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Originally Posted by Foster
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But what cranked my started was the "change the culture". Really? All the time hands on with the robot (5 kids on a team means lots of touch time) and multiple design / build / compete iterations, we are changing roboteers lives over here. Nice that you spent $ 18,000 on 20 kids and built a robot and went to 2 events. For $12K I build 10 robots, compete in 4 events and change 50 kids into roboteers. Oh wait, I need mentors, min 2 for each robot, so I have 20 parents working with roboteers. Minor skills needed (righty tighty and maybe some programming) vs machine skills of the stars. One controller and a battery vs PDU, RIO, BDF, CAN, CAM, etc. So FTC and VEX is accessable to average Mom / Dad / Grandparent.
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So, don't mock the FTC / VEX programs.
Oh, I was an FRC mentor for 4 years, but 7 years as VEX. Match you roboteer for roboteer.
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We are trying to change a world, less than 3% of the students in schools have a chance to do the coolest thing in the world, COMPETITION ROBOTICS. Why slam a roboteer and a robotics program that has the same goals and objectives?
/rant
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Feel better? I've snipped out the parts that are based on a disagreement of terms/particularly needed responding to.
So, here's the big difference that's causing the disagreement and your heartburn, you are trying to do culture change at the Micro level. Nothing wrong with that, I do the same thing. Student by student. It's important. And FTC/VEX/FLL are better at it than FRC. You can have costs an order of magnitude lower (FLL is 2 orders lower). It's great. I'm happy to be involved in these programs and I'm $@#$@#$@#$@# glad they exist. I came up through them.
I'm talking about culture change at the Macro level. I'm talking about the sort of thing I can drag my parents to and they'll say "This is awesome". Something that, after a quick explanation of the rules, I can have my sister and me nieces and nephews cheering and screaming like lifelong fans. The sort of thing that if I pull up a video at work my coworkers will stop and watch. The spectacle, the speed, the size... all of this is important to these goals. FTC/VEX don't meet them. Trust me, I've tried.
From the perspective that I'm looking at, the one I'm more concerned about, FTC/VEX/FLL are inferior programs at achieving the goals I'm looking for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Foster
And don't disrespect Pewee or Little League. The Pro guys got started there. You never know what motivates. I see stuff and go "cool, out of my skillset", but I see an easier / lower level and go "Hey, I can do that" and I do and oddly I get better. And soon I have that skillset to.
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Micro. I was looking at Macro. See Above.
And as far as saying that there are FTC bots more competitive than FRC bots. Yeah, and there are FRC teams that should be FTC teams until they can hack it in the majors. It's less costly to learn how to play the game there.