Chief Delphi - FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

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Chief Delphi (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/index.php)

- General Forum (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=16)

- - FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131244)

AllenGregoryIV

26-11-2014 13:07

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

I find it strange that there aren't compressors in FIRST Choice. Kickoff KOP hasn't had them for any teams the last few years, so rookie teams needed to get them from FIRST Choice or buy them.

If they aren't in the KOP, it looks like another cost for new teams.

jwfoss

26-11-2014 13:13

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV (Post 1410193)

I'm hoping this just means a new compressor is now in the kit, or that the rules have been opened up further on what is allowed for compressors.

geomapguy

26-11-2014 20:43

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Interesting motor in FIRST Choice

http://firstchoicebyandymark.com/fc15-037

EricH

26-11-2014 21:14

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Quote:

Originally Posted by geomapguy (Post 1410249)

Interesting motor in FIRST Choice

http://firstchoicebyandymark.com/fc15-037

My take on it: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...74&postcount=3

Michael Hill

27-11-2014 00:44

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

I've made a spreadsheet comparing credits to $ amount.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

It's incomplete because some prices aren't published. There are a lot of obsolete parts (which is why I'm guessing a lot of them get donated).

I was hesitant to share this because I don't want teams to claim stuff on First Choice just because it's more bang for the buck(/credit). Get what you're actually going to need, not chase the better deal.

Please feel free to edit and change prices if you find a better price somewhere else for the same (or equivalent) part.

richtop

27-11-2014 02:33

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

This thread has mentioned the 600 point limit, and provides a recommendation for Rookies (which I would have really appreciated seeing last year as a rookie team). I wanted to point out the first choice web site recommends not 600 points but 2000 points worth of items be selected:

Quote:

You will have 600 Credits that can be used on your Priority List.
It is recommended to have more than 2000 Credits of items on your Priority List, as it is possible to not get everything on your list.

mr_yes

27-11-2014 11:03

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Hill (Post 1410285)

I've made a spreadsheet comparing credits to $ amount.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

I'm impressed! Yesterday I worked up the following Python code which harvests the FC offerings from the website and outputs them as a comma-separated-values list. But it's really nice to see these items compared to their commercial counterparts. The one column in my list that is not on your spreadsheet is "Max Qty" for those items that are quantity-limited.

I imported a run from this morning into Google Sheets at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Code:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

"""

Created on Wed Nov 26 21:39:26 2014



@author: John

"""



from __future__ import division # for python 2

import nltk, re, pprint

from nltk import word_tokenize

url = "http://www.firstchoicebyandymark.com/everything/"

html=urllib.urlopen(url).read()

#print len(html)," characters read from ",url

#raw=nltk.clean_html(html)

#print len(raw)," characters in cleaned html"

# cut out the useless stuff at the start and end

#istart=raw.find('<div class="product-item"')

#iend=raw.find('<div class="footer">')

#raw = raw[istart:iend]

# turn into tokens

tokens = word_tokenize(html)

text = nltk.Text(tokens)

def findy(searchFor,searchIn):

    for num,value in enumerate(searchIn):

        if value==searchFor:

            return num

    return 0

qx=[]

tokens=tokens[findy('product-item',tokens):] # Advance to first item

while findy('data-productid=',tokens)>0:

    prodid=tokens[findy('data-productid=',tokens)+2]

    link="http://www.firstchoicebyandymark.com"+tokens[findy('href=',tokens)+2]

    if1=findy('Show',tokens)+3

    if2=findy("''",tokens[if1:])

    descrip=' '.join(tokens[if1:if1+if2])

    if1=findy('actual-price',tokens)+3

    price=tokens[if1]

    if2=findy('maxqty',tokens)

    if if2==0 or if2>if1:

        maxqty='none'

    else:

        maxqty=tokens[if2+11]

    end=findy('/div',tokens[if1:])+if1

    qx.append([prodid,descrip,price,maxqty,link])

    tokens=tokens[end:] # Advance to next item

print 'product id,description,price,max qty,link'

for x in qx:

    print x[0],',"',x[1],'",',x[2],",",x[3],",",x[4]

snoman

27-11-2014 12:52

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

a crimping tool that cost more than $200can anybody tell me why that's a good deal

EricH

27-11-2014 12:57

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Quote:

Originally Posted by snoman (Post 1410320)

a crimping tool that cost more than $200can anybody tell me why that's a good deal

It's a ratcheting crimper. It's a LOT more "idiot-proof" than a normal crimper/stripper combination. Means that you lose crimps a lot less often. And it's only 100 credits...

