Basic Robot Kit

[E, Palmer]

My second year team (located in Maryland) is looking to purchase a basic Robot kit to work with in the remaining preseason. Our only issue is funding. We do not have the nearly 3 grand that Andy mark charges.(http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-3050.htm) We need to know if any teams would be willing to sell their kit for around 1-1.5 thousand dollars? If not are there any cheaper commerical suppliers?

[Levi Madden]

If you can't find anyone that will sell you one, it's probably cheaper to buy stuff individually, so you are not paying for things you already have, or don't need. The chassis with gearboxes is only $600, not sure how much it would cost for all of the electronics, but I'm sure some of it you already have too. Best of luck on your project!

[roboruler]

Considering the contents of the kit I don't think many teams are going to be willing to sell parts that are useful to them for a lot less then there value.

What happened to your robot from 2016, surely you could reuse the chassis and control system from that for preseason use.

[Chris is me]

I would figure out what elements you don't have from your old robot and can't reuse. Included in the Basic Robot Kit are many expensive control system components you do not necessarily need duplicates of. If you're mostly looking for the mechanical / hardware components, you could easily get the price down to less than half the cost.

[Nathan Streeter]

I think it'd be useful for those trying to help to understand:

1. What you're trying to build and/or what you're trying to learn from this pre-season project.

2. What you already have from your 2016 robot/season.

3. If you can't (or don't want) to salvage your 2016 robot. Don't take this to mean you necessarily should salvage your 2016 robot... but it may be that this new pre-season project could replace your need for having an existing robot platform.

It seems that if you're really limited on cost, you can either re-use the 2016 control system and some parts to significantly save money, or perhaps acquire an old control system from a veteran team. Spare control systems are hard to come by, but it's very valuable to have.

[Arefin Bari]

Please send me a detailed pm as far as what you are looking for. We got way many things in the lab that we can probably get rid of. Thanks.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I would figure out what elements you don't have from your old robot and can't reuse. Included in the Basic Robot Kit are many expensive control system components you do not necessarily need duplicates of. If you're mostly looking for the mechanical / hardware components, you could easily get the price down to less than half the cost.

Chris has it. The am-3050 kit you've linked to includes a roboRIO ($435), eight Victor SP speed controllers ($60 each, so $480 there), four CIMs (about $100 total), a new PDP ($200), a new VRM ($46)...

All of that is good stuff, and things you will likely use next season. However, that's not to say you need them--some of those components are available through the kit, product donation vouchers, or FIRST Choice, so you'd have them right around Kickoff when it counts.

I encourage teams to rehab and keep old robots running, but if your 2016 robot is absolutely thrashed a fresh AM14U3 is $599 every day (plus CIMs at $28 each if you really wanted fresh ones, but the ones you have will likely suffice unless you've got hours and hours of nonstop running on them). Transplant your control system (or if autonomy isn't a necessary element for your system, maybe a cheaper one) and you'd be running and driving.

If you know your end goal, as others said we can probably point you in the right direction on where to save money.

[DaveL]

To save costs for a summer project we built a few plywood bots using 3/4" plywood. Works just as well as aluminum and costs way less.
Plus left over material can be used for bumper supports.

In addition, we have a few cRIO's that we could sell.
Dave