Bills Blog: A few more details on control system and 2010 beta test

[Joe Ross]

Bill Miller posted a new blog

Good Morning Teams,

In my travels this week, I’ve heard a few questions from teams. To answer what I can:

* Kickoff will be January 9th.
* Robot Ship will be February 23rd.
* The competition season will be 5 weeks long.
* Championship will be April 15-17th.
* FIRST does not plan to share the list of items teams may reuse from the 2009 kit just yet. I should have more details for you in September as we finalize agreements with some of our kit of parts suppliers.
* I’ll also be able to tell you where to purchase additional quantities of the reusable items then.
* Yes the cRIO will still be available at the discounted price.
* The classmate included in the kit of parts is being built especially for FRC. I’ll give you more information once Beta Testing starts.

I want to remind everyone who is busy with their calculator that the FRC Registration fee is not tied dollar for dollar with the Kit of Parts. FRC registration fees also go toward game development and prototyping costs, competition field construction, shipping Kits of Parts to Kickoffs, Kickoff production and a host of other hidden costs.

We’re almost ready to Beta Test elements of the 2010 control system. An email blast will go out to teams soon, but if you’re interested in helping FRC over the next few months, apply here.

Heads up, Section 4 of the competition manual (Robot Shipping) may change this year. FRC is working with a FedEX packing engineer to review our current crate criteria in an effort to improve efficiency in shipping.

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149 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!