Quote:
Originally Posted by tdlrali
RyanN is correct, their current plan is to give one controller to teams to be reused every year, while teams can buy an additional controller every year at an immensely reduced cost.
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my issue with this stems from the fact that it means that the new controller will not be upgraded for years. I see this as FIRST getting into the same issues which pushed them away from IFI. Locking into a controller for multiple years while important for teams makes them majority supplier dependent. If it truly is the case that NI is only going to give one controller in the first year and then recycle them for financial reasons, I hate to see the year that NI is not doing well. Seems to me that this would indicate some hesitance in having the whole program on their backs financially.
I hate the idea of only getting one controller, as it raises many issues which teams don't currently have. As many would happen demo robots become difficult, helping pre-rookies at off-season events becomes impossible, and it puts a huge liability on teams breaking their controllers as most could not afford replacements (in the past 2 years teams could use older controllers if they needed to).
For lack of a better way to describe it this seems really cheap on behalf of NI and/or FIRST.