Infrared Task

[Unome]

See rule 4.b.v

This task is identical to last year's.

[absolutezerok3]

Would making the infrared receiver run a motor(without any programmable stuff) after receiving a signal from a remote be considered within the bounds of the scorable action or would it be considered 2 separate actions?

[nicholasmaurer]

Would making the infrared receiver run a motor(without any programmable stuff) after receiving a signal from a remote be considered within the bounds of the scorable action or would it be considered 2 separate actions?

This will depend largely on your execution. I'd recommend two things to make this safer:

• 1. Phrase/structure your ASL carefully: include the motor in the same action/line as the infrared beam to make it clear its part of scorable action 5
  2. Keep the motor's role simple and ensure it leads directly and quickly to "initiating the next action." This once again relies on your ASL - as soon as the motor has converted the electrical energy into mechanical, switch to a new line/action.

[cuber]

Do you guys think it's necessary to modulate the emitter and receiver to avoid interference, or just use a constant on or off beam? Last year I used arduino's to modulate the beam, but I'm aware that there are 555 timer circuits that can accomplish the same thing, I just need to do a little digging to find them.

[chessbucket]

Would making the infrared receiver run a motor(without any programmable stuff) after receiving a signal from a remote be considered within the bounds of the scorable action or would it be considered 2 separate actions?

This will depend largely on your execution. I'd recommend two things to make this safer:

• 1. Phrase/structure your ASL carefully: include the motor in the same action/line as the infrared beam to make it clear its part of scorable action 5
  2. Keep the motor's role simple and ensure it leads directly and quickly to "initiating the next action." This once again relies on your ASL - as soon as the motor has converted the electrical energy into mechanical, switch to a new line/action.

An FAQ or rule clarification needs to be posted for what is allowed for the 3 tasks that you can use electricity. Does that mean you can use electricity to accomplish those certain 3 tasks, and then use electricity to do the next task which is not specifically said to use electricity (i.e. infrared beam triggers a motor which winches up the 500g mass with pulley system of ima=3)? If not, then the only way to conclude an electrical task would be to feed it into another electrical task and so forth- the last 4 tasks are already set in stone then, because they would be the 3 electrical tasks and then the final task.

[ScottMaurer19]

Would making the infrared receiver run a motor(without any programmable stuff) after receiving a signal from a remote be considered within the bounds of the scorable action or would it be considered 2 separate actions?

This will depend largely on your execution. I'd recommend two things to make this safer:

• 1. Phrase/structure your ASL carefully: include the motor in the same action/line as the infrared beam to make it clear its part of scorable action 5
  2. Keep the motor's role simple and ensure it leads directly and quickly to "initiating the next action." This once again relies on your ASL - as soon as the motor has converted the electrical energy into mechanical, switch to a new line/action.

An FAQ or rule clarification needs to be posted for what is allowed for the 3 tasks that you can use electricity. Does that mean you can use electricity to accomplish those certain 3 tasks, and then use electricity to do the next task which is not specifically said to use electricity (i.e. infrared beam triggers a motor which winches up the 500g mass with pulley system of ima=3)? If not, then the only way to conclude an electrical task would be to feed it into another electrical task and so forth- the last 4 tasks are already set in stone then, because they would be the 3 electrical tasks and then the final task.

You can use electricity to INTIATE the next action but not carry it out. For example, infrared beam causes a solenoid that was preventing a mass from falling to open. This would then allow the mass to fall and so on. The IR/solenoid would be all part of the same action. Then the mass falling would be the next.

[chessbucket]

This will depend largely on your execution. I'd recommend two things to make this safer:

• 1. Phrase/structure your ASL carefully: include the motor in the same action/line as the infrared beam to make it clear its part of scorable action 5
  2. Keep the motor's role simple and ensure it leads directly and quickly to "initiating the next action." This once again relies on your ASL - as soon as the motor has converted the electrical energy into mechanical, switch to a new line/action.

An FAQ or rule clarification needs to be posted for what is allowed for the 3 tasks that you can use electricity. Does that mean you can use electricity to accomplish those certain 3 tasks, and then use electricity to do the next task which is not specifically said to use electricity (i.e. infrared beam triggers a motor which winches up the 500g mass with pulley system of ima=3)? If not, then the only way to conclude an electrical task would be to feed it into another electrical task and so forth- the last 4 tasks are already set in stone then, because they would be the 3 electrical tasks and then the final task.

