Hey everyone! Our media team made a recap video of our last competition, Clash in the Desert. Just wanted to share it with everyone. Enjoy!
Awesome robot. How did you power those led strips?
Excellent robot, congratulations on winning the Clash.
I’m wondering this as well. It’s very cool how you are able to change the colors. Is each light independently controlled? What are all of the colors you can make?
We use addressable RGB strips. This means that we can set the RGB value of each light, which means we can make any color.
We just used a battery on the robot.
That is one awesome robot, and one awesome recap video 
Can I ask, what were you using the vex speaker for?
Nothing important, it says the auto its running at the beginning of the match and makes a noise when a user selects a new auto. We have a few sounds we can play during matches too just for fun.
So did you plug it into the cortex to program the leds. If so, do you remember the name of the led strip you used or the url because all the ones I found required specs that the cortex doesn’t meet. Also, how did you power the strip off the robot battery, or was it a separate one?
Can you guys maybe link the LED strip product ?
most of these are addressable
You can power them either through the robot or through an external. We have successfully done both. We used a UART port to power them through the robot, but you could use any other port.
isn’t using external batter source illegal? pretty sure it is… Did you guys split the head and solder into the cortex?
how many motors do you guys use on the drive system?
6 motors, 3 on each side. All in high gear.
UART has +5V so we just used that. And I don’t think the use of an external battery source is illegal. What rule says its not? But it can be done through the cortex so either way it works.
What did you guys address the LED’s with?
Oh and External Power is illegal according to this q&a: Answered: LED lights for decoration - VRC > Skyrise (14/15) - VEX Forum
An Arduino, but it is also possible to do through UART on the Cortex. We just prefer to use an Arduino.
Is it legal to use an arduino? How did you power the arduino? (It is also much easier to do it through arduino because there is a library. Doing it through the cortex would require significant effort)
It is for a solely decorative purpose so yes it would be legal. And with an external power source. Which is also legal according to this thread where another team uses an external battery pack for their lights:
The person asking the question says it is solely powered by the cortex…
Sorry to say, but their team has a battery case with no batteries in it. They use the terminals on the battery case to attach a wire the goes into the cortex
Here are pictures on how they did it (scroll near the bottom): IronWave 26 Preseason NBN Reveal - VEX Robot Showcase - VEX Forum
Sorry, I read until battery pack and assumed it was external power. We have been to multiple competitions with an external battery and have explicitly told the inspector about and haven’t had any problems. If it turns out to be illegal, then we have the ability to run everything through the cortex just as easily.
I would really like to know how you guys would do it through the cortex, I dont understand how you would address the led’s through the cortex.