[BB] So, what about the Classmate?

[Trent B]

Im kinda surprised to see that the battery charger is one of the items on the list to get reused, granted quite a few teams have their own complex battery charging systems which they may not even use the kit chargers in.

[lynca]

Originally Posted by Cory

But we have to buy $1500 worth of stuff to get the same kit we had last year.

Isn't progress great?

I'm not happy about the re-use idea. But I like the price drop.

2011: $4000
2012: $3000
2013: $2000
2014: $2000
....
2030: $2000 (this would be the optimal saturation point ! )

However I hope that price of re-using everything continues to go down until its about $2000 to register for FRC . This would be the magic number to help FRC expand tremendously. Any other guesses for the ideal Registration Fee cost?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by lynca

I'm not happy about the re-use idea. But I like the price drop.

2011: $4000
2012: $3000
2013: $2000
2014: $2000
....
2030: $2000 (this would be the optimal saturation point ! )

However I hope that price of re-using everything continues to go down until its about $2000 to register for FRC . This would be the magic number to help FRC expand tremendously. Any other guesses for the ideal Registration Fee cost?

I don't understand this at all unless you plan on gutting every robot you have....

[Molten]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I don't understand this at all unless you plan on gutting every robot you have....

Or allow people to just buy the parts they want with a few less restrictions. I can't tell you how much stuff comes in the kits that goes completely unused.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by lynca

I'm not happy about the re-use idea. But I like the price drop.

2011: $4000
2012: $3000
2013: $2000
2014: $2000
....
2030: $2000 (this would be the optimal saturation point ! )

However I hope that price of re-using everything continues to go down until its about $2000 to register for FRC . This would be the magic number to help FRC expand tremendously. Any other guesses for the ideal Registration Fee cost?

How do you propose we get to a $2000 registration fee?

Unless the KOP doesn't exist it's not happening.

Again, how is this perceived as a price drop? You're paying $1000 less for an item that is now worth $1500 less. You just lost $500 of value compared to last year.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Molten

Or allow people to just buy the parts they want with a few less restrictions. I can't tell you how much stuff comes in the kits that goes completely unused.

The components you are referring to I believe, but am not entirely sure, are donated (lead screws etc.. etc..). The real expensive items that FIRST pays for are in the control system, which we have to use.

[Akash Rastogi]

When we checked out this email today with our mentors they were frankly, pretty upset. One going as far as to call this "BS on FIRST's part."

So much for that 1K "price drop."

[sarcasm]I know, let's just buy the things we actually need afterward and pay a much higher price for it! Because that will definitely solve the budget problems most teams have. Better yet, rip it all out from old robots!

Cory, you're absolutely right! This progress is great! [/sarcasm]

[Molten]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

The components you are referring to I believe, but am not entirely sure, are donated (lead screws etc.. etc..). The real expensive items that FIRST pays for are in the control system, which we have to use.

The components I was referring to include: the excess of motors, air compressors given to all teams(when many don't use them), the kitbot frame(the majority don't use this), the tracking cam(which seems to only be used by half on a good year), and various other odds and ends.

If all of this is donated, I take back everything I said. However, even if it is donated...it is still a huge waste for all of us teams to get that much stuff that just goes to waste. Not to mention all the batteries teams accumulate over the years that they couldn't reuse because of certain rules. I'm not necessarily saying this on a pricing viewpoint. Just on a wasteful view point.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Molten

The components I was referring to include: the excess of motors, air compressors given to all teams(when many don't use them), the kitbot frame(the majority don't use this), the tracking cam(which seems to only be used by half on a good year), and various other odds and ends.

If all of this is donated, I take back everything I said. However, even if it is donated...it is still a huge waste for all of us teams to get that much stuff that just goes to waste. Not to mention all the batteries teams accumulate over the years that they couldn't reuse because of certain rules. I'm not necessarily saying this on a pricing viewpoint. Just on a wasteful view point.

Easy (easier said than done) solution would be for each (veteran) team to determine what major components they'll need/not need (such as the AM Frame) during registration before the season or in TIMS?

[Trent B]

Then I can only imagine the confusion at kickoffs with like 100 teams where they have to hand pick your KOP out of all the other teams, lots of man hours for FIRST to custom make kits (unless they do it more simply on a box to box basis like passing on the kit chassis box).

Ours were all stacked in a room probably 50x25' at MN kickoff, I can't imagine how they would do it on a team by team basis unless you could reject certain boxes. and they just had a stack of totes to chuck boxes into (so you could pass on certain motors and the gearboxes if your team didn't want them for instance.)

Messy.

[chessking132]

I am very pleased to hear that items like the compressor will not be in the kit of parts. Team 75 has not used pneumatics since 2003 so we have a whole bunch of compressors just lying around. The kit apart seems like it is filled with only parts that are needed each year such as the new motors. This will allow veteran teams to save money because most veteran teams take the electronics out of the kit of parts and the rest goes in to storage and then eventually the junk box. This being said FIRST needs to ofter the ability for teams that may use more out of the KOP to purchase it online for a discounted price.

I love the new Classmate driver station, it should open up allot of possibilities for this season.

Matthew Simpson
Team 75 VP of Technical/Driver

[Joe Ross]

I wonder how many different versions of the classmate that FIRST has to buy to comply with the many different wi-fi regulations throughout the world.

[nathanww]

Probably just one, since I'm guessing that the control system will use either the linksys routers or the FRC field system again this year.

[TD-Linux]

Originally Posted by EricH

(Note: I don't know of a single compressor failing since they were introduced to FRC. That's a pretty good record of reliability...)

Ours did. Poor shielding and odd placement caused another robot to "eat" the front of our robot and rip the wires out of the compressor.

[EncodersRUS]

Originally Posted by nathanww

Probably just one, since I'm guessing that the control system will use either the linksys routers or the FRC field system again this year.

It's actually just got a quad-band, and I'm assuming that all the extra instructions for flash drive use are for foreign teams.