FRC 2010 Registration fees reduced

[rsisk]

Check out Bill's Blog entry from this morning. New fee structure for the 2010 games:

http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2009/08/hot-news.html


Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Hot News

Good Morning Teams,

I am very excited to announce that, thanks to cost cutting, the reuse of key items in the control system, a generous donation from Dean Kamen and careful planning on the part of everyone involved with FRC, the 2010 registration fee will be REDUCED this year to $5000 for Veteran teams and $5500 for Rookie teams.

Here’s how it works. Veteran teams will receive a kit of parts and reuse some of the elements from the 2009 control system. Rookie teams will receive a kit of parts containing everything in a Veteran kit of parts plus the reusable elements Veteran teams already have on hand. The official cost to Rookie teams will be $6500; however, Dean Kamen has generously offered to make a $1000 donation to FIRST for each Rookie team joining in 2010. That money will be applied to the Rookie team’s registration fee reducing the real cost to the team to $5500.

All kits of parts will include a Classmate PC for use in the driver’s station and teams will have the option to purchase additional reusable components after kickoff.

The registration fee for teams to attend additional FRC events and the FIRST Championship will remain the same as last year.

157 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!
Posted by Bill at 10:10 AM

[Francis-134]

Hmm this could be interesting. Certianly a step in the right direction.

Info on the classmate PC can be found here

[Schnabel]

Sweet action, here's what a Classmate PC looks like. This should be interesting if it is the Drivers Station, but from what I understand of reading this, it'll be used with the drivers station.

[Alan Anderson]

$1500 in "reuseable components"? That's pretty close to the non-discounted price of the FRC cRIO. I wonder what else we'll be expected to salvage from the 2009 robot.

[rsisk]

I don't remember, are the sidecars going to be in the KOP for 2010, or are they considered reusable components?

That might be part of the $1500.

Also, I think NI subsidized the cRIO last year, maybe that subsidy is not available this year.

[Jared Russell]

Definitely a step in the right direction. Kudos to FIRST for listening.

[artdutra04]

This is great news for the teams which are looking to reuse their control system components from year to year. For the teams looking to keep older robots intact and operational, here's the math:

If the new Classmate PC is replacing the driver station, and if teams are looking to basically swap their CRIOs but otherwise keep the rest of the control system intact on older robots, then a PD Board ($189), Sidecar ($82), Analog & Solenoid Boards ($24 each), and WGA ($72) come out to $391, with a net savings of $609. (I didn't include the Linksys Router, since that is not needed for competitions).

But if "reusing the control system" also includes the main breaker ($26), 1 Victor ($115), 4 Jaguars (4x $73), 2 Joysticks (2x $20) and Ethernet Camera ($188), this totals out at $661, plus the $391 from above, comes out to $1052, a net increase of $52. This is basically every control system component from the 2009 KoP minus the cRIO.

Not too bad, and certainly a lot better than buying another control system on top of a $6000 registration.

Originally Posted by http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-2823

NI and FIRST have recently finalized the pricing for backup or extra cRIO systems and are pleased to be able to announce the prices. Each year every team will be allowed to purchase one entire kit (controller and modules) for $750.00. Any extras beyond that will be NI's standard academic price which is $1,491.05. Each of the modules individually will follow the academic pricing as well and are between $150 and $175 each.

If swapping a cRIO is too difficult, then the price of one additional cRIO + modules per year is $750, which means a net increase in costs of $802. This means if you want to reuse your entire control system, your costs could be as low as $5000, but if you want to have a practice robot or keep an older robot operational, your price will be up to $6802. This is a LOT better than the 2009 season, where purchasing a second control system for a practice robot cost $2000+ on top of the $6000 registration.

Either way, this is a better than what it was during this season.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Schnabel

Sweet action, here's what a Classmate PC looks like. This should be interesting if it is the Drivers Station, but from what I understand of reading this, it'll be used with the drivers station.

That's a first gen Classmate, they're up to the third generation now. Wonder which one we will get.

Classmate website

[purduephotog]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

$1500 in "reuseable components"? That's pretty close to the non-discounted price of the FRC cRIO. I wonder what else we'll be expected to salvage from the 2009 robot.

Agreed.

I'm switching to a team this year that had last year as their first year. They have no older systems to test or work from- so having to reuse the cRio is unacceptable.

More details are going to be needed ASAP because if I have to purchase another cRio I've got to find money... somehow.

[purduephotog]

I'm told there will be a press release later today... so I will hold of speculating further.

[EricLeifermann]

i think you should be able to get the rookie kit if you want to pay the 6500. That way you can get an extra crio....

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by IndySam

That's a first gen Classmate, they're up to the third generation now. Wonder which one we will get.

I hope we get the convertible (tablet) one. Does anyone know cost difference?

Last year, I really wanted to use video feedback and touch buttons for the operator to control the secondary functions of the robot, but that functionality was not really open. With a tablet pc as the DS this should be much easier to do.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Veteran teams will receive a kit of parts and reuse some of the elements from the 2009 control system. Rookie teams will receive a kit of parts containing everything in a Veteran kit of parts plus the reusable elements Veteran teams already have on hand. The official cost to Rookie teams will be $6500; however, Dean Kamen has generously offered to make a $1000 donation to FIRST for each Rookie team joining in 2010. That money will be applied to the Rookie team’s registration fee reducing the real cost to the team to $5500.

This seems to me like some crafty wordsmithing. The way I read this, the costs may have actually increased. And, this only says that Dean is covering the cost of the increase for rookies for 2010 (no mention of 2011 and beyond). Presumably the $6500-$5000 = $1500 difference between the two kits is FIRST's cost of the components that veterans will need to reuse. In the past we got new components each year so we were able to keep old robots running (which is very important for Chairman's outreach etc). It's a reasonable assumption that, in order to keep our 2009 robot running, we might have to spend at least $1500 (maybe more, since we might not get the same discounts as FIRST) to buy new versions of the components to put on our 2010 robot.

FIRST may have decreased the dollar amount we have to write on the check, but they also reduced the value of what we're getting for that check. The difference between the dollar amounts of those two items is what will really determine if the fees were actually reduced or not.

[Akash Rastogi]

Who knew smaller trophies and lighter medals would make such a difference

Just kidding, but this is awesome.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

$1500 in "reuseable components"? That's pretty close to the non-discounted price of the FRC cRIO. I wonder what else we'll be expected to salvage from the 2009 robot.

I'll be pretty upset if we're expected to pull more than just the cRIO