So that clarification that you read states:
Mission Possible: Section 3.d. should read (see additions in bold): "Electric components shall be limited to batteries, wires, motors, switches, resistors, capacitors, commercial photocells (i.e., cadmium sulfide (CdS) cell, photoresistors or light dependent resistors), mechanical relays, lightbulbs, and LEDs. No computers or transistors will be permitted in the device." (11/9/09)
fleet talked about what using "i.e." there meant, at one point:
fleet130 wrote:Taken literally, the clarification allows only "cadmium sulfide (CdS) cell, photoresistors or light dependent resistors".
i.e is an abbreviation for the Latin "id est" ("that is" in English)) and includes only those items specifically listed.
Nationals confirmed that interpretation with this FAQ:
http://soinc.org/node/514
The revision to Section 3.d. "commercial photocells (i.e.cadmium sulfide (CdS) cell, photoresistors or light dependent resistors" seems to only include photoconductive type photocells. Does this mean that photovoltaic type photocells (i.e. solar c...
Correct, photovoltaic cells are not allowed.
Previously, FAQs and Clarifications only officially applied to the National tournament, though states and regionals often obeyed them.
This year at least..."These Official Rules Clarifications apply to all states and all tournaments and originate at the national level." appears on both the clarification and FAQ pages.
So the above should apply to all tournaments.
So no, photovoltaic cells are not allowed at the moment. Why? Well, they just decided that was how it was going to be
The original rules left it kinda vague as to what was allowed and in the clarification process, they decided to ban photovoltaics and allow only photoresistors.