[Adam Y.]

I honestly think that the problem stems from the fact that no one really understands how expensive these tools are in the real life. I just discovered that the programmer/emulator to the Texas Instruments DSP (Think PIC only more powerful) that Im working with is more expensive than what most rookie teams spend on their robot. The development board Im working with costs just as much the OI alone and while it's more powerful than the OI it's still is an amazing price for a device that just gives me easy access to the physical pins and USB programming. Im sure that someone else is going to point out the fact that the board Im using is more powerful hence it's more expensive but the PIC development boards I've seen fall into the category of slighly less expensive than the OI. That board was only designed to do one thing which is run motors. Im sure the largest expense people forget is the cost in actually developing these types of devices. This has to be one of most interesting aspects of electrical engineering. Unfortunatly, it's also one of the experiences that FIRST can't provide.