Hello members of the Game Design Committee,
I am emailing to inquire about the rationale behind some of the robot rules, particularly R7i. This affected not only my team, but numerous other teams as I talked with them during the World Championship. This also remains my question going forward for this season.
In particular, I want to know why the emphasis on black pneumatic tubing. The rule states identical product numbers to pneumatics parts listed on the VEX website. The part for tubing, TUO425B-X81US1696, when input on the supplier SMC’s website, shows the product as obsolete, and suggests alternative products, such as TUO425B-100, which is the same product just a different length of tubing, maintaining the same OD and ID.
Inspecting the data sheet for the item, it appears that different color codes can be used, and that being the only difference between the items, for example TUO425B being Black tubing, and TUO425BU2 being solid blue. To my knowledge there doesn’t seem to be any functional difference between the products with different colors, and the only discrepancy is in the color code. I want to understand what is the rationale for only requiring black pneumatic tubing, when it wasn’t emphasized before, and why colored tubing was only allowed in the VEX U division.
Additionally, there were teams at Worlds. using pneumatic cylinder fittings that were at 90 degree angles to accommodate tight fitting angles for tubing. The product numbers of these fittings are KQ2L04-M5A. This differs from what is listed, but was not called at worlds. It also doesn’t appear to provide any advantage to teams besides being helping students work with pneumatics in more confined spaces.
The costs for these particular parts aren’t excessive, so I would like to know if parts like these could be considered legal for the future.
Thank you.