New AndyMark products 2016
 

According to this tweet, the first batch of new AM product announcements will arrive tomorrow, with more coming over the next two weeks.:
http://twitter.com/andymarkinc/statu...94623675645952

They have already teased some of the new products:
http://www.instagram.com/p/_RxImbhz78/
http://www.instagram.com/p/_Kd194hz9J/

I'm excited. Are you excited?

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The drivetrain in the back right looks like a tank tread.

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I noticed the chassis rails. Looks different than any of the other ones they sell currently.

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And the chassis has REV extrusion as cross pieces.

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CAUTION: Epic MSPaint skills.

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Hmm good eye.

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Those plates on that (presuming) chassis look huge (1/4"?) If andymark is designing a Kop chassis so heavy, could this be the year our weight limit is increased? Or perhaps the game relies so heavily on our drive train this year (more so than usual) maybe they think it's worth the extra weight...

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They already released the cross sections of the KOP drivetrain. I'll be similar to last year's, which is a good thing.

http://archive.usfirst.org/sites/def...Comparison.pdf

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FIRST already published the profile drawings for this year's kit of parts chassis it was in the blog post about the AndyMark PDV. It's only 1/8" thick like normal. The chassis in the photo is likely not the KOP chassis.

2015 KOP Chassis profile drawings.

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Would be nice to see some 3.25" wheels with tread...

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Can someone with experience with Blue Nitrile Tread comment on its durability for drivetrain wheels? It looks pretty sweet and has a good CoF so it seems interesting.

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It's quite nice. We used it in 2014 and were impressed. One set of tread made it through a competition and a practice day as opposed to the older orange stuff we had been using that barely made it through a competition.

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It has better grip than most other popular wheel types, but if you're in a heavily defensive game with a lot of aggressive driving you can expect to change the tread every competition. Maybe even between quals and elims.

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2011 and 2014 we ran blue rough top 2" wide and replaced once per event, including champs, and had plenty of life left in it. It's good stuff.

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So Andymark is going to start selling a chassis with tank treads? Cool.

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Considering the heavy defense 973 was playing in those two years that definitely shows some great durability!

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If this is really a tank tread drive, it looks like massive T-Bone bait to me.

Long flat surface of tread + quarter plate and 80-20 standoff construction?

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Tank treads are so 2004 :)

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/img...b75e1caf_l.jpg

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I was thinking a little bit more modern, they seem rather 2006 to me... but I'd have to hear was 195 and 522 think about it.
Either way I'm excited to see a new line of products coming from AndyMark.

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Yes, definitely. Also, they are so 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2003.

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This is why we can't have nice carpet!

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<Insert witty remark about regolith here>

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Instead of tank, it looks more like grasshopper to me. You can see the timing belt on the right hand side of that front Blue Nitrile wheel. Just my two sense.

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Blue Nitrile Tread is the best smelling wheel tread. #thingsyoufigureoutat2AM

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What are you calling a grasshopper drive? I've started seeing butterfly and grasshopper used to describe the same stuff now.

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I actually seem to recall a discussion about that in our lab in 2014 too when we were cutting it. I don't remember all of the conversation but I'm 90% certain we came to the same conclusion.

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Can confirm, smells delicious.

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They have all been staring at me funny here at AndyMark because I kept saying the same thing. The blue nitrile roughtop smells pretty good.

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I'm intrigued to see what all AM is releasing... looks like it'll at least include some nifty new wheels, treads, and pulleys. I'd love to see some good wheels for blue nitrile tread that effectively retain the tread (and preferably aren't a bear to assemble)... although the AM KOP wheels, VP VersaWheels, and new Colsons are all good, none of them seem to be as grippy as blue nitrile tread (at a reasonable tread life).

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I last used it in 2007, so it's been a while. However, it had great durability that year (in what was a very defensive game, though less matches per event back then). We ran both of our events without replacing it, and it held up fine on carpet.

However, one outreach event on smooth concrete did wear the tread significantly. It also left blue streaks all over the concrete floor.

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Great, just what we need: more wheel options for Teh Chezy Pofs :rolleyes:

:D

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Grape juice, i believe.

Im sold order me 25 palettes.

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We ran Blue Nitrile on 865 in 2014 on a highly defensive 6wd robot because we heard how durable it was. On average the middle wheel would last 2-3 matches before it became a slick. Our outer wheels would last 4-6 matches. Changing tread was a pain requiring two people to rivet the tread to the alu performance wheel and the ziptie attachment method did not work at all. We had to buy a second set of wheels so we could swap the tread fast enough (good thing we were using a WCD). The traction was marginally better than a Colson when fresh IMO.

4/10 would not use again

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Is that a 2" Stealth wheel? This would be great, if it could compete with BaneBots wheels.

