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I don't know... its definitely a good design but it just doesn't seem right....
The shifting transmission is like the core of the robot... teams spend years perfecting their designs and it takes so much hard work... now if anyone can fork over 1 grand they can get a great tranny
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I guess I happen to disagree.
Firstly, teams CHOOSE whether or not they build their own custom trannys. Teams even CHOOSE whether or not to build a transmission at all. When they choose to do whatever it is they want to do, then obviously they think that there is an advantage to that choice.
I don't think that if another team chooses to buy an AndyMark tranny, they are undermining any of the other teams' hard work -- this is because the teams who build their own trannys obviously beleive that what they are making is better to suit their needs. They may feel that they have an even better design.
In short:
If you
don't have the right part, then you build it. But if you
have the right part, why build it all over again?
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....its levelling the playing field too much almost like communism... first is for innovation and this feels like a cap on that
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I happen to think that the opposite will happen. If you introduce a new, better product into the market, naturally other product-makers will raise their level of competitiveness to make an even BETTER product... quite the converse of actually putting a cap on innovation. If the situation really resembled communism, then FIRST would be forcing everyone to use the exact same transmission. But since this is not the case - innovation will not stagnate.
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the bolt / entire shifting transmission comparison is not really so valid
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Although this topic has already been beaten to death...I think the analogy DOES work -- why try to "re-invent the wheel"? If your team needs a transmission, and AndyMark has it -- why not buy the part you need? In fact, this is already a major part of FIRST -- we get a kit of pre-made parts EVERY YEAR! We don't build our motors or control system from scratch.
More than being a major part of FIRST, buying parts is a part of the real world:
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Originally Posted by sanddrag
If eveyone had to manufacture every part in their assembly, nothing would ever get built. I'm not talking about just robots, I'm talking about everything in the world.
The motor in your Maytag washing machine was most likely not built by Maytag, and the bearings I can almost gaurantee were not.
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A bolt is not the focus of your entire robot... that would be like saying just because you use refined sugar in a cake you bake yourself it is the same as just buying a cake...
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A good analogy...but it can be reversed to prove the opposite.
A shifting transmission is not the main focus of your robot either.
If you have a pre-made transmission but you build the rest of the robot yourself, that doesn't mean that the robot itself has been bought, pre-made, and that no innovation or learning occurred. It doesn't mean that the students didn't get anything out of building a robot.
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our team can maybe afford the AM shifter but we just enjoy teaching/learning how different transmission can be made and enjoy the process of making one....
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If this is how your team feels, and thats what is right for your team, then go for it. I think I speak for most when I say that I am behind teaching about building these transmissions %100. But for those who have different goals and objectives, I still think it is ok for others to buy premade.
To sum it all up,
it really is up to EACH TEAM to decide whether or not they want to buy or build. Whatever suits their needs should be right for them. If they feel that they would like to have the experience of building their own -- then they should do that. But if they just don't have the time or resources to take on such a project, or they feel that the AndyMark tranny is the best for them, then why should they be forced to do something that isn't right for them?
$0.02
-- Jaine
Supporter of the AM shifter and AndyMark as a whole