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Unread 07-05-2016, 15:18
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Billfred Billfred is offline
...and you can't! teach! that!
FRC #5402 (Iron Kings); no team (AndyMark)
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Re: Cheap Electrical Parts

Quote:
Originally Posted by roboruler View Post
The use of a R/C transmitter to control a robot could give the wrong impression in demonstrations and make the audience think that your robot is nothing more a glorified R/C car than it is a robot(it is an R/C car if you are using this control method).
(full disclosure still applies)

If the robot is going to need programming and be operated without troubleshooters around, then a VEX Cortex is a perfectly good option. (Note that you're going to need to change genders on the PWM outputs, either by crimping new cables or using both male ends of a Y cable.) However, at $400 there may be alternatives that provide the needed functionality (depending, of course, on the team's parts pile and willingness to figure out a new platform that may or may not be built with this particular application in mind).

That said, 4901 has a Cheap and Dirty radio that's seen public use (we ran the Team Cockamamie build on it at Relay for Life--not exactly a high-tech affair) and several drive bases were running them at the AndyMark booth at Championship. While I agree that none of them were true robots in the textbook definition, probably 99.5% of the people were too engrossed in the object being controlled to care--and the other 0.5% that bothered to ask learned the differences between our competition robots and a demo robot. It's just not that big a deal.
__________________
William "Billfred" Leverette - Gamecock/Jessica Boucher victim/Marketing & Sales Specialist at AndyMark

2004-2006: FRC 1293 (D5 Robotics) - Student, Mentor, Coach
2007-2009: FRC 1618 (Capital Robotics) - Mentor, Coach
2009-2013: FRC 2815 (Los Pollos Locos) - Mentor, Coach - Palmetto '09, Peachtree '11, Palmetto '11, Palmetto '12
2010: FRC 1398 (Keenan Robo-Raiders) - Mentor - Palmetto '10
2014-2016: FRC 4901 (Garnet Squadron) - Co-Founder and Head Bot Coach - Orlando '14, SCRIW '16
2017-: FRC 5402 (Iron Kings) - Mentor

93 events (more than will fit in a ChiefDelphi signature), 13 seasons, over 60,000 miles, and still on a mission from Bob.

Rule #1: Do not die. Rule #2: Be respectful. Rule #3: Be safe. Rule #4: Follow the handbook.
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