Purchase/Prebuild - What's the difference?

[Ricky Q.]

Originally Posted by Andy Brockway

I may be wrong but I believe that Innovation FIRST was started by engineers that worked with a FIRST team and decided to build a better control box specifically for FIRST. This does not appear to be any different from AndyMark, engineers that decided to start their own business to help FIRST teams

That is correct sir, a fact shown before on these forums:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...8&postcount=67

And the AndyMark business will be a hot success, in my opinion. They will be providing something for the teams that could/want to build a similar gearbox, but haven't done so before and don't have the time to go through the whole process in the build season. But perhaps after the season they will take a closer look at the AM Gearboxes, disect them and modify them and/or make their own versions of them.

This business could be a stepping stone for teams to open their eyes up to different ideas. And purchasing something from AM or any other off the shelf product CAN add to the learning process, it can teach you "Hey maybe we should work on stuff like this in the off season",my team learned that lesson and I'm sure many others have as well. There are many lessons that can be learned from every different process in FIRST, you just have to look for them.