Quote:
Originally Posted by Racer26
Most teams like to keep at least one, and ideally all of their past robots in operational condition.
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"Would like to" doesn't mean can. My team has been running for 8 years with plenty of resources, but we still don't keep our robots year after year, mostly due to space concerns. I know that there are plenty of teams in our area that have even less space that we do, for whom keeping their old robots isn't even considered.
To be honest, I don't really see the point in complaining about the cost of the controller-- it is what it is, and they've already said they're aiming to reduce the cost as much as possible long-term. I suppose one may feel free to be discontented with the future control system (for a variety of reasons), but it's a rather clear step up from the cRIO in just about every way possible.
In terms of boot times, yes it would be very nice to bring them down in the 10-20s range, but I have a feeling there's more to it than just "FIRST is willing to put up with it." Keeping the price low (even when people are claiming it's already too high) probably factors in, as well as parts that we probably aren't considering.
Personally, I think a faster boot time would be an excellent improvement in terms of how fast match cycles go, and as a relatively well-off team, we'd probably be okay with an increase in the price for that, but there's a far larger picture than just my team or even all the teams on CD, which is what NI and FIRST have to consider.
My overall opinion is that every control system has its quirks that we'll be dealing with for quite a while, and I'm happy that those are getting out now so that we can consider them well before we actually have to use it.