Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

- Point-and-Shoot camera for team photo taking, which can be loaded onto team websites and blogs. Obviously a one-per-team thing that rookies would only get after the initial year.

- Preconstructed bumbers, or all the resources needed to build them, such as pool noodles and "FIRST color fabric". Everyone is required to have them and construct them in a certian way. Its about time we start getting them in the kits, or at least getting a basic set of full coverage bumpers that go with the kit chassis.

- Gaffers Tape as it is used on the competition field. Especially for competitions that have reflective tape.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

Everything here is great, especially the CIM motors. However, a choice between jaguars or victors would be BEST because teams use one or the other generally, and if only one was given, i could see a lot of them going to waste, and the generosity of FIRST's sponsors should not be wasted. Also, this would allow more of them to be given, so teams can spend less on motor controllers.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

Bumpers are made to interface with your specific bot, so making a generic bumper to go with the kit frame wouldn't be much help. Even for teams that use the kit frame, teams use different mounting holes, as well as long vs. wide drive orientation, so full bumpers in the kit wouldn't be much use.

For example, my team used the kit frame this year. Our bumper mounts had to be moved for IRI because of an improvement that needs the mounting points the bumpers used.

However the fabric would be useful. :D

And how to build a robot instructions would be nice :rolleyes:

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

Yes please! haha. Them sharpies be a hot product for thieves.


Agreed. One centralized location to download software when hard copies of the software (oxy-moron much? ;) ) go missing.


I agree with everything here^



I think it may be worth putting together a poll that includes the items that seem to be a popular choice. I expect that it's best to emphasize one or two things that we would like changed that many seem to agree on rather than trying to make 80 suggestions that all get clustered together and whisked off as impractical.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

vise != crimper !!!

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

A MUST have for every FRC team
we bought a bag of 100 of each of the following items.

• part number 91202A234 Metric Zinc-plated Steel Split Lock Washer, M6 Screw Size, 11.8mm Od, 1.5mm Min Thick
• part number 92497A350 Metric Zinc-yellow Pltd Class 10 Stl Hex Nut, M6 Size,
• part number 94191A150 Mil Spec Grade 8 Steel Hex Nut, 1/4"-28 Thread Size, 7/16" W, 7/32" H, Ms51968-3 1mm Pitch, 10mm Width, 5mm Height

The M6 parts are for the PD, the 28TPS part is for the 120A disconnect.

Every team member is trained on the usage of the M6, 1/4-28, and 1/4-20 parts. Because the average new recruit cannot tell the difference and is gonna mess it up.

If you need those parts, visit our pit, we keep a bag of 100 stock.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

How are we gonna fit that training into the KOP? :p


btw the nuts should not be hard to find, look at the hardware store or an auto parts store. Metric hardware has been used on many American cars for the past 35 years

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

How about making some of the software mac friendly? That would really help for those of us who have macs and don't want to shell out cash for a Windows OS.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

Make a glossy bookmark card that is attractive and has some kind of useful information on one side and a tutorial with pictures on the other side, and put that in the KOP..

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

i know this is a total longshot but i'd like to see a switch from sla to lighter lifepo4 batteries like this

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

Not going to happen in the forseeable future.

Lead acid batteries have a current monopoly on capacity, ability to source current, ease of use & care, and most importantly for FRC purposes, cost.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

And safety, Adam.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

I'm not an expert, but high quality LiFePO4 batteries such as those that are intended for consumer applications are comparably safe to lead acid batteries.

Generic sack based lithium batteries like you see in the RC industry are another story though...

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

I'm also not a battery expert, but I've lived with one and worked with another. I believe the LiFePO4 chemistry to be sufficiently safe for FRC usage. They would be perfect if they didn't cost so much.

However, I would hesitate to use other Lithium based chemistries.

Re: What do YOU want in the Kit of Parts?
 

I don't know how much of this the suppliers can influence... But I would love to see FIRST release some of the Robot Rules information early. Is there any harm in giving us a list of approved motors in November? Or in giving us the required minimum/maximum specs for pneumatics? Or letting us know what the approved electronics are? By releasing some of that information earlier, it would hopefully help relax the strain we see every year on our suppliers. Older, veteran teams with abundant resources can order a bunch of motors before the season starts, while newer teams and those with fewer resources can order during the season. That way, suppliers like Banebots aren't trying to fulfill 3000 orders for a half dozen 550's each all at once. Less stress means the suppliers can plan their inventory a little better and turn around orders quicker. Letting teams get their hands on new motors earlier means we'll have abundant information available from other teams right here on CD when the season starts, giving us a better idea of which motors we want to use (for example, it would be nice to know ahead of time if a motor is prone to overheating, or if teams are finding case shorts, etc).

As for other ideas...

- I'd love to see more items move over to FIRST Choice and vouchers, but that obviously comes with the caveat of schedule. If a team wants to put together the kitbot chassis on day 1, it can't be on FIRST Choice.

- I'd love to have the choice between the c-base chassis and the Nano Tube chassis from AndyMark

- Having purchasable field elements from the start would be great. For example, being able to buy a kit to build a bridge (with performance comparable to competition bridges) would have been ideal this year, since the team-version ended up not having identical performance very easily.