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Judging by the "#stealthwheel" in the caption, I'd say it is.

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Um this already exists.

http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-3155.htm

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According to their drawing, it was developed about a week ago. Might be wrong however. Stealth Wheel Drawing

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If you look on the drawings it has different tread Durometers for different colors. Looks like the one you can buy is the gray one which has a durometer of 77a compared to the blue(Pictured) which has a durometer of 50a. So Im guessing the new product has to do with the tread at not the wheel shape.

Also just noticed they spelled color wrong.

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Noupe

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So you coming to Natiounals this year?

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Colour is my favourite way to spell colour.

-Nick

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How wide were your wheels?

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1" we used these http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-0393.htm

Admittedly it's an edge case. Blue nitrile treads will work fine for a lot of teams but with new COTS options like Colsons I think there are better options out there.

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Well it is already evident that the big focus of the new products is going to be new wheels. The two instagram photos dipicted new color wheels, black and blue. Most likely to replace the bane bot wheels. Black, blue and grey have different durometers.

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How odd. I wonder how your tread wore out so fast. We ran blue nitrile in 2014 and didn't need to swap out for two competitions.

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If you hadn't seen it yet, some new products have been released. A whole slew of new wheels, and also some slick bumper material.

http://www.andymark.com/New-Products-s/189.htm

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The six and eight inch wheels both say they are four inch diameter. Oops.

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Just send an email over to support at andymark.com and they'll fix it ASAP.

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Thanks for letting us know. Its been fixed. :D

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Should've added "or if Brett sees this first...". :D

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I notice there is some new slick bumper material in red and blue so to me this somewhat confirms that the bumper rules will be very similar to 2014 and provide for a variety of materials and require both a red and blue set. I am curious to see if AM will introduce anything else new for bumpers for this season though.

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Well we ordered both of the rolls of slick material for now.
Is it similar in properties to the sail stuff people have been talking about.

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Any idea on when all the bumper cloth will be in stock?

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2016 gamepieces made of Euroboard confirmed.

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It's available now! Sorry for the hiccup!

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im surprised no one has mentioned the analogue pressure sensor, although it has been used in the past, now there is a easy to get FIRST compatible one, with full datasheet ect. Kinda nice.

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AndyMark is distributing the sensor, but it was designed and produced by REV Robotics. Their product release is in a separate thread.

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The new wheels look like they provide some good options... two questions though...

1) Is there (or will there) be a 4" HiGrip wheel in the softer durometers (black and/or blue)? I see the larger 6" HiGrip wheels are available in the softer durometers and that the 4" stealth wheels are.

2) Has anyone used the 6" HiGrip black or blue wheels on a drivetrain yet? Would they last an event, you think? I heard rumors about some of these new wheels being tested at IRI.

As long as parts are listed as "in stock" does that mean they're ready to order?

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Everything looks good, especially those 6" DuraOmnis that no one seems to be talking about. ;)

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My question about that sensor is; Is it PSIA or PSIG?

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Yes, it does smell delicious. Picture attached.

-Nick

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Expecting this before kickoff.

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I have to trust this statement, as I see an AH Beanie! :p

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Hi Nathan! Thanks for your questions.

1) We're still working on 4" versions of softer-durometer 4" HiGrip wheels.

2) We evaluated these tread materials with prototype versions of these wheels over the summer. Some of our testing included assembling a fully-weighted AM14U2 chassis and simply driving it around on tight pile carpet. A few of us here at AndyMark were drivers on our alumni teams and drove the wheels off this chassis. We found some interesting things:

77a (White HiGrip):
We feel that these wheels are a more durable option for teams' drivetrains. While they provide good traction, they make for a maintenance-free wheel for the average team. Under normal circumstances (perhaps not a super-defensive game like 2014) we feel that these wheels will last most teams the entire season.

60a (Black HiGrip):
These wheels provide an improvement in 'dynamic robot response.' Essentially we feel that these wheels are a good balance of tread-wear life and great drivetrain response. We found that these wheels caused the robot to respond to changes in robot direction (forward-backward, turning) much faster than the same chassis with white HiGrip wheels. They definitely wear faster than the 77a durometer wheels, but you trade wear life for an increase in traction. Our testing indicated that these wheels could last most teams a few matches (about a day's worth) under normal circumstances. Some teams may experience faster wear than others.

50a (Blue HiGrip):
Of all three, these wheels provide the biggest improvement in dynamic robot response. In the same drive testing, we were unable to get these wheels to noticeably slip when changing direction, or even attempting to do a 'burnout' against the wall. This testing was done with the same chassis (150lbs) and a fully charged battery. In a drivetrain, we feel that these wheels are soft enough to be considered a 'one match wheel.' Really meant to be used in emergency situations where you need the most dynamic traction (such as playing only a defensive role in the finals.) We are confident that they will wear out in about 2-3 minutes of really aggressive driving when used in a drivetrain. That doesn't mean that they don't make great wheels for other mechanisms!

