KOP Size??

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by raytexans

We will be attending the Alamo Region Kick Off in San Antonio.
Being able to rent a van will save a a couple hundred dollars compared to what the school district transportation office wants to charge us for a bus.

If you're going to be renting the van, then you could save even more money by splitting up the kit between multiple car trunks, assuming multiple vehicles are going.

[Andrew Schuetze]

I'll put in a call on Monday to this team as I am the San Antonio FRC kick-off coordinator. I'll also put them in contact with the San Antonio FRC Regional Director, Patrick Felty.

For reference, rookies will receive two large totes at approximately 40 pounds each with dimensions of 2 ft x 3 ft and 18 inches tall. There will be a long narrow box that is about 40 inches. There will then be a few other assorted boxes with small items.

As an FYI for those providing driving options. Corpus Christi to San Antonio is at least a 2 hour drive.

[h1n1is4pigs]

any mini van should work, i have a honda oddessy that i drive and i have put my entire teams eqipment and robot in it for competition and the boxs are small enough to fit in the trunk of most vehicles

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Ray,
I would suggest you might want to bring a cart along with you. It will help you get the entire KOP out to the car at the same time. Another suggestion, don't be tempted to open the KOP at the kickoff. Wait until you get back to your build space and inventory everything as you remove it. Then and only then, play with it.

[Robert Cawthon]

Just a thought: We have a kickoff party where almost everyone on the team meets at one of the mentor's house (she has access to the NASA channel on her satelite) and the team members bring breakfast and lunch items. We send the minimum to the kickoff. That allows the team to start brainstorming and reading the manuals.

[Andrew Schuetze]

As an FYI - San Antonio will be hosting several rookie workshops at the kick-off. One of which will be a modified drivetrain session, a session on how to connect all of the electronics and the control system and then a great introduction to Lab View by NI folks up the road in Austin. We are suggesting that rookie teams send at least 2 - 3 students/adults to each of those sessions. We've also asked veteran teams attending our kick-off to help with those sessions as we will have 20 rookie teams at our kick-off event of 38 teams from San Antonio and the South Texas. Austin and Central Texas teams will do something similar up in Austin, Texas.

So bring a few basic hand tools such as a ratchet set, screw drivers, wire cutters, and allen wrenches. We won't be doing any cutting of the frame materials as we don't want to force a set foot print onto your robot design right off the bat during kick-off. I would say bring safety goggles/glasses but we won't be cutting any metal so you should be fine.

So save room for the kit of parts boxes but bring a dozen or so students/adults to the kick-off to get a running start to the season.

If you can't bring all of the team, then bring the leads for mechanical, programming, and business as we will also have a session on developing a team business plan. Have the worker bees stay at school and watch the webcast and then print and read all of the game and robot rules sections cover to cover before the leaders return from San Antonio later that evening.

Al's advice for a cart to move the kit of parts boxes from the store room to your van/car/bus is a great reminder as a couple of the boxes are large and heavy as I described a couple of posts earlier.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by Robert Cawthon

Just a thought: We have a kickoff party where almost everyone on the team meets at one of the mentor's house (she has access to the NASA channel on her satelite) and the team members bring breakfast and lunch items. We send the minimum to the kickoff. That allows the team to start brainstorming and reading the manuals.

Going off of that,

1071 does something similar. We do have a CT Kick-off Closer, but we choose to go all the way to the actual one in N.H.

We send usually a delegation of about 2-3 mentors and 2-3 students. Not only do we get the KOP, but we get to have actual members see and get on the field (I understand those at local kick-off's don't have this opportunity). They then grab the KOP and bring it back on the 3.5 hour Journey Down.

Meanwhile having already a projection set-up going in the lecture hall from our Team-Bonding/Movie Night, the rest of the Team comes into School (in our Uniforms and all Firsted Up like competition). We watch the Kick-Off Broadcast as if we were at a local kick-off event. This year I belive were also inviting a Rookie Team were mentoring. We then call up our delegation in N.H. and ask them any questions we may have about the field that we can't answer by looking at it (for example last year we had questions about the memory foam and what it felt like). We then go home and come-back that night when they arrive to go through the KOP.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by dag0620

(I understand those at local kick-off's don't have this opportunity).

Depends on the Kickoff. In Wisconsin the local kickoff has a full field mockup.

[alectronic]

For the most part:

2 plastic totes: (27" x 17" x 12" each) 34 lbs each
1 Long box (6" x 6" x 36") 22 lbs
1 Square box (10 x 10 x 10) 30 lbs (ROOKIES)
1 Control System Box (24 1/4" x 15 1/2" x 12") 26 lbs (ROOKIES)
4 small items (less than 5 lb total)

You MUST have the team head mentor (as registered in VIMS) pick up the kit, and it would be a good idea to have either a dolly or an extra set of hands when you go for pickup.