I am not sure what Dave is speaking of but many teams would like to have the "advantage" of having a new cRio to work with for the 2010 Competition robot. We KNOW that we are getting it in the kit...
Veterans are not getting the CRio for competition like the rookie teams are so it would be really nice to be able to order one so that it gets to us sometime in early January...
We continue to need our 2009 robot for demos to help new teams in a variety of ways and really don't want to tear it down.... having that robot around is necessary to both our fund-raising AND in helping other teams to fund-raise.
It seems reasonable for teams to be able to order one before the end of the calendar year so that this can happen.
We purchased an extra cRio last year to use for bench tests and other testing including testing an extra drive base...we use it now for bench testing prototypes. We can tear that whole system down if we have to but I am not sure what the reasoning is for teams that want to order a 2nd cRio at the $750 price.... to use on their 2010 robot should not be able to order it so that they can get this equipment on or about Kickoff.
Teams were allowed to purchase a 2nd cRio last year for $750 but I am not sure what that means this year... since we don't get the first one... do we have the opportunity to purchase 2 more at that price? I would presume not.
The full cRio for FIRST teams listed on the NI site costs $1491...nearly twice the cost of the $750 offer.
780405-01 For FIRST Only - FIRST FRC Controller and I/O Kit, 2009 12 - 20 $ 1,491.00
This is from the NI site
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/206678
I only hope that NI allows teams to take advantage of the $750 pricing before the beginning of 2010... by perhaps letting us order in the fall for delivery in January...
thank you all and Good luck!!