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Foster 13-12-2013 17:52

Re: Vex Versachassis
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon_L (Post 1311782)
We chose the voucher, but in retrospect we somewhat wish we did not. A huge part of that decision was just having no idea what the hell the kit was going to be.

To whoever is responsible for that, I feel like forcing teams to choose blindly was a horrible idea.

And I'm thinking that it isn't / wasn't / not going to be. You are trying to pre-guess a game, line up parts, etc based on "current market conditions" Hey, welcome to the real world of engineering, we do this all the time. Pick a CPU, build an eco-system around it, and go for the market. Some people, say Raspberry-Pi, picked Broadcom SoC and had an epic win, but it could go easily the other way.

So you have an amazing lesson learned for your team. Market conditions shift. Who knows what AM will present in the next week? AM is another building full of smart guys working on cool robot stuff. And when they present their new product line are you going to swing the other way?

But I'll make a deal with you. As the Chief Roboteer of STEMRobotics, I'll buy your AM voucher, send me a PM and I'll send you a check to cover the cost. I'll work out a way to get it to a rookie team that wants it. But, in the case that you decide to go the AM frame, you buy two and send the second to a rookie.

Risk, reward, market conditions, etc. This is what FIRST is partially about. Real world engineering in real world conditions with real world demands on delivery to the market place. (In a nice ecosystem where they don't fire you and put you and your family on the street living in a minivan)

Just as an aside, I love the VEX guys, I'm presently sitting next to $2.3 million in VRC parts, I've been with them for awhile. But I have equal love for AM, their parts and amazing customer service (Andy delivered parts to our pits!) So being fickle after an advertising blitz is OK for CD, but in the real world you need to work with your suppliers.

Paul Copioli 13-12-2013 21:17

Re: Vex Versachassis
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by mrnoble (Post 1311778)
I know the people at Vex often visit here, so I have a concern I'd like to address and see if they have a response.

I love the VexPro products; we binge-bought gear boxes, motors, and parts last spring, and we're really looking forward to using them for this year's game. When VersaChassis was unveiled, it significantly changed our plans for the structure of our bot. Today, I bought about $700 of the chassis parts in anticipation of using them. My concern is the delivery date. The email I received simply said that it was on hold due to extended lead time. When I called, I was told that they were hoping to ship "sometime in January". While I understand that this may just be a way of avoiding broken promises, I am concerned that we have now invested our budget in materials that might not arrive in time for us to actually build a robot. If I can't get some assurance that we will be able to use the parts, we will probably have to look at other options and cancel the order.

Hoping to get some feedback. Thanks!


Joel,

In looking at your order (#11081799), all of the sprockets and chain are in stock and can ship immediately. All of the gussets will definitely ship before kickoff (they are made in our Greenville, TX sheet metal shop). I just approved the production samples for the tubing (they look way better than I expected) so I am hoping they will ship by Kickoff, too. Worst case scenario, the tubing will ship by January 15th.

In my opinion, this is plenty of time to support your robot build. However, if you believe this does not support your schedule please either call, 903-453-0802, or e-mail us, support@vex.com, to cancel all, or part, of your order.

Paul

mrnoble 13-12-2013 22:22

Re: Vex Versachassis
 
Paul,

I meant what I said about being wild about your products, and about the reveal of the VersaChassis being a major factor in changing our purchasing plans for the year. I also really appreciate your response. For now, it sounds like your production is on-target for making the materials work for our (and everyone else's) robot, and we will keep the order together in hopes that it works out. We may build our practice bot out of some local square tube with your gussets, if the tubing isn't ready before the 15th. Please keep us updated as we get closer to kickoff, as to any changes in ship-by dates. And again, you guys make and sell awesome products.

Oblarg 13-12-2013 22:55

Re: Vex Versachassis
 
As cool as VersaChassis looks, I don't think either of the teams I work with will be using it for our main chassis this year; at 449 we've already purchased a very large quantity of 2x1 and have a fair number of 80/20 gussets lying around, which will suffice for our framing purposes. At 4464, we're going with the kitbot chassis, since that worked wonderfully for us last year; might consider it for superstructure, though.

That said, I can't wait to experiment with it for drive bases in the offseason and in future years. Looks like it'll save a significant amount of time from the match-drilled gusset plate construction we've been using on both teams.


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