What should we buy before kickoff?

[mrnoble]

This post is at least as much for other teams as it is for me. What do y'all think are items which are important enough, and difficult enough to get, and ubiquitously useful enough, that teams should purchase them before (or shortly after) kickoff, rather than waiting for the game release?

I'll put in the things I think we should avoid purchasing in advance:

drive gear boxes
potential game pieces
drive wheels (maybe)


And, things I think are important to have in stock:

mechanism gear boxes
prototyping materials (2x4's)
motors
motor controllers
whatever materials you will use for contruction of drive bases and superstructures (aluminum tubing or C-channel, for instance)

[Doug Frisk]

This post is at least as much for other teams as it is for me. What do y'all think are items which are important enough, and difficult enough to get, and ubiquitously useful enough, that teams should purchase them before (or shortly after) kickoff, rather than waiting for the game release?

I'll put in the things I think we should avoid purchasing in advance:

drive gear boxes
potential game pieces
drive wheels (maybe)


And, things I think are important to have in stock:

mechanism gear boxes
prototyping materials (2x4's)
motors
motor controllers
whatever materials you will use for contruction of drive bases and superstructures (aluminum tubing or C-channel, for instance)


Doughnuts. Oh, and coffee.

[InspectorGadget1073]

Doughnuts. Oh, and coffee.

And maybe some energy drink if its going to be a long night

[rich2202]

Power cable for the Router
http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-3082.htm

NavX Board
http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-3060a.htm

Enough control systems (roborio, power distribution board, etc.) for 2, maybe 3 robots.
Our teams' schedule this year is:
End of week 3: Test robot (robot on a board) for the Programmers so they can start testing code on a target configuration.
End of week 5: Practice robot (version 1 of the robot)
End of week 6: Competition robot

It is expensive the first year, but in future years, you can cannibalize the Test and Practice robots.

[waialua359]

LOTS of Zipties.
LOTS!

[Tim Sharp]

We always stock up on our team standard sizes of:

Square, round and hex aluminum stock
Fasteners
Bearings (very important, the popular sizes sell out almost every year)
Electrical wire
Supplies (loc-tite, cutting fluid, hand cleaner, shop towels ect..)

[221Sarahborg]

Based off of experience I would definitely say get any common goods and consumables as we call them. Anything simple and small that runs out can put building to a hault, and the first week is good to go out shopping when you're not meeting. Things like variously sized zip-ties, various types of tape (duct, masking, packing, electrical, etc.), fuses, glues, sand paper, and anything that may be necessary outside of essentials like aluminum, wires, tools you may need.
We also build our chassis and all around robots from PVC so we make sure we get our fittings and pipes in ahead of time.

[Marjory Frosty]

This year game piece(s) :]