List of Rookie Resources

[Jay Trzaskos]

I found the presentations by Ian Mackenzie and Karthik Kanagasabapathy on FIRST Canada to be very helpful and informative along with JVN's Fall Seminar Presentations.

[AdamHeard]

For Drivetrains (& more);

There are two very awesome drivetrain calculators out there;

JVN's is more complete and offers a lot of information (graphs of motor load, current draw, speed, position, etc...)

Steve Judd's is made for combat robots, but I asked him to add the two CIM motors to it. You just pick the motors, wheel size, weight, etc... (same stuff as JVN's) and it will give you a quick estimate of speed and current draw. Not as much information, but a lot easier. It is under the "tools" section of his site (called torque/Ah calculator).

[RoboMom]

FIRST Senior Mentor project
http://www.usfirst.org/community/vol...t.aspx?id=3310

[Richard Wallace]

The FIRST website has a page on team sustainability, with links to several good resources.

[OZ_341]

Rookie Teams can order a free copy of "Team in a Box". This DVD features interviews with Dean Kamen, Andy Baker, Rich Kressly, Mike Wade, and many other prominent FIRST icons. We will also continue to feature segments from knowledgeable Hall of Fame Teams such as Team 103 (Animation) and Team 67 (Drive trains) as well as input from teams interviewed at FIRST events.

Over 2500 copies of Team in a Box have now been distributed to 10 countries, 5 continents, and almost every US state.

Thanks to AndyMark we can continue to make this disk available, free of charge for Rookies, pre-Rookies and the veterans that mentor them.

For more information about Team in a Box please visit our website at www.team341.com and then click on the Team in a Box banner.
You can also find us by going to the FIRST President's Circle list of resources.

Thank you for supporting Rookies everywhere!!!

[Cynette]

Team 1511, Rolling Thunder, has a whole page on their website dedicated to Rookie Resources.

http://www.penfieldrobotics.com/resources/rookies.php

[Richard Wallace]

Top Ten Boneheaded Mistakes

[lynca]

http://wiki.chiefdelphi.com/index.php/Index_of_teams Check out teams that have been around FIRST and brainstorm Team Name ideas,

http://mentor.txfirst.org - Find mentors or contacts nearby that can help

[Kim Masi]

http://www.thebluealliance.net/

Thanks to Greg Marra and Tom Bottiglieri, the Blue Alliance is a great resource for any team, not just rookies. Check it out!

[vivek16]

I recommend just going to www.usfirst.org and just clicking every possible link possible. I found a lot of gold nuggets when it comes to recruiting new members or sponsors this way.

thanks, vivek

[Wayne C.]

Resources has been the focus of the Presidents Circle this past fall. There is a link of resources for team on the FIRST website that has links to most of those in this thread under "for teams by teams"


To plug our own program- I suggest you visit the www.raiderrobotix.org site and go to the RINOS page. The Manual for Rookies (downloadable) was written with all this information in mind. It is a great paper complement to TIAB from 341 and Moementum. There is an extensive link list in the back of the manual as well as the team 25 team manual and organizational charts.

In the near future watch for www.FIRSTrinos.com to be posted. It will have EXTENSIVE resources for new teams, links between teams and mentors and funding sources. The page is being coded now with a deadline in December.

For those going to NH, my wife Lauralynne (1089 mentor) and I are giving a workshop called "Making 1000's of Dollars Appear out of Thin Air for Your Team" where we will have lots of the contact resources out there and maybe give new teams some fund raising ideas. Maybe we will see you there.

Happy holiday!!

WC

[panicnot42]

Our team wrote an excellent guide on what to expect from competition and how to prepare for it. Link here

[BandChick]

Remember the FIRST resources out there too!

FRC Handbook, and the Team Timeline are great for getting organized and making sure you meet all your deadlines.

The NYC/NJ folks have also put together a pretty great collection of resources, including tutorials & guides, fundraising help, and a list of the some common suppliers and manufacturers - http://nycnjfirst.org/team_resources.html

[Ed Sparks]

The FirstCadLibrary is a site I started years ago to help teams be more productive with the donated CAD software (Inventor) from Autodesk. You can download these models of various robot components and save yourself the hundreds of hours it would take to model them yourself.

[Cheerleader1073]

Hey Everyone!

Our team created a manual one year ago (it's in need of a thorough grammar check and this year's game update) but it's a good manual for first-year teams and veteran teams who need help with team structure, etc. The link is on our website here: http://theforceteam.com/handbook.html . I was our team's "VP of Business" this year and will be our "CEO" (our version of a president or captain) next year so I've had a lot of experience in the community, public relations, financial, and spirit side of a successful FIRST team so if any new teams have any questions just send them over to my e-mail at genevieveb12@gmail.com and if I can't answer your question then I'll find out for you as soon as possible!

Thanks,
Gen