Hopefully this year's drive train will be better.

[Bill Gold]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Very well said. I couldn't agree more. In 2005 it was easier than EVER before to build a very competitive robot for the game. But we still need it to be even easier than that? No way. It is supposed to be difficult, it is supposed to be challenging, and you are supposed to go beyond just what the instructions tell you. Back in the day, we had no gearboxes, we had no frame, heck, we had no CIM motors. If utilizing the kit gearbox is a challenge for you, I think something is wrong. Go back even just a few years and see what the kit gave you, and then you'll see that you've really "got it made" now.

Sorry about following you off topic on this thought again, but I think this needs to be said.

FIRST is difficult and it is challenging, but you aren’t necessarily required to go off and build an 8 motor drivetrain and 4 motor / 8 pneumatic piston arm mechanism for the heck of it when a 2 motor non-shifting drivetrain and 2 motor arm does just as good a job. IMHO being competitive in FIRST accomplished by doing the job as simply as possible while attempting (not necessarily succeeding) to do it as gracefully as possible. Why use all 12+ motors on something that can be done with 4 or 6? 254’s 2005 robot had a 4-motor shifting drive system that was pretty simple and a 2 motor - 2 joint arm. Simple and effective; and we even ran about 1/3 of our total matches with just 2 motors powered in our drivetrain.

What I’m trying to say is that you should not necessarily be looking to build the next “cool” thing, unless that’s your team’s goal and you’ve got the resources to finish it by ship date. If you’re worried about your resources, or don’t want to have to use them if you don’t have to then using premade components like those of AM or the KoP is a great option. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that all the “upper echelon” teams custom machine absolutely every part of their robot (you could see a few cute AM stickers on parts of our 2005 robot, and we got the complimentary bag of zip-ties from Andy Baker at The Championship to prove it, too). IMHO the teams who have the best chance at success are the ones who know where they can save time and money on machining by using or using part of some premade equivalent.

-The Bill