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My 2 cents and misc ramblings .......
Posted by Ed Sparks at 03/08/2001 3:12 PM EST
Engineer on team #34, The Rockets, from Bob Jones High / New Century High and DaimlerChrysler.
In Reply to: You make my point!
Posted by Joe Johnson on 03/07/2001 3:30 PM EST:
I have a theory ......
I suspect (I repeat, suspect) that the problem of unlimited sprockets and gears has everything to do with the ablility of teams such as ours (we have both a Wire EDM and Laser in our shop) to develop an array of specialized gears and sprockets for use on future machines. I suppose teams with such an inventory would be able to rationalize these parts as “free” since they would be on the additional hardware list although they would not necessarily be “off the shelf”. As the rules are now, I must manufacture my gears and sprockets within the 6 week construction period for them to be legal. Secondly and regrettably, I suspect $MONEY$ is a factor here. Small Parts is clearly the beneficiary of the current rules as most of you do not have the equipment to manufacture these parts. My hat is off to Small Parts for being a major player for so long but I’ll bet my ‘bot that they get a benefit out of it (just look at my bill for this year – HEY how about a poll !).
I loved the way the pneumatics was handled this year. Since FIRST and SME are somewhat tight, maybe an ME organization such as SME and/or Boston Gear could supply a “Drivetrain Kit Of Parts” much like the pneumatics kit where some level of components are selectable (say 10 gears and/or sprockets).
I interpret FIRST’s rules as trying to keep the “spread” of super-teams vs rookies within some reasonable level to keep the game winnable by all. I’d love to go unlimited but I understand why we can't.
Here comes my boss .......
Ed now yields the soapbox to someone else .......
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