QOTW 08-24-03: Old School

[Andrew]

I wanted to clarify what I said earlier.

I like the fact that there are no restrictions (other than exotic materials) on the raw materials allowed.

Here's a "for instance."

Back in the "old days," you had to buy any flat stock that was thicker than .25" from Small Parts, pay exhorbitant shipping, and hope they didn't run out before you needed it.

Allowing us to buy any flat stock, any thickness is not a significant concession. But, it saves teams both money and trouble.

Here's another possibility. Let's say that "hex stock" is not on the list. A team with the facilities and manufacturing can take round stock and create hex stock. The teams without such facility have to compromise their designs.

By basically saying, "Go down to your local Metals Supermarket and buy any raw materials you want," FIRST is opening up design options to resource limited teams.

Another example...gears.

Gears and gear stock are relatively inexpensive. If you can buy gear stock and fabricate gears to your specifications (a facility which is within most teams' grasp), then you have a much larger variety of design options.

If you disallow buying gear stock (as was the case in the "old days"), then only teams with the ability to cut custom gears out of round stock could have this flexibility.

By opening up the number of raw material options and putting a $3500 cap, FIRST actually did more to level the playing field than in the days when we were forced to buy only from Small Parts.

This is a good thing!

On the Pneumatics...
Relying on inspectors to find safety issues with non-approved pneumatic components is a formula for disaster.

Relying on all teams to only use pneumatics that are rated to the correct specs is a formula for disaster.

It would be nice if FIRST put together a catalog. However, (this is from someone who has done just that), you are asking some poor FIRST engineer to allocate about 2 weeks of his time, full time, to developing such a catalog. Give these guys a break!

Perhaps if the FIRST community got together and developed such a catalog and provided validation for all the parts, such a thing may come to pass.

Even then, you have inpsection issues. The larger the catalog, the more difficult the inspection.