Quote:
Originally Posted by NalaTI
It is not a technical discussion, it is an unwinnable argument between different philosophies.
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(Nala triggered the following comments, but is not the "you" in this post.)
This contains an especially important point. You cannot evaluate alternatives without establishing decision criteria, whether it is technical, educational, financial, or emotional, I believe you need to decide what is critical before you start. Every decision can only be made in the context of your own goals and needs.
So, comments such as "the 12V LEGO/Tetrix motors are more powerful" are factually true, but may be irrelevant to a particular team, as is "the VEX platform gives builders more design choices." If your team feels more powerful motors or more design choices are not relevant selection criteria, then they don't matter.
For lack of a better term, Exothermic Robotics is an evangelical organization. Our mission statement explicitly calls for us to let students of the appropriate age join our club, no matter where they go to school or how much money they have, and to then have those experienced students help start new teams in their schools or home-school groups. Knowing our mission statement, we can then evaluate a program based on our goals. Since we have grown from 5 to 18 to 40 to more than 60 students, we look for affordability, portability, ease of learning, and the quality of the educational experience. With OUR criteria in mind, we chose VEX, and -- ultimately -- I chose to make a major career change and seek a position with IFI. (I highly recommend that you find a way to get a job doing for money what you also do for fun.) I don't have the opinions I do because I work for IFI, I work for IFI because of my experiences as a customer. YOUR mileage will vary.
Anyway, know what's important to you and your school or club, and you will make the right decision. Evaluating choices, in engineering or any other area, without knowing your criteria is an exercise in building your house on the sand.