The following is just simple case study of pro's & cons of keeping vs getting a new controller every year based on quotes of CD users, mainly because I haven't made a long post in like forever on these boards, & seeing 3 pages of varying opinions on one topic often makes
me think too hard until I comment about it here. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtfgnow
what i see is that if a team wants to keep it for their old robots it does not hurt the environment, if we threw it on the ground that would be different.
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Even though something is not being dumped in a landfill, making more of one thing & using natural resources for the products (re: oils & petroleum for the plastics along with precious metals for the rest of it) still impacts the environment.
Stand: Pro for reusing controllers depending on your true balance of nature & environmentalist stand I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leav
I don't like this idea one bit, not even if there are two registration fees (with cRio and without).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Marra
Really? Why not even then?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thefro526
My teacher and I were talking about this the other day and he thought and I thought it would be a good idea if FIRST were to charge one registration/KOP fee for when you want a new OI and another if you wish to reuse your old one. IE, check box a box on the application if you want a new CRIO and it adds XXXX to your application fee if your team has received one the previous year.
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FIRST has always been about giving teams the most fair playing field they can give you & then it's up to you after kickoff. If right from Day 1 of kickoff you have a brand new shiny part while your competitor is using an old (probably competition worthy beat-up component), then your new parts have an advantage over that used part any day. This is not fair at all even with a price decrease of registration. Are you willing to take that gamble to save enough in registration/ kit fees to send one more student to a competition, or pay another team bill that is piling up? That's a harsh reality if that road is taken with this two tier pricing system
IF that is implemented as suggested.
Stand:
Pro for reusing controllers for "rich" teams because of the "buy a new one" option.
Con for reusing controller for "poor" teams who have to make that decision & sacrifice the "level playing field" to save a bit of cash.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik
If anyone in the thread competes in BEST, they already know the beating high school students can put on electronics reusing them year after year.
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It seems after the beginning of Build season '08 that FIRST didn't even expect teams to break the Trackballs & that was just a rather simple albeit, fairly expensive ball. In industry these controllers are used every day, this is true, but they aren't mobile in most applications with other robots working along side it trying to ram them.
Point being: You can make the most durable control system in the world, & it could work perfectly everytime mechanically, & also software wise, & never need servicing if left alone to do it's task, but give that system to a bunch of High Schoolers (or to be fair: give that to people in general) with the idea that it's going into a competition, & it's going to take a beating. Guaranteed.
Stand: Con for reusing controller
Quote:
Originally Posted by skimoose
As for the mentors that mentioned pulling old controllers, our old controllers are already installed in older robots. Yes, we can pull one, but if a former-student-turned-engineer showed up thinking about mentoring, how are you going to explain that the robot they helped design, build, drive, and sweat over is an unusable pile of parts because you needed the controller for different robot. It's been hard enough explaining why we had to dismantle several of our early robots because the former school we worked out of wouldn't allow us to store them any longer.
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That is a sad fact & pain felt by more & more teams the longer the competition exists unfortunately.
^That wasn't a stand on this issue, I just sympathize with that one & felt the need to comment on that quote.
Anyways, as we all know there are pros & cons to everything, & I'm sure you, reading this right now, may not really be in tune with everyone else's similar thoughts. Whether you are a team member, mentor, student, parent of a student,
FIRST employee,
FIRST supplier, sponsor, technical industry professional, or even just someone who may want to start a team & by reading this is on the verge of being scared off of joining
FIRST as a rookie because of all the "the sky is falling next year" kind comments in this thread alone - everyone is feeling some kind of stress at this point in time for the upcoming season just because of sooo many changes.
My thoughts while reading this is that every one of you, (in that small & very focused group I listed that doesn't even begin to cover the kinds of people we have participating in this competition) is to
chill out, & remember
everyone else on that list, & think of them & how equally (or excessively) stressed they are becoming getting ready for 2009 when you start to worry how "crazy" 2009 will be with the addition of a new control system.
Change is coming. And like every other year, something will get unveiled that will lead someone to say "That's it, I'm quitting
FIRST for good" but is that really necessary??
Let's not over react about how umm..
interesting this year will be - yet...
Let's stand back in this very defining moment in your
FIRST "careers", take a couple of deep breaths (my health news letter says 10 is a good number of deep breaths to take when stressed - LOL) & let's all be able to say 2, 5, or even 10 years down the road from now, "Hey, remember when
FIRST changed the controller in 2009 to the "new" way?? I was there. And I survived it, & life went on.. (And the sky actually didn't fall!!!)
Imagine that one for just a minute if you will, then go ahead & add some more 2 cent thoughts.
(Because I know this thread will still go on with more thoughts & concerns, & complaints, & suggestions after this post. That is a certainty.)
Oh, & one more comment. The only thing that Bill's blog has done (because some have complained on it's true nature) is shift that nervous, apprehensive, & excited feeling about the coming year (we usually get all at once usually during the "hint" communications in December) from December back a couple of months to September.
I'm still looking forward to 2009, no matter what the subject of the announcements I see here or on Bill's blog are - maybe even more so now than a typical year because of the teasers from his blog postings.
Aren't you?
