pic: Team 5040 Drive Base photo.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by GortGortGort

Thanks for the advise on the COTS ,but I in my business if you are a supplier and you fail
to deliver a order in a timely fashion you are promptly replace from the vendors
list that is what we refer to as being fired . A four week delay in receiving a order for a six week project that is time sensitive will get you removed from most companies vendors list . Just saying , So in fact having only one or two vendors supplying all the teams with select parts is in fact part of the game. The teams that have large budgets can afford to stockpile parts off season while rookie teams or teams with limited budgets have a disadvantage of receiving parts whenever the supplier choose to deliver..

I'm unclear. Are you saying that you ordered two CIM motors and their motor controllers from AndyMark on or around January 20, and that they didn't arrive until this Wednesday? If so, did you in any way initiate contact with them while you waited for your parts?

I understand how strange it is entering the world of robotics competitions. In my rookie year (2004), we built a bot with bicycle wheels, and out of scrap from a dilapidated dog house. We had no idea what we were doing. The only thing that happened at our first competition was that it drove forward, reversed, and fell over and broke. But let me say this: while it is true that there are only a handful of companies that manufacture or sell products specifically for this game, they are not relaxing on their butts because they've got you over a barrel. The people at AndyMark, Vex, Banebots etc. are great people, they work incredibly hard, and they are here to serve you and your students. Please don't dismiss them and cut off one of the best resources you will have if you choose to continue building robots.