YMTC - Manufacturing

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Neither particularly sounds like it's worth the trouble.

(But hey, if someone wants to go through the trouble of creating a legit business (and the other requirements for a FIRST-legal supplier under the most recent rule set), I don't see the trouble.)

Heh... who would be crazy enough to do that?

AB

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

Heh... who would be crazy enough to do that?

AB

Heroes.

Thanks, Andy and Mark!

[KenWittlief]

Something tells me that that would further tip the balance squarely in favour of the teams with the best funding or resources (who can afford to buy expensive components off-the-shelf, or commit resources to a production run).

I hope there are not too many teams who cannot afford to spend the allowable amount on their robots - what is the cap these days? $3.5k?

if a team is going to sell a transmission as a COTS kit to other teams, it cant be expensive, because they have to use the same price on their bill o materials as they charge other teams for the same transmission.

so the incentive would be to psuedo-mass produce an inexpensive robust COTS mechanism, that any team could afford (as a small part of their total robot BOM budget).

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I hope there are not too many teams who cannot afford to spend the allowable amount on their robots - what is the cap these days? $3.5k?

I think you'd be surprised. We have (as compared to some other FIRST teams) a pretty limited budget - $19K this past season. We were faced with the choice of using the money we did have for the robot or to enter another regional. We decided that it would be not only good exposure for our team adn its members, but in the spirit of FIRST, to go to both Boilermaker and W.Mich. So subtract $10k for registration and KOP, $3.5k for charter bus, $2k for room & board, and $2.5k for tools and supplies - not much left over for the bot itself.
But we still had fun! And the completely student-designed, student-built robot was a source of more pride for the team members than perhaps anything else they'd done in their lives.

Sorry, off-topic. I'll stop now.

[TimCraig]

Originally Posted by boiler

We have (as compared to some other FIRST teams) a pretty limited budget - $19K this past season.

Pretty rich compared to many. I work with a team who's never had that much.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I hope there are not too many teams who cannot afford to spend the allowable amount on their robots - what is the cap these days? $3.5k?

As was noted above, a lot of teams budget their limited funds in ways that preclude expensive but convenient parts. A $300 expense for transmissions is a difficult thing for more teams than you might imagine.

Now that I think more about it, with the kit transmissions available, there isn't really the risk that the teams that can spend a few hundred dollars more will dramatically outclass the others. That would have been a bigger issue a few years ago, back when we had the Bosch motors and their slightly inelegant transmission mount and crossed-axis output as the no-cost option.