I hope this provides some insight into our evaluation of this new line of wheels. We're really excited to see what teams do with them!

And finally, items that are in stock (without any other notes about lead time) are in our hands and ready to ship.

Sincerely,
Nick Lawrence

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Thank you for the response!

How likely are the 'in-the-works' 4" wheels to be ready for 2016 build season? Definitely not? Possibly? Probably?

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Looks pretty good! I like the shark fin on the tread so you don't need the flanges, just like the brecoflex treads.

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Wait, is it 2001 again? At least this means I get another go at FIRST Frenzy in a couple years.

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Please god no, I don't want to be back in high school.

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This looks much better than what I drew in Paint.



called it

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It was much better than my attempt...

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#funnynotfunny

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Please let tank tank treads and pullys be sold by andymark!

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I'd wager that's pretty likely.

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I fear for a game that would necessitate the existence of a COTS drivebase like this. :ahh:

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Hmm tanks, first offensive use Sept. 15, 1916...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_tank

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Well, didn't they come out with a cot bumper set up for the AM14U2 right before kickoff last year? I would say that is pretty much as far from a game hint as you can get.

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You win this round Tremblay...

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I feel like tank treads + drop down omnis using versadrop would be a pretty solid solution to that.

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I am pretty sure Andymark does not get a heads up on what the game is before hand but, I could be wrong.

From what I hear games are sometimes not fully designed until weeks before kickoff.

A product like this would take a lot longer to develop and source.

I could be wrong but either way I wouldn't stretch your brain too far as it most likely has nothing to do with this years game.

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Combined tank with WCD and Octicanum using the new versa drops. Would be heavy but could be awesome.

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A few years ago they said that they were going to start developing the games a few years in advance. I'd imagine he game is designed to the point that major changes won't happen, at least to the field itself.

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Well, the reason that butterfly works well with tank is because all the wheels on one side are linked, with octocanum you would need 4 independent treads, which kinda kills the point.

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Not necessarily. I'm seeing most butterfly designs using separate motors for each module.

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I heard in a Game sense stream that the Recycle Rush scoring platforms were only put in place 1 month before kickoff even after the AM14U2 was already designed. They actually built it in every configuration and drove it over the platform to make sure it worked.

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Very interesting if true.

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Nick, can you elaborate on the motor and gearing combination used in this test you conducted?

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Do you have a source? Did gamesense post it anywhere?

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4CIM, 10.71:1 Toughbox Mini gearboxes with prototype 4" HiGrips.

-Nick

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Isn't this going to tip backward in this test if there's weight above about... 12" in the back 2/3 of the robot?

What holds the treads on when another team is pushing this base sideways?

I'd love to see more videos of this system driving around at full weight.

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I'm pretty sure they do. What about the elevated wheel brackets from 2010? That seemed to be based on the game.

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This isn't getting enough visibility for how significant it seems...

Though in a game full of tanks I think the Jeeps will win the all-terrain battle.

AndyMark could have received the specs without knowing anything about that game. Sure, there could be some conjecture - but tbh if you didn't know what 2010 was about and had to guess it based upon those brackets and their inclusion in the KOP drive train ... not sure anyone would get it right.

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I'm pretty sure at least Andy Baker gets a heads up at some point. After all, they have to have inventory of game pieces and the like before kickoff (and in the case of 2009, make and build inventory of the mandatory wheels). Safe for the people who organize official kickoffs, IIRC they get some advance knowledge as part job (something to do with the tote contents IIRC).

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GameSense here. While I can't remember if it was said on a GS show or not, I can corroborate that I remember hearing that AndyMark did not know about the scoring platforms until after the AM14U2 went to production.

If it was mentioned in a GS episode, it'd probably be this one: https://youtu.be/OFQPemOh4bI

Edit: Evan Morrison found it: https://youtu.be/E33Gxjdi0PY?list=PL...Z02zZ6L&t=3016

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I'm surprised about this based on the precedent of the 2010 KoP Chassis, which was clearly designed to handle the big bumps (I can't find a picture or drawings, unfortunately).

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It's a year-to-year thing. Everything about the game pre-kickoff is obviously on a need to know basis; it's HQ's discretion to what and when suppliers know about the game.

There's also logistical requirements, the KoP chassis needs to go to production early enough in the year that they can all be manufactured and kitted in time for KoPs to ship to local kickoffs, regardless of how far along the game design is.