Rookie Team Shopping List

[Tungrus]

Originally Posted by PowerfulKitty

Firstly, our team's strength is going to be the mechanical and structural aspect because we have a fantastic shop and all of our student members are competent welders and machinists.

Appreciate your confidence!

Originally Posted by PowerfulKitty

Funding will be plentiful .....

Where is this magical land? We can move our team there!

[Lil' Lavery]

Your shop and machinist experience suggest you can start by stocking raw materials (though you may already have access to plenty via your metal shop program). Some materials we have frequently used include 1/8" and 1/16" wall aluminum box channel, 1/8" wall aluminum angle, 1/8" and 1/16" thick polycarbonate sheet, various sizes of PVC piping, and 3/8" 1/2" and 5/8" steel drive shafted (we used keyed, but others prefer hex). Depending on your exact facilities and expertise, you may opt for other alternatives. Some teams invest heavily in sheet metal designs, while others weld round tubing, for instance.

However, depending on your skill and experience in terms of design (and CAD), you may also want to stock up on some more COTs and ready-for-use options as well. 80/20 (or similar) and/or VersaFrame are great options for teams that "design on the fly" and need the ability to iterate on their final machine.

Regardless of the route you chose, ensure you have the proper hardware to use. At the very minimum stock up on #8, #10, and 1/4-20 bolts and nuts of various sizes. Also ensure you have bearings and/or bushings to use for your shaft sizes, shaft collars, #25 and/or #35 ANSI roller chain, and any special hardware for any extrustion you want to use (like 80/20 t-nuts). Rivets may also be worth investing in, depending on your manufacturing techniques.

Many basic electronics should be covered by your rookie Kit of Parts. However, you may end up wanting to buy additional motors and speed controllers beyond those. We cannot guarantee the rules on any of these components until they're released. However, AndyMark, Vex, and Banebots have historically been the vendors for any additional motors not included in the Kit of Parts (or included in quantities less than the max allowable via the rules).

Those same vendors are also useful for many other COTs components, including gearboxes, #25/35 plate sprockets, drive pulleys, wheels, hubs, etc. The KoP will include enough to get you moving (and should be the basis of your design as a rookie team), but consider purchasing some additional materials for use on your manipulator components or to upgrade your Kit of Parts drive base. Planetary gearboxes are often useful for end-effector mechanisms, for instance.

[Oblarg]

Just adding some more support for raw materials. You can never have enough extruded aluminum.

[treffk]

You could always start brainstorming what sort of drive train you want to use and buy the parts for it ahead of time to help beat the rush!

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by treffk

You could always start brainstorming what sort of drive train you want to use and buy the parts for it ahead of time to help beat the rush!

Since they're rookies, I'd say it's a 99% bet that drive train should be the KOP one. Especially since we've gotten some indication from FIRST that this year's KOP chassis design could give away field obstacles.

Raw materials are nice. I wouldn't suggest getting anything too fancy-- box tube in 1x1 and 2x1 should be just fine for your use.

Please get extra batteries and extra battery charges. Ideally, like Allen said, 8+. That should be around $320 + tax, and then some good chargers. I'm a big fan of this guy. It's expensive, but it gets you three batteries charging from one, which is great. Not having power is a terrible way to lose a match.

I understand you have a good shop already, but it'd be a good idea to make sure you have tools and fasteners in common FRC sizes before the season starts-- those would be 1/8" rivets, 10-32 and 1/4-20 bolts (pick one, or use both), and associated wrenches, drill bits, etc. It's a very good idea to standardize your fasteners-- it's a big time saver at competition and cuts down on the amount of tools you need to bring.

It'd also be a good idea to track down prototyping materials-- there's no reason to buy these-- I'm talking leftover cardboard boxes, scrap wood, maybe some foam.

Good luck in your rookie year!

[snoman]

make sure you get in on the FIRST choice !!!!

[rebelreyek]

Apologies for what’s turning out to be a long post…

I totally second (third?) what Allen and Nick said regarding batteries. It’s so much easier having 8+ at your disposal, especially when they’re all on a charger and ready to go during competitions. Nothing is worse than taking your team’s robot out on the field with a partially charged battery and not doing as well as you would have on a fully charged one. Our team recently got a couple of the chargers that Nick brought up, and they’re definitely worth the cost.

When it comes to KOP this year, according to a blog post by Kate Pilotte (FRC KOP Manager), all registered and paid teams will receive 4 Talon SRX controllers in their KOP this year along with other components from the new electrical system. That being said, I don’t know what rookie teams will be receiving in addition to the motor controls. (Also, chances are that your team will need more than four motor controls.) So I’d plan on buying more (either the Victors or Talons, like Allen mentioned).

