Regarding the above posts, you might consider that FIRST has issued a caution several times against making any presumptions about what will or will not be permitted for use in the 2010 competition. Any team purchasing materials in anticipation of using them during the build season does so at their own risk. So you might want to think very carefully about expending any significant funds or effort pre-stocking materials before kick-off. You need to ask yourself "are we comfortable making this investment now, if we were to find out at kick-off that we could not use those parts?" How you respond to this will be tempered by your risk posture (and your available budget).
I only mention this as a caution, given the warning that we all read in the first paragraph of
this entry in Bill's Blog. As always, we have to remember that the rules from prior years DO NOT apply to this year's competition.
-dave
....