Section 8.3.3 Illegal Gearboxes and Chassis

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by gabrielse

The Lab Rats (Team 1748) had to purchase AndyMark transmissions before kickoff because if we waited to order them through the Baltimore City School System we wouldn't get them until after build season.

We only opened the box with our AndyMark transmissions
on the ninth (after kickoff). We are a second year team in Baltimore City. We can't afford to buy another set of transmissions identical to what we just opened in order to say we purchased them after kickoff.

It seems like we met the intent of the rules and are getting caught up in legalities. I'm hoping that FIRST will allow us to use the transmissions we purchased but did not open until after the kickoff.

My students want to finish designing our drivetrain and they need to know what they can use.

AndyMark products are COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) items. AndyMark meets FIRST's definition of a vendor and their products are available to all teams in a reasonable period. I suppose if there was a run on one or two components they might get backlogged but that is allowed for in the rule too. Purchase of COTS items before Kickoff is allowed and, in the case of raw stock, encouraged. Since you just opened the box it obviously was not modified before Kickoff. If you had so much as drilled a single hole before Kickoff then it would be a "custom fabricated" part and therefore illegal.

You took something of a risk in purchasing before Kickoff. They could have switched to VEX type parts or some other motors completely unsuitable and you would have been stuck, but fortunately for us all this is not the case.

There is the question of whether or not this is a "pre-designed solution". Since you are making your own choices as to wheel size, gearing etc. I'd say it is not. The AM gearbox could be used to power an arm or robot lifter in addition to a drive system so it is generic enough in my mind that this is not a concern.

So turn your guys loose.