[FRC Blog] FIRST Choice Round 2!

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Karthik

You'd be surprised at how many teams out there only work 5-10 hours a week. There are definitely greatly varying levels of team involvement in FRC.

For sure, I just expect most teams to have some sort of alternative communication. When we used to work 5 hours a week (and our robots reflected that) FIRST choice could still be sorted out with a couple of emails. It's not as if you miss the due date you are out of luck, traditional ordering is still available.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I never said competitive.

Sorry, I meant to say effective.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

You would like to make that assumption. It's not always true.

Sure, with ~2900 teams the number is probably greater than 0. But how many do you think there are? And is it worth holding everyone else up?

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

Sure, with ~2900 teams the number is probably greater than 0. But how many do you think there are? And is it worth holding everyone else up?

Yes, yes it is. If the system doesn't work for everyone, it is broken. I bet you will be able to buy whatever you need from AM the day of kickoff if a week's delay won't work for you.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Yes, yes it is. If the system doesn't work for everyone, it is broken. I bet you will be able to buy whatever you need from AM the day of kickoff if a week's delay won't work for you.

My concern is not so much for my own team. I have the luxury of being able to overnight random parts if needed. But if a team were a little more resource constrained they might hold up some part of their build waiting for a part from FIRST Choice.

I don't really get your argument that no team should be left behind. Wasn't it like 1/3 of teams didn't bother to submit a priority list the first time?

[Oblarg]

I don't think any team is going to have their build held up waiting for FIRST Choice, to be honest. Or, rather, no team should have their build held up waiting for FIRST Choice. FIRST Choice is a somewhat random selection of items that happen to have been donated this year, with no guarantee that you will get the item you want. It is not a standardized set of parts that a team can or should design around.

If your team has such limited resources that you need a part from FIRST Choice to complete your build, you should probably rethink what you're building, and rethink your design process - there's plenty a team can do with a kitbot and some improvised materials (I recall hearing of a fairly successful drive-base-and-lawnchair robot last year...).

Edit: It has been brought to my attention that the robot in question was not a kitbot drive - regardless, the point remains (basically) intact. Corrected post to reflect this.

[orangemoore]

The one thing that bothers me about FIRST Choice Part 2 is why so many credits? How much More stuff are they adding to FIRST Choice. To me it seems the blog about a possibility of more items was concealing the fact a lot more were coming just not in time for the first release.

Anyways i'm excited to see what the new stuff will be.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Yes, yes it is. If the system doesn't work for everyone, it is broken. I bet you will be able to buy whatever you need from AM the day of kickoff if a week's delay won't work for you.

This.

If we're being honest, any team on CD regularly has a massive leg up already, it's an echoing chamber for teams that are connected and stay on top of things. Then there's everyone else. As an example: There are teams that don't realize that rules updates come out. Seriously. I've had a parent on one of these teams yell at me about how the rules updates aren't in the manual so I had to allow illegal bumpers to compete. (we'll ignore that the change they had to make was less than 5 minutes of work and it was Thursday morning) So, for teams that ARENT on top of things, absolutely, they need a week.