New AndyMark Product Game Hint???

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

That international game piece option was available in 2016, as well.

Yeah, that's just a good response to the years of problems with international teams being unable to get the most basic stuff to compete. I agree that it doesn't give anything away.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

Of the four possible hints

Sorry, I'm out of it. What are these hints? I am aware of the dirigible in the teaser video, but I have yet to see any other hints. I haven't been sauntering through CD very much lately, though, so I am sure I've missed it here. Would you mind terribly sharing what the possible "hints" were? Thanks.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

That international game piece option was available in 2016, as well.

I wasn't aware of that.

Ah, well. Back to the speculation that I'm probably wrong....

[ctt956]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

But what if da red wunz go fasta!?

Add a few flame stickers. Problem solved!

Originally Posted by Branden2648

Andymark just uploaded a new video on Facebook with the following http://imgur.com/a/PHbIB

I started to think that dice(any size) might be game pieces. I see a Rubik's Cube in that picture...Vex Starstruck has a cube-shaped game piece... There's also a small toy robot between the large grey wheel and the stack of wheels. Minibot hint?

[nuclearnerd]

Commander Canada wishes all of our friends across the world a wonderful holiday season. #omgrobots #WeWouldntDareDoATeaserInThis #NahWeWould

https://twitter.com/andymarkinc/stat...84665857986560

What Christmas goodies has Nick been baking for us?

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

New LED Strips at AndyMark (WITH CONNECTORS EVEN!). What could this mean?

http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-3543.htm

That FTC teams want lights?

[Vyrotek]

https://twitter.com/andymarkinc/stat...84665857986560

What the heck is holding up the Canadian flag right at the beginning? That seems to resemble a pole climbing or zipline minibot/mechanism of some sort...

[Munchskull]

Originally Posted by Vyrotek

https://twitter.com/andymarkinc/stat...84665857986560

What the heck is holding up the Canadian flag right at the beginning? That seems to resemble a pole climbing or zipline minibot/mechanism of some sort...

I don't know what it is but I don't like it...I have heard the whispers or horror stories of mini bots.

[Andrew_L]

I hate to say it, but that's definitely a pole-climbing minibot. You can see the two motors (top one on the left side of the chassis, bottom one on the right side of the chassis), and the power connector wires falling underneath the frame. The frame has cutouts to guide the minibot along the pole near the top.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

I hate to say it, but that's definitely a pole-climbing minibot. You can see the two motors (top one on the left side of the chassis, bottom one on the right side of the chassis), and the power connector wires falling underneath the frame. The frame has cutouts to guide the minibot along the pole near the top.

What do you think the limit switch at the top is for? Seeing if the minibot hits the top?

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

The Nerf Howler is also in stock and readily available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.co.au, and elsewhere...which, combined with an earlier not-supposed-to-be-a-hint-but-was-totally-a-hint, tells me the Nerf Howler is not the game piece.

An item's availability on Amazon and other retailers is not a very good indicator of it being used as a FRC game piece, especially since FIRST almost always has game pieces made with some kind of branding on them.

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

What do you think the limit switch at the top is for? Seeing if the minibot hits the top?

For you youngin's that weren't around in 2011, a common minibot design included a limit switch at the top to cut power to the motors as soon as the minibot impacted the plate at the top of the pole.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

For you youngin's that weren't around in 2011, a common minibot design included a limit switch at the top to cut power to the motors as soon as the minibot impacted the plate at the top of the pole.

What are the chances that the minibot shown is from 2011 and AndyMark is just messing with us?

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by frcguy

What are the chances that the minibot shown is from 2011 and AndyMark is just messing with us?

Almost 100%.

EDIT: 100% chance that it's a minibot from 2011. Whether AM is just trolling or not I don't know, nor is it late enough in December for me to actually care.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by frcguy

What are the chances that the minibot shown is from 2011 and AndyMark is just messing with us?

Because of how overvalued minibots were, the top teams iterated on these until there was pretty substantial design convergence to the minibot you saw in the video. Very similar to the arms race of can grabbers in 2015.