Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Copioli
|
Sorry about that, i haven't been competing for 2 years before it was normal for teams to use as much identical parts. I believe at one point standoffs were around that price for the 4" so we would buy them from mcmaster.com. also PWM cables were much more expensive than they are now so we used the Hanson hobbies servo connector kit (a must for any first team) to make our own. It seems as though the prices for vex components has fallen over the last few years probably from a rise in demand. when i first started in 2008 it was really pricey (back in the time of bridge battle) the parts really came a long way since i first started. i remember throw away all the chain because it would always break. then cutting off the treads on tank tread to get a usable material, now there is HS chain with a ton of different ratios. I'm jealous of the new kids getting to work with the parts and more powerful motors (10 393's we could only dream of such power) and even with all those new parts i look back at it and my old teams and see them all copying a NZ design, it really saddens me. But enough about that. I still think if you really want to get enough parts to fully engulf yourself in the design process it would be between 3 to 5k.
2.5k to start (initial parts to get a feel for the system)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BEf...it?usp=sharing
I know its not all necessary, i could probably shave $500 off but you spend almost 1k on batteries, the cortex and motors alone. pneumatics are not required but pretty common on robots (i wish they would sell the air tank separately because thats what you really need sometimes (also wish they would consider a plastic tanks like the ones we have in first))
$500 for the first robot (all the parts you didn't get enough of)
$500 for improvements and repair (your not always happy with what you had at first.
But as a disclaimer I'm not talking about the type of team that meets once a week for an hour. I push my students to the MAX during competition season and i did my teammates back on the vex team. Its ok to fail if your design didn't work or parts break, its not ok when you didn't give it 110%. i used to hear "its not fair your robot is better" and they would go on to tell me that they didn't have the funding or the skills. our team raised our own money (wrote and visited companies and got donations) we were self taught (vex forum, competition videos and talking to people about there robot) its all doable its all in how much time and effort you want to put into it. anyone can be a world champion but its by no means easy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karthik
This is much more in line with I typically see. The typical VEX team around here spends $2000 in their first year on parts. In subsequent years they're spending about $500 a season on additional parts. Team registration fees are either $100 (first team at the school) or $50 (additional teams at the school), while event registration fees run from about $25-$200. Just like in FRC, there are some very high end teams that are spending big money, but that's far from the norm.
//Edit: Full disclosure. I work for IFI and VEX Robotics, and am the Chairman of the VEX Game Design Committees
|
sorry, I missed this post, there are a bunch of teams out there who operate on budgets similar to the one mentioned but its amazing the difference a few hundred bucks can make. if your in an industrial area its not that hard to raise the money to make it to that level.