Batteries

[Brandon Holley]

This rule along with the shipping of the control board rule only hurt rookies. It really makes no difference to veteran teams if they have their controls/batteries. They can go into their stockpiles and pull out an RC, OI and battery to power up a "practice bot". Sorry rooks.

[GaryVoshol]

What would a team do, hypothetically of course, if they didn't keep the battery packaging? Not reading the shipping rules until nearer to Ship Day?

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by GaryV1188

What would a team do, hypothetically of course, if they didn't keep the battery packaging? Not reading the shipping rules until nearer to Ship Day?

We could post the specs on the regulation original packaging I suppose.

I think we actually have an old box packed into the crate from a couple of year's ago when this rule first came out and was first turned into a suggestion. We left the original shipping box and packing in the little wooden compartment, but never shipped more than one battery before. This year the battery will have company and an extra $50 overage charge. <sigh>

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by GaryV1188

What would a team do, hypothetically of course, if they didn't keep the battery packaging? Not reading the shipping rules until nearer to Ship Day?

Gary,
I would post the question on Q&A. I would think that it would be acceptable to form a cardboard container around the batteries (like the original box), fully insulate both terminals and enclose in the battery part of the shipping container. Just to be on the safe side, include a copy of the battery sheet in the crate.

[yodameister]

Originally Posted by Donut

This is not a huge amount of money, just an inconvenience as we have to get cash to pay for it since we don't know how we would get a PO to handle this.

Same boat here. I had to eat $350.00 in shipping charges last year due to a PO mess. Although you may be able to generate a PO to yourself and provide the receipts to the district so you can get your money back. That is what we have to do this year.

[deshirider430]

we shipped the batteries last year.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

This rule along with the shipping of the control board rule only hurt rookies.

You couldn't be more wrong. It hurts every single team that cannot afford the multi-thousand-dollar price tag required to go to several different regionals. Last year there was a really great equalizer - each team was allowed several hours per week to build spare parts, tweak their control systems, or do whatever needed to be done. The reason behind this is that teams who are at a regional have effectively 3 additional days to work on their robot per regional they attend. 3 days is a major amount of time when all of your time is spent at the event - no school, no job, no distractions.

Now they have decided to take away every team's control system. Now they have decided to take away every team's batteries. If these rulings are not reversed, I see this as blow to every team who struggles to be able to afford the FIRST entry fee, let alone the sky high fees to attend additional regionals. Teams that use previous years equipment to continue work after ship date are effectively cheating, and should reconsider what that means in a competition such as this - however, I could understand teams believing that this is the only way to compete against teams that are fortunate enough to be able to afford multiple regionals (and thus receive the extra time). In a way they are absolutely correct - in effect teams who pay for multiple regionals pay for additional time with their robot, and it's impossible to compete with that advantage with a ruling like this - and that should never be the case in any competition.

-Danny

[Tomasz Bania]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

Are teams with sponsors that have deep pockets worthy of special privileges? FIRST has just looked you in the eye and said YES.

-Danny

That's a sad but truthful way of putting it.

[geeknerd99]

Ummm... oops. We totally chucked out our original packaging for our battery a few weeks ago....

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

Teams that use previous years equipment to continue work after ship date are effectively cheating ...

Well, not any more. The FIRST Q&A has definitively answered that rookie teams are in fact hosed when it comes to utilizing the FIX-IT windows to continue to develop their control systems (unless they happen to buy another OI/RC or borrow one from another team to continue their work).

-Danny

[Reaper40]

What if we dont have the original packaging for the batteries? What could we use to subsitute the packaging?

[Armando]

the batteries came without packaging in the red and blue totes, (at least ours did) and we don't know how to ship them back...