[FTC]: Are the kits enough?

[jcarr]

Originally Posted by sprocketman92

So my engineering program is starting a FTC team this year , but we are trying to figure out how much it is going to cost and if whats in the kits is enough to build a competitive robot. If someone could give us an estimate on what their team spent on parts outside of the kit that would be awesome thanks!

We easily spent $3000 - $4000 per robot in extra parts. We spent an awful lot on motors, encoders, servos, sensors, and prototype boards - much more than on the tetrix metal peices, and that won't change this year. In addition, the raw material for one lift alone (non-tetrix peices) was $675.37, and that was the third one we built.

However, this year they have changed the rules and it will potentially get much more expensive. You have unlimited parts - if you make them out of raw metal. If you have all the appropriate metal working tools, cutters, brakes, welding gear, grinders, lathes, ovens, it's not going to be a problem and you won't have the same start-up costs.

Get the base kit and the resource kit and save the rest of your money to order parts later as your design firms up.

In order to compete at a tournament, you will need extra batteries, tetrix and NXT, extra motors, encoders, servos, etc. But you can build a robot with just the two base kits.

Depends on the challenge as to how much the robots will cost. Last year, big heavy bots with high lifts were important. The year before, fast little defensive bots were the key and those could be built out of the base plus resource kit.

Chances are it will be much more expensive this year.