To complete the BEST Tether System, the game field needed to have 4 dedicated transmitter frequencies, one for each team, and all other transmitters (used by the teams in the PIT area) must be disabled from generating radio frequency signals so that there would be no conflict with teams on the field. The crystal oscillator in all team transmitters was removed during robot compliance check to ensure they could not generate conflicting RF signals; teams were required to only operate via a tether except on the field.

Four towers were constructed on the field, each housing an RC transmitter with a unique frequency. Teams would then swap the receiver box on their robot for one handed to them at staging; this “Field Receiver box” used the same frequency as the field transmitter at their assigned field quadrant. Once on the field, the team would connect their team transmitter to the field transmitter tower via a cable to the trainer port on the back of their transmitter.

Hubs were required to construct theses Field Transmitters and then reuse them annually. This involved deconstructing an RC transmitter and packing it into a 4″ PVC pipe “tower”. Here are the actual instructions for building their Field Transmitter towers.

As shown in the photos above, the Futaba 4YF transmitter’s trainer port changed to a rectangular connector vs. the round DIN connector used on the Futaba 4VF transmitter. So BEST created instructions for creating a trainer adapter to be able to use the new transmitters with older Field Transmitters and Tether boxes. Here are those instructions.