Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Steele
I have competed in BEST and those components are NOTHING like the cRIO.
I have seen a working cRIO dropped from a two story building and land and keep working. (as a demonstration). This controller is nothing like anything we have ever used in FIRST before ... or ANY other robotics competition has ever used. It is made to take abuse.
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Bob,
I realize the cRIO isn't like the BEST components, but you must admit that BEST students and robots are much less capable of inflicting damage than FIRST students and robots. I'm primarily worried about what it's going to be subjected to in the pits when people are working on robots, and what it's going to be subjected to during installation and assembly, as most teams have had to worry about ESD damage to their electronics before. I'm also worried about the various bumpers and sidecars. I doubt they're being built to the same specifications, but it sounds like we're planning on reusing them as well. Finally, the cRIO isn't going to protect people from themselves. Miswiring, misinstalling, and mistreating the connectors are all going to occur and I don't think the lan port on the cRIO is rated for using a CAT6 ethernet cable as a leash for a 150lb runaway robot.
I'm not saying the IFI controller would fare any better, but veteran teams had a fair number of spares hanging about to help themselves and rookies, and replacement units were $450 or so, depending on what you broke. We still don't know the replacement cost of the cRIO or the various other components, but we do know that there will be far fewer spares hanging about than in years past.