Just make Head Referee aware why a certain part you swapped out looks different than what was inspected.
Communication is key during competitions.
You can bring spare parts. Just dont bring a spare assembled robots. This almost got us kicked out of states my senior year because we had an assembled “robot”, which was really just the frame and intake w/o a brain and motors to power it but it ‘looked like a robot’ which was enoughf to get into a hairy discussion with recf reps and the EP and HR.
TLDR: bring as many loose parts and components as you want, just dont bring a back up robot.
Having a toolkit of spare screws and nuts is helpful. Oftentimes, you might want to bring a couple of spare thin gears. Last year one broke in our drivetrain and we had to borrow one from another team. And spare polycarb is a must. We had nearly five matchloader panels break on us last season.