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Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil
I don't think the rules are unclear at all. I have said this before and I will stress it again, only those looking for loop holes will find the rules unclear and inconsistent.
Here are the rules in a nutshell:
Every part on your shipped robot must be obtained during the build time.
It really is that simple folks.
I built a prototype pre-season. Do I really need to buy all new parts?
100% YES
AndyMark-
If AndyMark wants to sell you a tranny, you need to buy it after kick off. Or you can't include it on your robot. (Yes, you can buy one pre-season to play with, however, the one on your robot needs to be a new one.)
How do they bill it?
When they bill the transmission there is a real judgment call that needs to be made, "is an AndyMark transmission an off the shelf item?"
I feel the answer is no. That means teams must account for both parts and labor. AndyMark can bill the item however they would like. My recommendation is to bill for both parts and labor.
Pre-built-
Pre-built means: a team buying a mechanism from someone during build season. During build season means you did not have the parts producing that mechanism in your teams possession prior to kick off. Therefore, NO 100% can you just slightly modify last year's robot to this years game. You can use new parts to recreate the mechanism, but those parts have to be NEW TO YOU.
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This is, of course, making the (quite possibly incorrect) assumption that new language isn’t introduced by FIRST for 2005+ with regard to either collaboration or declaring that “off the shelf” components only refer to certain companies and catalogs and exclude others (like the AndyMark or GaryDill corporations).
Mike,
There was no part of last year’s manual that stated “Every part on your shipped robot must be obtained during the build time.” That is an incorrect statement. It says in Rule <R09> “
Mechanisms from previous year’s robots may not be used, however, individual off-the-shelf
components from previous year’s robots may be re-used to save the cost of re-purchase of these parts IF they meet ALL of the 2004 Additional Parts and Materials Rules.” <R09> later says that if you use a part from an old robot its cost must (obviously) be factored into your robot’s budget for inspection. This makes it pretty clear that your statement ““Every part on your shipped robot must be obtained during the build time” is incorrect.
I believe that if AndyMark or GaryDill or any other team forms a corporation, which I assume is what’s happening here (for tax, liability, and other issues), they’re legally within their right to do so in this capitalist society we live in. I do not believe that any such corporation should be treated any different (in the 2004 off the shelf rules of FIRST) than MSC, McMaster, Skyway, Grainger, etc. FIRST is obviously within their right to say that we’re only allowed to use a certain source for off the shelf parts, but that would probably be against their apparent goal of opening things up to teams. My quick $0.02…
-Bill