[FTC]: Starting a New FTC Team

[addictedMax]

Originally Posted by Lowfategg

1. The kit is $900, extra parts cost more, and I believe registration is $275. Also remember regional costs.
2. Depends on what you call fully functional. Our team spent somewhere in the range of 2-3 months on each of the two robots we built that won 4 regionals and the world championship.
3. Somewhere between 6-8.
4. I just print and tape logos onto robots (like this, also laminating is a good idea, http://teen-technology.org/max4.aspx)

Welcome to the FTC program!

Thanks everyone for the help.

Lowfategg, for the 2-3 months did you meet everyday, or did you meet less?

[Lowfategg]

Originally Posted by addictedMax

Thanks everyone for the help.

Lowfategg, for the 2-3 months did you meet everyday, or did you meet less?

Around twice a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It really depends on how fast you work. A lot of times during meetings we would work on other things, and not just robots.

Basically start working from the moment the game is released and let your deadline be your first regional.

[Foster]

1. How much is it for a first year team? (all fees and kit costs)

Kit is $900 less some deals that FIRST has, they are described above, events are $275. . Other costs to consider:

- Extra Parts -- Its not clear how this year will work on extra parts, last year we spent about $600 on parts and extra batteries.
- Travel / Lodging / Food at a distant event
- Team shirts / buttons
- Banners / Signs for your pit
- Marketing materials for sponsors
- Papers etc for parent info, trip forms, etc. (we went though a ton of paper sending stuff home)
- Programming systems -- if you don't have a laptop for code development that will add to the cost. I did programming support last year for some events, having your code locked in a desktop 100 miles away is an issue. If you are doing IFI events remember that the programming software is an additional charge.

2. How much time is required to have a full functioning robot?
Full function - you can do it in about 10 weeks, meeting once a week for 3 hours. Competitive robot, about twice that. The robot gets better the more time you work on it (Duh). Most teams have their best robot about an hour after the final match.

Your best bet is to hook up with teams in your area and have scrimmages, building the robot is easy, having the teams learn to "drive with a purpose" is hard. Driving skills need practice and they need to practice against other teams.

3. Whats the best amount of team members?
We had 4-5 students per robot, it gives everyone to have hands on time. The robot is only 18" square, with a big team it's hard to get everyone to touch it. You need 2 more drivers than the robot requires. If your robot needs 2 drivers, then you need at least 4 people on the team. As the year moves on students get schedule conflicts with band, sports, family stuff, etc. Nothing is worse than showing up not having enough drivers.

As the senior mentor, I start the year picking teams and we do the training sessions (frame, structure, motors, gears, programming, etc. ) for the first 5 weeks. Then the students can pick their teams for the next cycle of building the comp robot.

4. Where do you put sponsor logos/names on your robot?
Any place they will fit, remember that your number MUST appear, make the numbers part of the initial build requirements.

Good luck!

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by Foster

1. How much is it for a first year team? (all fees and kit costs)

Kit is $900 less some deals that FIRST has, they are described above, events are $275. .

Be sure to read the FIRST FTC website - http://www.usfirst.org/community/FTC...718&menu_id=84 - costs are outlined there. It is $275 to register your team; $900 for the kit of parts. Each tournament you decide to attend will charge a separate fee - organizers will charge teams between $50 and $300 to attend an event. The fee varies based on a number of factors - how much it costs to hold the event in the venue, if they can get corporate sponsors to help defray those costs, etc., so some events are less expensive than others.

[Mary]

We are also thinking of starting a team. We are going to do Vex also this year, I think two teams since it is only $75 for one team and $25 for the second team, but I think we want to try FTC also.
If we do start a FTC team, have they said for sure when kits will ship if we buy them? Also, how many students can be on one team?

[Lowfategg]

Originally Posted by Mary

We are also thinking of starting a team. We are going to do Vex also this year, I think two teams since it is only $75 for one team and $25 for the second team, but I think we want to try FTC also.
If we do start a FTC team, have they said for sure when kits will ship if we buy them? Also, how many students can be on one team?

I am pretty sure if you buy a kit there going to ship it to you. I don't know when they are shipping them, but I say by the end of this month.

I believe the maximum limit of students on a team is 10, but I have seen more and far less. In reality 6-8 students is a perfect number to work with since in FTC there really is not enough to do to keep everyone busy.

[Mary]

Originally Posted by Lowfategg

I am pretty sure if you buy a kit there going to ship it to you. I don\\\'t know when they are shipping them, but I say by the end of this month.

I believe the maximum limit of students on a team is 10, but I have seen more and far less. In reality 6-8 students is a perfect number to work with since in FTC there really is not enough to do to keep everyone busy.

Thank you. I know they will ship the kit if we buy it, we just want to know when they will be available, if it would be a few days, a few weeks, or more than a month.

Also, do you know when they are releasing the FTC game? The Vex game was released today and looks great, so we are doing that for sure. But if we can we would still like to try FTC this year also if there is an event in our area, we just wish there was more information to help make the decision.

[KathieK]

The FTC kickoff is scheduled for September. Event information is usually released on the website in October.