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Official Q&A: VRC 2022-2023: Spin Up

Usage Guidelines All Questions

1392: <R19> Extent of External Controller Modifications


EMU5
17-Jan-2023

<R19>

Hello! I had a few questions in regards to R19 and the extent we can take R19ai.

R19ai states

Attachments which assist the Drive Team Member in holding or manipulating buttons / joysticks on the V5 Controller are permitted, provided that they do not involve direct physical or electrical modification of the Controller itself.

Case 1: Based on this, would it be legal for a team to paint the external casing of their controller, based on the logic they are adding an external attachment to the joystick (as the paint is a layer), which increases the friction on the controller which makes it easier for drivers to grip and manipulate buttons on the controller, no electrical or physical modification has been made and its purely an external layer/attachment on the controller.

Case 2: Would it be legal for a team to make an external box for a V5 controller which contains the controller inside of it, would it than be possible to design your own buttons for the box which when pressed would press buttons on the v5 controller, essentially allowing you to make a non-vex controller which contains and manipulates the v5 controller inside of it.

Case 3: Would it be legal for a team to attach a lanyard to a scuf to prevent it being dropped/lost at an event and can the lanyard holding the scuf be worn during a competition match? This would prevent it from being dropped/damaged during a game, this is something that has been demonstrated at events in the past but isn't clearly stated as per whether the action is legal or not.

Answered by committee

Thank you for your questions. Head Referees must determine whether a specific modification is legal or not, but we can provide the following guidelines for your proposed cases.

Case1: This would be a permitted.

Case 2: Rule <R14> states, "Robots must ONLY use one (1) VEX V5 Robot Brain (276-4810). Any other microcontrollers or processing devices are not allowed, even as non-functional decorations." This could be allowed by <R19a>, but any device that is created to manipulate the controller may not contain these prohibited items.

Case 3: A laynard would be considered legal under rule <R19a>.