[DFTF] Budgeting for a Competitive Robot...

[ayeckley]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

If you think about it, every actuator (whether pneumatic or motor) is going to run close to $200 by the time add in all the associated costs.

From a pneumatics perspective, I think that estimate is a bit on the high side. I'm sure you *could* spend that much, but with a modest amount of pre-season planning that number can be brought down dramatically. As a re-rookie some of this won't apply to your situation, but within a year or two your team should be able to reduce your costs by using some of our tactics:

1. Always take Bimba up on the max donation each year, even if you have no plans to use all (or any) of the items. Obviously the strategy is to get the broadest possible range of items to ensure that a *nearly optimum* selection of cylinders is "in stock" for your team down the road.

2. eBay. In the offseason I periodically scrounge parts for bargain-basement prices, and we don't shy away from used items when appropriate. We've bought used cylinders, solenoid valves, etc. and new fittings, etc. for less than 50% of the retail price. Obviously the BOM accounting has to be at full new price, but there's nothing wrong with the robot actually costing less than it does on paper. The loosening of the pneumatics rules in the last couple of years makes this a viable option, and we are careful to purchase items with a long product lifecycle to ensure that we aren't designing-in obsolete products. In our case, we've got dozens of FRC-legal SMC solenoid valves (of all varieties) which will last us for many years and we spent less than $200 acquiring the whole selection.

3. Strategic use of First Choice. For example, IIRC one of the options last year was a pneumatic fitting assortment. There were enough fittings in there to last us for several years.

4. Inventory management. If someone takes charge of the unused KOP items, excess purchased parts, etc. in the offseason to prevent loss then this is a huge cost savings. It almost sounds like some of the posters on this thread are starting with zero parts left over from previous years. Where did all of the extra parts go?

5. Damage prevention. I explain to our students that this stuff is expensive. It's totally OK if it breaks during the heat of competition, but let's not waste our hardware (and our sponsors funding) unnecessarily by horsing around, etc.