Wiring up the robot: crimpers, connectors, wires, so on and so forth. Make sure that you have a good amount of wire and in the correct gauges. We use a lot of 12 gauge wire, as well as 10, 14, 16, and 18 gauge wires. I’m not much of an expert of purchasing wire so my best advice would be to price it out at your closest hardware store. You’ll also need a pair (or three, depending on how many you think you’ll need) of strippers, averaging around $20-30.

Crimping and connection-wise, I’d recommend Anderson Powerpoles. In previous years we had used quick disconnects, but we found the connections and reliability better with the Powerpoles. Andymark sells a nice pair of ratcheting Powerpole crimpers, and our team just ordered a whole bunch of contacts and colored housings from the PowerWerx website. Our order came out to be around $150, but it could be more or less depending on how much of what you’d get.

Make sure that your team has a nice soldering iron set, which can range from $35-$80, or even higher depending on the set. Also, I’m an advocate for brass sponges because they work really well. You will also want heat shrink in various sizes to cover up any soldering connections. You can get a box of assorted sized heat shrink for about $15, or a little more if you want to get colorful.

Kind of relevant: lighting up your robot makes everything infinitely cooler. Historically, my team has used cathodes. Whatever you do, just make sure that it’s compliant with the rules!

Thus far a lot of this has been electrical-based. Sorry about that…

Driver’s Station Materials: at some point, whether it is now, during the season, or before your competition, you’re going to want to build something to stick your laptop and controllers on. It can be as simple as plywood or as complicated as you’d like, but make sure that you can easily carry it around. There’s tons of media on this website to give you some ideas, so go crazy!

Just a bit of housekeeping: if your team is going to CAD your robot design, make sure that anyone and everyone who would do that has the same program installed before the season starts. Also big monitors are nice for CAD-ding, just saying.

That’s all I’ve got for now. If you have any questions, just let me know!

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by rebelreyek

Wiring up the robot: crimpers, connectors, wires, so on and so forth. Make sure that you have a good amount of wire and in the correct gauges. We use a lot of 12 gauge wire, as well as 10, 14, 16, and 18 gauge wires. I’m not much of an expert of purchasing wire so my best advice would be to price it out at your closest hardware store. You’ll also need a pair (or three, depending on how many you think you’ll need) of strippers, averaging around $20-30.

When it comes to wire we do just about everything (drivetrain and battery wire excluded) out of 12AWG and 18AWG wires. If it requires 14AWG we normally just use 12AWG it's easier to only have a few gauges to worry about, just remember to always use a large gauge (smaller number) when you don't have the correct wire. Be careful with certain connectors that aren't designed for bigger wire but a lot of the time you will be fine.

Here is a really cheap place to get wire. We've been using it for 3 years with out an issue.

100ft of 12AWG for ~$33

100ft of 18AWG for ~$11

Also for the Anderson SB50's used on the batteries I normally get them from eBay.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by rebelreyek

When it comes to KOP this year, according to a blog post by Kate Pilotte (FRC KOP Manager), all registered and paid teams will receive 4 Talon SRX controllers in their KOP this year...

Just a small correction.
In the KOP teams will get

Originally Posted by FRC Blog

...four Talon SR motor controllers...

These are the older Talons, not the latest SRX ones.
Just don't want anyone to be unexpectedly disappointed.

[rebelreyek]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

These are the older Talons, not the latest SRX ones.
Just don't want anyone to be unexpectedly disappointed.

Whoops! Sorry for the error, thanks for the correction!

[adciv]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

These are the older Talons, not the latest SRX ones.
Just don't want anyone to be unexpectedly disappointed.

Too late

[Jacob Bendicksen]

Some other miscellaneous things...

Buttons! Many FRC teams give away buttons at the events that they attend, as it's a common way to get a souvenir from each team at the event. Order them or make your own - it just comes down to whether you want to pay a little more, or occupy some freshmen for a week.

Zipties - you can never have too many zipties. In as many lengths as possible. In as many places as possible.

Velcro - this helps immensely with holding electrical components down. Alternatively, you can ziptie them down, but velcro holds well and is quickly removable.

80/20 - we're fans of using 80/20 for prototyping. It's quickly adjustable and just about universal in compatibility. You can use it on your competition robot, but it's significantly heavier than other options (quickframe, 1x1, 2x1, etc.), so it might be better utilized in prototype mechanisms.

Motors - the most common motor in FRC is the CIM motor. It's available on AndyMark, and most other FIRST vendors. CIMs are great for drive bases and high-output applications, but if you need something smaller, mini-CIMs, AndyMark motors, and BaneBots motors, among others, are good options, as well.

Some sort of informational handout - as a PR guy, I can't stress this enough. It's fantastic to be able to have something to hand judges/potential sponsors/nice people that come by your pit. It'll give them something to remember your team by, beyond just a button, and it can also provide contact information, should they be interested in a partnership (or giving you an award).

Good luck! If you have any questions about PR stuff (or other stuff, for that matter), PM me.