Yes, the clamping mechanism that holds the posts to the towers is extremely weak, it takes almost no effort to pop the towers off their posts. Tbh it seems like it could be a valid issue…
I found that if you crank the little part that secures the “cup” to the post just a bit then put it on the “cup” end and then force it down onto the post, then it holds pretty well but with enough pulling force it can still come off.
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Perhaps drilling a hole to insert a pun to keep it down should be deemed legal? I’d suggest that to the GDC, but I’m not there. And that may create a little inconsistency from event to event.
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I want to construct a custom encoder using a line follower sensor and a disc of plastic sheet. Could I legally colour divisions into the disk with marker pen or would the ink be considered a non-vex part?
Could the ink be legal because of R7:a which allows any non-vex material strictly used as a color filter or a color marker for a VEX Light Sensor or does this rule only allow non-vex colour filters/markers for the 276-2158 Vex Light Sensor and not for the 276-2154 line follower sensor.
Yes, this would be legal, because of the rule you cited. My team implemented a similar system in NbN to get custom flywheel speed tracking:
It worked pretty well, though I would advise you to include as many distinct sections on the wheel as possible. A few weeks after taking this photo, we tripled the number of sections on our flywheel, which dramatically improved the resolution and performance of our tracking and control software.
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Does anyone know where to download the skills manual?
You’ll find the manuals on this page: https://www.roboticseducation.org/competition-teams/vex-robotics-competition/
Specifically, you want Appendix B: https://link.vex.com/docs/vrc-tower-takeover/AppendixB
thank you man
lolol20char
at our last scrimmage in semis, one of the team with a massive wobbly lift got caught one of the towers, toppled over and lifted up the floor tiles almost tearing them
that match was replayed because the tile was gonna break and he was given a warning for damaging field items
Would disablement of the offending robot been a better call? No replay necessary.
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it was damaging the field tiles and preventing the match to be played. seeming as it was a accident and it was there first scrimmage the match was replayed
Would it be legal to connect the controller via a smart cable (and some kind of adapter) to a laptop to display data such as motor temp etc?
Edit: I don’t know how you would go about getting data out, I just want to know if it would be legal before I put any time into it.
I don’t believe this is addressed in the manual. In the q&a from last year (which is no longer binding, but I assume they’d make a similar decision this year), it was ruled that you can bring a laptop to the field for charging your controller, assuming the communications features are off (airplane mode). I’m not sure whether they would let you transmit and view data between the laptop and controller. I’d assume that this is not legal for now, since it could result in changing your code during a match, which vex probably frowns upon.
I am not going to speak to the legality, that is a question for the Official Q&A.
Data from the V5 Robot Brain can be outputted in VEXcode V5 Text through simple print statements (and I am assuming other development environments support this as well) - the output of such print statement is sent to the Terminal window in VEXCode. Note the communication speed will be determined if your V5 Controller is plugged into a competition switch or field.
Alternatively, you can send the data to the V5 Controller at a low throughput rate. This would be competition legal.
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I have a really important question some of the rules confuse me but 1 is entering the opposing alliance’s score an alliance do or a team dq 2 if both alliances have a team that dqs by entering other goal zone is it a rematch or what??? This happend to my friends team in the quarterfinals of the elimination matches at a big competition and one more thing the head judge did not even know the rules on grease during inspection . Sorry this is long but also are you allowed to have your controller in your hand during autonomous
You can have the controller In your hand. Just don’t make movements. And about the other question. Do you mean each team goes and gets dq. Or like one on each teams get dq?
If one team on each alliance dq then the match will be whoever did it first I would imagine.
Please try rewording your questions a bit so we can understand what you’re asking.
Up front, here’s a link to the manual, it’s really good to read at each season:. https://www.roboticseducation.org/resources_library/vrc-tower-takeover-game-manual/
If you have a smartphone, you can also download the VRC hub from this link and have the manual with you all the time: https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexedr/competition/vrc-current-game
Some of what I can figure out from your questions:
SG-3 explains some disqualification stuff.
The person doing the inspection was probably a “referee,” not a “judge.” I wouldn’t be suprised if the head judge (usually called the “judge advisor”) doesn’t know the grease rules, because judges are interviewing teams for judged awards. If the head referee doesn’t know the rules, that’s a sad condition, and I would suggest finding competitions where certified referees are used.
The controller: during autonomous, the controller is disabled by the Tournament Manager, so it doesn’t matter. Teams usually hold their controller at the field.
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When holding a controller. I would just use one hand so it doesnt raise concerns even though you can’t. After auton then ho,d the controller like about when you are about to drive and hopefully win.
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If you really want people to understand that you are not controlling the robot as a human, place the controller on the floor during autonomous.