Fabricated Items same as COTS

[ToddF]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

And, just to cover the bases, I don't suppose that your sponsor would be willing to make so many of these parts that you could make them available to every team (for a price), rendering these bits actual COTS items?

For a part to count as COTS, it must be sourced from a VENDOR (definition in section 4.1) Interestingly, in your example the mentioned sponsor would probably be a legit vendor, while several popular FIRST "vendors" technically are not.

Originally Posted by cglrcng

Very interesting read and catch....I was reading another thread about something else entirely last night, and without pointing the exact who's or what out here....I thought the same thing (it was about the loaning of a retractable Ball blocker at Championships last year, and they were told to keep it after the event as a gift)...Now, if that was fabricated at that event only from COTS items, it would not count towards either team/robot(s) witholding allowance.

Holy Crap! You are absolutely right! We were the loanee in the situation mentioned above. I don't remember how much weight we brought to the Championships, or how much the blocker weighed, but if we had actually used it during a match, we might have been in violation of the withholding allowance. We would have been honor bound to forfeit that match. Thank god we didn't ever get a chance to use it.