This is great news for the teams which are looking to reuse their control system components from year to year. For the teams looking to keep older robots intact and operational, here's the math:
If the new Classmate PC is replacing the driver station, and if teams are looking to basically swap their CRIOs but otherwise keep the rest of the control system intact on older robots, then a PD Board ($189), Sidecar ($82), Analog & Solenoid Boards ($24 each), and WGA ($72) come out to $391, with a net savings of $609. (I didn't include the Linksys Router, since that is not needed for competitions).
But if "reusing the control system" also includes the main breaker ($26), 1 Victor ($115), 4 Jaguars (4x $73), 2 Joysticks (2x $20) and Ethernet Camera ($188), this totals out at $661, plus the $391 from above, comes out to $1052, a net increase of $52. This is basically every control system component from the 2009 KoP minus the cRIO.
Not too bad, and certainly a lot better than buying another control system on top of a $6000 registration.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-2823
NI and FIRST have recently finalized the pricing for backup or extra cRIO systems and are pleased to be able to announce the prices. Each year every team will be allowed to purchase one entire kit (controller and modules) for $750.00. Any extras beyond that will be NI's standard academic price which is $1,491.05. Each of the modules individually will follow the academic pricing as well and are between $150 and $175 each.
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If swapping a cRIO is too difficult, then the price of one additional cRIO + modules per year is $750, which means a net increase in costs of $802. This means if you want to reuse your entire control system, your costs could be as low as $5000, but if you want to have a practice robot or keep an older robot operational, your price will be up to $6802. This is a LOT better than the 2009 season, where purchasing a second control system for a practice robot cost $2000+ on top of the $6000 registration.
Either way, this is a better than what it was during this season.