As a referee here in AZ, I’ve often wanted one tool that could do things like measure field tolerances, plastic thickness, etc. Therefore I created the VRC Ref Tool V1 for VRC Over Under!
The height of the horizontal goal bars to ensure they are above the minimum specification (5.78") and below the maximum specification (6.03")
The thickness of plastic on robots to ensure it is within the legal thickness (max 0.07")
The thickness of string/rope on robots to ensure it is within the legal thickness (max 0.25")
The length of screws to ensure they are within the legal length (max 2.5")
It also comes with a handy belt hook so you can carry it around easily.
The slots for polycarbonate and string are both oversized by a small amount (0.01") to account for inaccuracy while printing. Assuming you print it in the recommended orientation, these should allow any legal width object to fit. Still, you should verify that these slots do indeed have the correct dimensions yourself after printing.
Printing Instructions:
The orientation that the tool is printed has an effect on the accuracy of the measurements, therefore you should print this such that the text that says “Print this way up” on the back is oriented normally, and that the arrows are pointing upwards.
Hello, I have a few questions about this print, but before I ask anything I just wanted to say that you did a great job.
Does this need any supports (Such as for the text, or does that not show up on the print?)
What is the recommended infill for this?
Does it need a special material other than PLA for the clip to work?
Hopefully you are able to answer my questions, but otherwise thank you for giving this resource to the Vex community.
Based on what I know, you shouldn’t need any supports for the text. Support would probably scar the letters and make them harder to read. Functional Parts like this should be around 30-50% infill. The clip should work well in PLA, although if you’re worried about it snapping off, you can use PETG, but I don’t think you need to worry about that.
The part isn’t really structural for anything so the main consideration is making sure it isn’t easily crushed, so 5% grid infill works fine for me. It’s not going to hurt anything if you print at a higher infill though.
This worked great last night. It made it easy to measure the nets at our league night. I printed in PLA+ with 10% infill. I’ll print the next one at 5%. The clip works great, I flexed it out about an inch and it didn’t crack. Its just the right thickness to be flexible but still strong enough. All the text was clearly legible. I’m going to print more of them for the other refs I know.
I’m working on brackets to mount Raspberry Pi’s on the back of our tv’s that incorporate an extension cord. So the PI is secured/ protected on the tv. The Pi and the tv plug into the extension cord and are zip tied in place so just one extension cord comes off the tv. I left an outlet open to plug in a field controller or daisy chain another tv. The cover over the Pi snaps on using IQ standoffs. This was the first prototype. We drilled a hole to see the Pi lights. I’ve already changed the design to add a viewing hole for the next one.
This thing is awesome. Thank you. At our last tournament someone’s autonomous gently pushed a preload under the short bar of a goal and it went in easy (of course team didn’t make a sound) but then it rolled and came out the other end which caused massive protest, measuring tapes, screwdrivers… The string gap though? PTSD.
same happened at last competition, new venue - tucked the posts as deep as could - but one of the net’s PVC was bent and bowed where you did not want it to
Only so much you can do with a hammer …
Back on topic - I made a quick gauge for zip ties 11" and 4" to measure thickness and width - of course my teams had zip ties that were not legal I would recommend that be added to ref tool model.
I would recommend that be added to ref tool model.