Storage Hunter Finds a FRC Robot

[Travis Hoffman]

So uh where do I find the owners of this Frakensteinian monstrosity so I can buy it on the cheap, put it out of its misery, and gut it for parts?

[Duke461]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

So uh where do I find the owners of this Frakensteinian monstrosity so I can buy it on the cheap, put it out of its misery, and gut it for parts?

They live in Los Angeles, California
The 2011 axis camera that was on there is worth decent money, right?

[Kyoshirin]

I love the compressor that's connected to itself.
They didn't even use connectors. They just took a piece of tubing and looped it into the two exhaust ports. *shakes head*

[avanboekel]

Although it appears staged (and it probably is), is it possible that it was someone's side project and they had absolutely no clue what they were doing? Say this person got an old '07 bot that had already been gutted for parts, and tried to piece it back together into working condition year by year as they could.

The only things wrong with this theory are:
1) Why would someone spend money on trying to fix something that they obviously have no clue how to fix?
2) Why would they have that battle bot that looks as to be in good condition?

If it was staged, I just don't know why it would be staged this badly. As it was mentioned before, it would have been cool for them to have found a working FRC bot, and be able see them run it. Even a mention of FIRST would have been nice. Instead, they claimed that it was built by MIT.

Things just don't add up. There are too many unexplained details.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by avanboekel

1) Why would someone spend money on trying to fix something that they obviously have no clue how to fix?

I suspect you could ask this of many people's hobbies. How many people have tried to fix a car in their garage? Lots of times it turns into a 20 year project with little or no progress.

Jason

[Brandon Holley]

I'm kind of surprised so many of you are jumping to the conclusion that there is no way a team could've put a robot together to look like that. With our team located in the heart of Boston, we work with almost every team in the area in some fashion. There are many teams where I could see something like this being assembled.

Quite a few teams in the area are severely under-resourced when it comes to engineering support and FIRST experience.

If someone was using their 2007 bot, or practice bot and wanted to try some new code with the new control system it could easily explain why both systems are there.

I've seen quite a few bored students from time to time, and weaving pneumatic tubing through the frame seems like an extremely plausible thing for them to do.


I dunno, just seems like theres nothing so outrageous there that a team couldn't have done it.

-Brando

[Garrett.d.w]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

I dunno, just seems like theres nothing so outrageous there that a team couldn't have done it.

-Brando

You do have a point. However, with all of the resources available to FIRST students, I would expect that at least some systems would be assembled semi correctly. You also mentioned boredom, it could be that this was built as a joke.

I guess its just too fun to speculate.

[Taylor]

I recall an individual with ties to MIT with more than a passing interest in FRC, who also enjoys puzzles and teasers.

Another thought: Has anybody found "IHTFP" on the robot or in the shed? We may be the recipients of a very obscure hack.

[BrendanRadabaug]

so after watching the episode and other than the worst acting i have ever seen. the robot is so very fake. the wheels are just shoved on, (its 4 wheeled) and one of the back tredded wheels has the sprocket on the outside while the wheel on the front does not even have a sprocket. stupid show why did i look it up. rage quit. i laugh at the guy who bought the unit for $1900

[Cuog]

Originally Posted by BrendanRadabaug

i laugh at the guy who bought the unit for $1900

I don't. Have you looked at the prices of all the components "faked" onto that bot? They're not cheap. And if there was more than just that bot there's plenty of room for money making if they can move the products.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Cuog

I don't. Have you looked at the prices of all the components "faked" onto that bot? They're not cheap. And if there was more than just that bot there's plenty of room for money making if they can move the products.

Ditto.

I once tried to figure out the materials+labor cost of an FRC robot. It's not cheap--and that was with the IFI control system! Materials about $5K (control system, metal, that sort of thing), labor, well, assume every student gets minimum wage and puts in 20 hours per week for 6 weeks, then figure the mentors as whatever someone in their field can get and putting in about the same hours as the students. I'll let you do the math...

Then, you throw in the battlebot, which looked pretty nice, and the third robot, which looked in the glimpses I got to be something like an FRC practice robot.

[BrendanRadabaug]

Originally Posted by Cuog

I don't. Have you looked at the prices of all the components "faked" onto that bot? They're not cheap. And if there was more than just that bot there's plenty of room for money making if they can move the products.

yes but by only going on what we saw and with such a huge market, yes the robot is worth about $1,449 of parts not including IFI electronics, the blue box or metal. there is a very wide market of mixed up parts that would not sell well unless to a first team. i cant go off of the battelbot because we did not see the insides or the other one because all i saw was what looked like a Arduino. and he can probably make money back from the rest of the unit.

[Cuog]

Originally Posted by BrendanRadabaug

yes but by only going on what we saw and with such a huge market, yes the robot is worth about $1,449 of parts not including IFI electronics, the blue box or metal. there is a very wide market of mixed up parts that would not sell well unless to a first team. i cant go off of the battelbot because we did not see the insides or the other one because all i saw was what looked like a Arduino. and he can probably make money back from the rest of the unit.

Thats kind of my point. This one item from a unit has the potential to make back most of his money, making the rest mostly profit. I wouldn't underestimate the use of the more generic components like motor controllers to average robot builders as the ones used in FIRST are very versatile compared to what most hobbyists use.