FRC Build of Materials?
 

Hi, I am part of FRC team 4615, we are rookies attending the Pittsburgh Regional. The main and alternate contacts are very unfarmiliar with the Build of Materials and were wondering in an experienced team could show us a sample Build of Materials for reference in making ours.
Thanks

Re: FRC Build of Materials?
 

Here's the template for the Bill of Materials:

http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default..._Template.xlsx

Re: FRC Build of Materials?
 

Writing the BOM can be a fairly time-consuming process. I recommend getting a student/mentor on that spreadsheet linked about as soon as possible. It is good bookkeeping, and should be updated throughout the build season.

Having said that, in my two years in FRC we've completed our BOM very last minute (at competition our rookie year). Inspectors like to see it and give it a quick once over, so make sure you don't lie. But you can always edit mistakes, and still pass inspection.

Re: FRC Build of Materials?
 

Yep, pretty much how it goes :P

Re: FRC Build of Materials?
 

The BeachBots consider our Bill of Materials spreadsheet an essential design tool.

Early in the design phase estimated components and weights are put in as placeholders so that we have a running estimate of the currrent robot weight. Actual weights are substituted as the information becomes available. Individual components are linked to their subsystems so we know which parts stay and leave together.

When it is time to submit the BOM, we are already done. If we have a weight issue, we know which components or subsystems are heaviest. With that knowledge we can make an informed decision about which system to take off or where we could possibly lighten up.

It has been a very long time since we were more than 1lb over weight at our first official weigh-in.

We also track costs on the same sheet, but that is usually less critical.

The BOM should not be just a chore.

ChrisH

Re: FRC Build of Materials?
 

Since last season we've been tracking the weights, quantities of every part in our inventory in a Microsoft Access database. Makes it much simpler to manage the weights and allocate between different subsystems.

ChrisH might recall we had a slight issue with that last year :) Much easier to fix during the design process rather than the last weekend of build season. Can't overstate the importance of this, completely agree.

Re: FRC Build of Materials?
 

I find the official BOM template to be really annoying to use because of the way it's formatted - it adds extra time to dink around with the cumbersome formatting. So I started using my own very simple spreadsheet a couple of years ago. It doesn't seem to bother the inspectors at all.

Agreed, it is very nice to use this type of tool to predict your weight. I am doing that again this year, and the numbers I'm getting have me very nervous...