Wheres the camera?

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by clandry94

Many rookie teams, like this one here, don't know about FIRST Choice and it's impossible for them to get something like a camera for less than normal value before it's too late.

While staying on top of the barrage of emails can be a challenge, the Main Contact should have received many pieces of communication detailing the process for FIRST Choice over the past several months. That's kind of like saying "it's not fair that there are so many rules for the teams who don't bother to read the manual."

[billylo]

Greg>> FIRST provided image files of the field targets to help get an example of how they work

Hi, Greg, would you mind sending us a pointer to these sample image files? I am unable to find them on USFIRST.org or CD... Thanks! Billy.

[billylo]

Or are you referring the samples here?

http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/...ng-the-targets

Thanks. Billy.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by billylo

Hi, Greg, would you mind sending us a pointer to these sample image files? I am unable to find them on USFIRST.org or CD... Thanks! Billy.

Originally Posted by billylo

Or are you referring the samples here?

http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/...ng-the-targets

If you keep reading (into either the LabVIEW section or the C++/Java Section), it will point to where the sample images are.

[zzzag]

Originally Posted by dcarr

While staying on top of the barrage of emails can be a challenge, the Main Contact should have received many pieces of communication detailing the process for FIRST Choice over the past several months. That's kind of like saying "it's not fair that there are so many rules for the teams who don't bother to read the manual."

If I remember correctly, FIRST Choice opened at noon ET on a school day. Because of how my team is run, with the student officers choosing what we spend our credits on, we were not able to assemble an order by that afternoon, by which time many of the hot-ticket items (cRio, Classmate, camera, Talons) had sold out at prices that seemed ridiculous (less than a roll of pneumatic tubing).

For the second round of FIRST Choice, (for which I saw nothing indicating more of those sold-out items were added to the pool), my team has traditionally not met on weekends. By the time we were able to access FIRST Choice, we felt the parts we selected were almost not worth the shipping we ended up paying for them.

It's certainly understandable for a rookie team to have missed the "This item will only be distributed through FIRST Choice" or have caught that but missed the "Quantity: 10" or whatever on the FIRST Choice site, or to simply have not been able to use their credits in time to get those desired parts.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by zzzag

It's certainly understandable for a rookie team to have missed the "This item will only be distributed through FIRST Choice" or have caught that but missed the "Quantity: 10" or whatever on the FIRST Choice site, or to simply have not been able to use their credits in time to get those desired parts.

The scheduling and item availability on FIRST Choice was indeed a tricky prospect, but I think the existence of FIRST Choice was well-publicized and communicated.