blog; Motor Controller Options for 2015

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

That's the very unfortunate aspect of what is going on with the new speed controls. In the short 2 year time that the Talon came on the market, we saw an upgraded 888 and a price cut of around 50%.

I hope some creative FIRSTer can get involved and bring another competitive product to market. A single-source supplier for such a critical component usually isn't a good thing from a consumer's point of view. Alternatives are important.

Tom, isn't the entire control system single source? There's only one source for a RoboRio. There's only one company that makes the required PCM and PDP. We can only use one specific brand/model of router.

The competition comes in, I think, when FIRST put out the RFP for the new control system - companies had a chance to come in, show off what they had for everything (including speed controllers, if I remember correctly) and get themselves chosen to supply things for the next few years.