You can use electricity to INTIATE the next action but not carry it out. For example, infrared beam causes a solenoid that was preventing a mass from falling to open. This would then allow the mass to fall and so on. The IR/solenoid would be all part of the same action. Then the mass falling would be the next.

Ahhh that makes sense. Still would want to post an FAQ just to be sure.

[trdd]

An FAQ or rule clarification needs to be posted for what is allowed for the 3 tasks that you can use electricity. Does that mean you can use electricity to accomplish those certain 3 tasks, and then use electricity to do the next task which is not specifically said to use electricity (i.e. infrared beam triggers a motor which winches up the 500g mass with pulley system of ima=3)? If not, then the only way to conclude an electrical task would be to feed it into another electrical task and so forth- the last 4 tasks are already set in stone then, because they would be the 3 electrical tasks and then the final task.

You can use electricity to INTIATE the next action but not carry it out. For example, infrared beam causes a solenoid that was preventing a mass from falling to open. This would then allow the mass to fall and so on. The IR/solenoid would be all part of the same action. Then the mass falling would be the next.

Ahhh that makes sense. Still would want to post an FAQ just to be sure.

That's the way I'm interpreting that too. If you use electricity after the endothermic task to run a motor to raise the pulley, then the motor would be considered part of the pulley task because the motor is the one doing all of the work of pulling the 500g weight of the pulley system and thus incur the penalty. The motor is not initiating the next action. It would be PART of the next action. But if you use the same motor to rotate a base holding a weight causing it to fall down, then that same motor was used to initiate the next action and as long as YOU INCLUDE that motor as part of the endothermic task in your ASL. Something like: "When this device gets cold it turns on this motor that moves the base releasing the weight which initiates the next action" Then that would be ok because the motor will not be running the pulley. Bottom line is: YOU CAN'T USE A MOTOR to pull up the weight of the the pulley system. It has to be done with potential energy.

[chessbucket]

You can use electricity to INTIATE the next action but not carry it out. For example, infrared beam causes a solenoid that was preventing a mass from falling to open. This would then allow the mass to fall and so on. The IR/solenoid would be all part of the same action. Then the mass falling would be the next.

Ahhh that makes sense. Still would want to post an FAQ just to be sure.

That's the way I'm interpreting that too. If you use electricity after the endothermic task to run a motor to raise the pulley, then the motor would be considered part of the pulley task because the motor is the one doing all of the work of pulling the 500g weight of the pulley system and thus incur the penalty. The motor is not initiating the next action. It would be PART of the next action. But if you use the same motor to rotate a base holding a weight causing it to fall down, then that same motor was used to initiate the next action and as long as YOU INCLUDE that motor as part of the endothermic task in your ASL. Something like: "When this device gets cold it turns on this motor that moves the base releasing the weight which initiates the next action" Then that would be ok because the motor will not be running the pulley. Bottom line is: YOU CAN'T USE A MOTOR to pull up the weight of the the pulley system. It has to be done with potential energy.

Ahh ok that makes so much more sense. Thanks trdd.

[Flavorflav]

This will depend largely on your execution. I'd recommend two things to make this safer:

• 1. Phrase/structure your ASL carefully: include the motor in the same action/line as the infrared beam to make it clear its part of scorable action 5
  2. Keep the motor's role simple and ensure it leads directly and quickly to "initiating the next action." This once again relies on your ASL - as soon as the motor has converted the electrical energy into mechanical, switch to a new line/action.

An FAQ or rule clarification needs to be posted for what is allowed for the 3 tasks that you can use electricity. Does that mean you can use electricity to accomplish those certain 3 tasks, and then use electricity to do the next task which is not specifically said to use electricity (i.e. infrared beam triggers a motor which winches up the 500g mass with pulley system of ima=3)? If not, then the only way to conclude an electrical task would be to feed it into another electrical task and so forth- the last 4 tasks are already set in stone then, because they would be the 3 electrical tasks and then the final task.

You can use electricity to INTIATE the next action but not carry it out. For example, infrared beam causes a solenoid that was preventing a mass from falling to open. This would then allow the mass to fall and so on. The IR/solenoid would be all part of the same action. Then the mass falling would be the next.

So would you think that you could list the IR receiver, a relay and a motor/servo/solenoid as all being part of the IR task? The difficulty is that most IR components are not built to handle much current, and I'm afraid that without a microcontroller flipping a relay is about the best you could do.