Mission Possible C

[dragonfruit35]

You could probably use it for both. But if they dont want us doing that I'm not sure how they expect us to use a photocell without someone to receive inputs from it.

Wait you're right. I misread. :/ It said that each movable/adjustable physical object in the device must be utilized for at least one action. So Arduinos not included.

Also, for the single battery source bonus, would only a single physical battery qualify for this (ie. 4 AA 1.5 V batteries wired together wouldn't count because the source is made of 4 separate batteries)? How was this scored in the past?

Just a heads up for everyone, SO has banned Lithium batteries per the battery policy.

If these are the case, it looks like we can really only power it through a 9V battery. You could theoretically split the battery between a couple functions in parallel- it would hopefully last at least a while.

[radioactivated]

The rules state that "no electrical or spring timers are allowed". Does an electrical timer have to be powered by electricity (e.g. a timer on a microcontroller, or a motor spinning a threaded rod) or just include electricity in its working principle?

[dragonfruit35]

The rules state that "no electrical or spring timers are allowed". Does an electrical timer have to be powered by electricity (e.g. a timer on a microcontroller, or a motor spinning a threaded rod) or just include electricity in its working principle?

Based on the wording of the rule, I'd think that nothing directly powered by electricity would be allowed (e.g. nothing using a battery or electric components in the time-waster itself). I'm was thinking that the time-waster triggering something electrically would be legal, but now I'm not sure. Does anyone have an opinion?

[Tesel]

I'd be interested to see clarification on the process of "flipping a coin". Does it have to start completely parallel to the ground? What qualifies as airborne? Etc... this could be either a really easy or difficult task depending on how this is judged.

[ScottMaurer19]

The rules state that "no electrical or spring timers are allowed". Does an electrical timer have to be powered by electricity (e.g. a timer on a microcontroller, or a motor spinning a threaded rod) or just include electricity in its working principle?

Based on the wording of the rule, I'd think that nothing directly powered by electricity would be allowed (e.g. nothing using a battery or electric components in the time-waster itself). I'm wondering whether the time-waster triggering something electrically would be legal, though. Does anyone have an opinion?

I am not the writer of the rules so I am unsure of the original intention but I believe that they just don't want the action of timing itself being run by a electrical device. So a motor pulling a string (I wanted to do this too) would be illegal because the motor is part of the timing mechanism itself. If the timing mechanism were to be triggered by electronics (i.e. A servo dumping 2 chemicals together to start a reaction) or trigger the final action via electronics (i.e. A sand based timer triggering a switch a specific weight) then it would be fine. From my perspective as long as the timing mechanism itself is not electric then it is legal.

[ScottMaurer19]

I'd be interested to see clarification on the process of "flipping a coin". Does it have to start completely parallel to the ground? What qualifies as airborne? Etc... this could be either a really easy or difficult task depending on how this is judged.

Airborne would suggest that it must not have any contact with a solid (or liquid) while flipping over.

[daydreamer0023]

The rules state that "no electrical or spring timers are allowed". Does an electrical timer have to be powered by electricity (e.g. a timer on a microcontroller, or a motor spinning a threaded rod) or just include electricity in its working principle?

Based on the wording of the rule, I'd think that nothing directly powered by electricity would be allowed (e.g. nothing using a battery or electric components in the time-waster itself). I'm wondering whether the time-waster triggering something electrically would be legal, though. Does anyone have an opinion?

I am not the writer of the rules so I am unsure of the original intention but I believe that they just don't want the action of timing itself being run by a electrical device. So a motor pulling a string (I wanted to do this too) would be illegal because the motor is part of the timing mechanism itself. If the timing mechanism were to be triggered by electronics (i.e. A servo dumping 2 chemicals together to start a reaction) or trigger the final action via electronics (i.e. A sand based timer triggering a switch a specific weight) then it would be fine. From my perspective as long as the timing mechanism itself is not electric then it is legal.

I think the banning of electrical and spring timers was just to keep people from defaulting to them because they were comparatively simple to create/obtain and adjust to meet the ideal time. If you look at 2015's winning model on the wiki, they used a spring timer.

[Flavorflav]

I don't see anything in the rules against that...though I think that if you use an arduino for the middle, you'll need to use something else for the end?

You could probably use it for both. But if they dont want us doing that I'm not sure how they expect us to use a photocell without someone to receive inputs from it.

Wait you're right. I misread. :/ It said that each movable/adjustable physical object in the device must be utilized for at least one action. So Arduinos not included.

That depends on the definition of "adjustable," I imagine. One could consider a program to be an adjustment. I have submitted a clarification request, but we might not have an answer for a while The event is much simpler if you can use a single microprocessor.

[chalker]

I don't see any rules saying you're not allowed to, although I guess you could hit a play button on an mp3 player or something similar if you'd rather.

What about using a microcontoller in between transfers? ie. balloon inflates and pushes a button, button signals arduino, arduino intiates next transfer.

I don't see anything in the rules against that...though I think that if you use an arduino for the middle, you'll need to use something else for the end?

Keep in mind general rule #1: https://www.soinc.org/code-ethics-general-rules

[Flavorflav]

What about using a microcontoller in between transfers? ie. balloon inflates and pushes a button, button signals arduino, arduino intiates next transfer.

I don't see anything in the rules against that...though I think that if you use an arduino for the middle, you'll need to use something else for the end?

Keep in mind general rule #1: https://www.soinc.org/code-ethics-general-rules

But if a microprocessor is considered an "adjustable physical device," then general rule 1 wouldn't apply because using it for more than one transfer would violate 3f. I'm sure you guys are very busy, but I'd bet many of us would really appreciate having an answer on this question as you can get to it.

I just thought of something else, too. Say a team uses a temperature sensor which is supposed to trip the microcontroller at a given temperature. If there reaction wasn't taking as much time as they had hoped, they could program the microcontroller to wait a certain amount of time before initiating the next action. It seems the event supervisor would have no way of knowing whether or not the microcontroller is being used as a timer. One could even set it to trip the action a certain amount of time after it was turned on, and the judge might not be able to tell - i.e., ingore the temperature sensor completely so that the device always hits the target time.