BUT, pay attention: It's meant for #8 to #1, and most FIRST teams won't use anything thicker than #6 (battery cables) or maybe #4 (same use).

HydePhoenix

29-11-2014 10:05

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

<Rookie alert>

We are a rookie team starting "from scratch." I.e., assume we have nothing.

Reviewing FIRST Senior Mentor Dana Henry's FIRST Choice list for rookie teams, and crossing it against Michael Hill's spreadsheet comparing part costs to credits, I get the following $ / credit values:

Batteries fc15-008 50 1 50 $0.89
Battery charger fc15-005 50 1 50 $0.66
Ethernet port saver fc15-030 5 2 10 $1.15
Velcro kit fc15-036 10 1 10 $2.49
Encoder Kit fc15-039 20 2 40 $1.18
Spikes fc15-112 20 2 40 $1.75
Black Jaguars fc15-0340 50 4 200 $1.60
Victor 888 fc15-019 50 4 200 $1.40

It has been suggested that buying batteries locally may be cheaper than paying for shipping via FC.

The hypothesis I'd appreciate feedback on is: As rookies, we're probably going to be buying a lot of stuff, and so we should be careful to maximize the value of our FC credits. E.g., why not buy a battery charger, say - and conceivably one preferable to the one on offer here - rather than paying money for a higher cost / credit item available here?

The problem is: As a rookie, I don't know enough to know which higher cost / credit items here we're going to need.

Any further suggestions on this score?...

Many thanks!

IceStorm

29-11-2014 10:57

I would look to add some of the pneumatic components to your list as a rookie team. They used to include more of them in the kop but that has been lacking the past few years and we have had to either purchase those parts or use our credits. Also while those speed controllers are not the most current ones that teams are purchasing they certainly do the job just fine and can save you some money in the long run.
I agree about the batteries and shipping costs. Are team is fairly close to andymark and can either pay lesser shipping or occasionally have another team mentor that goes through the area that will stop and pick items up.

AllenGregoryIV

29-11-2014 11:45

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

I throw this together pretty quickly but this is what I would want if I were starting a rookie team this year and I was guaranteed to get everything I wanted from first choice. This isn't in order of priority or anything like that and any priority list should have way more items then are included on this.

Notes: I don't like jaguars and I'd rather buy batteries and chargers from other sources. This also assumes that you would like to build a practice robot and have some knowledge of the old control system.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...dBQ/edit#gid=0

HydePhoenix

30-11-2014 14:22

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Thanks for your replies. This begs the question - that I had yet to consider: Will we, in our rookie year, have a practice robot?

This might seem OT relative to FC, but if we do plan to have a practice robot, looking at the very high $ / credit for the cRIO and PDB, the time is obviously now to make this call.

The change in the controller makes me wary of grabbing the cRIO since FRC is moving in another direction (right?), but two considerations push me toward this:

We have scheduled time for robotics every day through the end of February, so a practice robot would give us something to do once ours ships; and
Outreach seems to be one of the most promising arenas for us during our rookie year, and a practice robot would help with this since it would give us something to show....

Thoughts?

Thanks again!

AndreaV

30-11-2014 14:45

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricH (Post 1410322)

according to the website, under product discription it states:
"Full Cycle Ratchet Crimping Tool, 16 AWG-4 AWG, 8 AWG-1 AWG Flex Copper, Die Wheel"

http://ecat.burndy.com/Comergent/bur...Other Features

It seems like it has two wheels? can anyone clarify this?

AllenGregoryIV

30-11-2014 18:32

Re: FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

Quote:

Originally Posted by HydePhoenix (Post 1410685)

Thanks for your replies. This begs the question - that I had yet to consider: Will we, in our rookie year, have a practice robot?

This is a decision you have to make as a team. If I were starting a team I would do whatever was needed to make some type of practice robot. My first year with Spectrum we build a practice robot but we did it by removing nearly all of our electronics from the competition robot on bag day and reinstalling them at our first event. It would have been far easier if we had a second controller and everything even if it were an older generation since most of the code is transferable from the cRIO to the RoboRIO (depending on your programming language and features you choose to use).

We also were meeting every day throughout the entire competition season, Jan-Apr. So a practice robot was very useful.

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