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What was there before AndyMark?
During the NYC Regional, I was talking to Andy Baker, and throughout those three days, I had made friends with him and his team (Team 3940 cybertooth). I learned that AndyMark started in the early 2000's, but what I forgot to ask was what was there before. Was it just like every team for themselves, or was there an old AndyMark type store?
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Re: What was there before AndyMark?
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But mostly teams machined a lot and the average robot wasn't as good as they are today |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
Up until shortly before Andymark started (2003 I believe,) FRC was much more closed off in terms of allowed materials. Teams were given a budget from smallparts.com, rather than the blanket $4k budget of today. As a result, teams were much more reliant on mechanical components of the kit of parts than they are today. Even so, there was little/nothing special built for FRC. The "kit transmissions" were retrofitted drill transmissions, for example. If you wanted shifting transmissions or anything of that nature, you built it yourself.
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Re: What was there before AndyMark?
IFI was around before AndyMark IIRC.
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Re: What was there before AndyMark?
It was before my time as well. From what I understand part of the reason CD grew was because people were coming here to exchange ideas, photos and design techniques. Papers like this were made and teams survived with the COTS parts they could find. There were no FIRST dedicated vendors and the robots were generally simpler.
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Re: What was there before AndyMark?
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Small Parts became non-required in the very late 1990s/early 2000s, when they simply could not keep up with the number of teams. Simultaneously, the "prohibited materials" list grew very short. (Would you believe.... Titanium was once explicitly banned?) The "had to" was before my time actually on a team, I admit, but I remember seeing the Small Parts booth at a couple of events. Anyways, before AndyMark, all teams got a 2-speed shifting transmission in the kit, or rather two of 'em. Two drill motor transmissions with motors, to be exact. And yes, teams did have to machine a lot to do anything. Many of the dominating teams today got their start back then, or before, and can remember that. (The kit frame was simply huge aluminum extrusion, cut to length. No joke.) IFI did provide a controller... but no robot parts. Then came 2005. No drill motors in the kit, but 2 extra CIMs were allowed for the first time. Add in the IFI-provided Kitbot, and the Kitbot Transmission (1-speed, roughly the equivalent of the Toughbox), which as I recall was a joint effort between AndyMark and a couple other folks, and then you get AndyMark joining in with their Gen1 shifters... The FRC world would never be the same. |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
I know that Skyway wheels use to be the official provider of wheels for FIRST.
http://www.skywaywheels.com/ |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
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I wasn't around for the Small Parts era, but I was around for one season before what I term the modern era of kitbots and significant off-the-shelf parts. In 2004, the "kit" drivetrain were those drill gearboxes, some bearing blocks, 2"x4" aluminum extrusion, and some other odd gears that we never quite figured out. It took my rookie team (1293) about five and a half weeks to drive, and there were quite a few teams that weren't even that lucky. Basically, before you had companies like AndyMark you had to make or modify from scratch a LOT more than you do today. If you didn't have access to a proper machine shop to make your gears/plates/hubs/what-have-you, contending on any real level was a pipe dream. |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
If I recall, teams could only purchase materials from Small Parts, and were limited to a very short list of other allowed materials up through the 2002 season. For example, you could not purchase gears from any source other than Small Parts. In 2003, the short "materials allowed" list became a modest "materials prohibited" list.
Before AndyMark, teams had to actually THINK and design and fabricate things. Teams such as 716 and 45 published whitepapers on how to make shifting transmissions. Teams intricately studied the details of each other's designs, rather than waking up and blindly asking dumb questions like "how many wheels does your robot have?" It was a very different era, and some elements of it are certainly missed. As limited as it was, I do miss the old Small Parts and their old catalog. It may have been very over priced, and I probably didn't buy much, but they had some neat unique items. Now back to the modern day, what I can't figure out, is you can essentially buy a very competitive robot, with the right combination of parts, but a very large percentage of teams still produce very poor robots, many of which are incapable of assisting their alliance or scoring any points at all. What gives? |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
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I have theories to answer your question but this is neither the time nor the place. |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
I still have a small parts catalog from the 2000 season somewhere. Have to dig it out to remember just how limited it was. Back then we kludged a robot. Today we lead an engineering design build project. What a change.
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Re: What was there before AndyMark?
We can try and remember when andymark was started or we can look it up on the website.
http://www.andymark.com/aboutus.asp |
Re: What was there before AndyMark?
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JVN had a great point in this thread. Quote:
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