[redbeard0531]

Does noone remember the slide from kick off? Ya know, "This will not be fair. We annot make it fair. Acept it!"

now first is all about doing cool and inovative stuff, rite? now a team with a machine shop can do the coolest stuff. and the coolest stuff while very cool, doesnt realy make that much of a differance. 10 grand gearbox with aoutomatic transmition wont make a huge differance against a singlespeed, constant ratio system; its just cooler and more inovative.

Think of these bots as prototypes in a company. Imanine if Ford said that a the first pressing of an engine block must be near the cost of a full production engine.

Also, whats a better way to get people inspired about science and tech nologie, then to let the try out some of the latest tooles of the trade?

Now i could see if first said that it counted as the prorated fair market value of a 10,000 order, or the cost of a similar, noncustom part. most of the custom gearboxes could be made for under $300 this way. it would still count against the team, but it wouldn't stifle creativity, and coolness.

btw - Just for the record, im fully opposed to allowing profesional engineers desine these bots. teas should use them as a referance, not a substitute for coming up with a plan. It is a very valuble prosses to learn how to do the planning civily. My team haas spent all week on this, and there is still some bickering, but we all learned a lot for the prosses. with luck we will be build ing on tuesday or thurs.

team info - 3rd year team with a small machine shop donateing some spare machine time.