FIRST Choice 2015 Window Open

[Arpan]

Originally Posted by Whippet

That is a lot of linear motion-related supplies. I suspect that a lifting game may be imminent.

Seconded. Might be just me, but I see a lot more than last year.

[snoman]

a crimping tool that cost more than $200can anybody tell me why that's a good deal

[EricH]

Originally Posted by snoman

a crimping tool that cost more than $200can anybody tell me why that's a good deal

It's a ratcheting crimper. It's a LOT more "idiot-proof" than a normal crimper/stripper combination. Means that you lose crimps a lot less often. And it's only 100 credits...


BUT, pay attention: It's meant for #8 to #1, and most FIRST teams won't use anything thicker than #6 (battery cables) or maybe #4 (same use).

[HydePhoenix]

<Rookie alert>

We are a rookie team starting "from scratch." I.e., assume we have nothing.

Reviewing FIRST Senior Mentor Dana Henry's FIRST Choice list for rookie teams, and crossing it against Michael Hill's spreadsheet comparing part costs to credits, I get the following $ / credit values:

Batteries fc15-008 50 1 50 $0.89
Battery charger fc15-005 50 1 50 $0.66
Ethernet port saver fc15-030 5 2 10 $1.15
Velcro kit fc15-036 10 1 10 $2.49
Encoder Kit fc15-039 20 2 40 $1.18
Spikes fc15-112 20 2 40 $1.75
Black Jaguars fc15-0340 50 4 200 $1.60
Victor 888 fc15-019 50 4 200 $1.40

It has been suggested that buying batteries locally may be cheaper than paying for shipping via FC.

The hypothesis I'd appreciate feedback on is: As rookies, we're probably going to be buying a lot of stuff, and so we should be careful to maximize the value of our FC credits. E.g., why not buy a battery charger, say - and conceivably one preferable to the one on offer here - rather than paying money for a higher cost / credit item available here?

The problem is: As a rookie, I don't know enough to know which higher cost / credit items here we're going to need.

Any further suggestions on this score?...

Many thanks!

[AndreaV]

Originally Posted by EricH

It's a ratcheting crimper. It's a LOT more "idiot-proof" than a normal crimper/stripper combination. Means that you lose crimps a lot less often. And it's only 100 credits...


BUT, pay attention: It's meant for #8 to #1, and most FIRST teams won't use anything thicker than #6 (battery cables) or maybe #4 (same use).

according to the website, under product discription it states:
"Full Cycle Ratchet Crimping Tool, 16 AWG-4 AWG, 8 AWG-1 AWG Flex Copper, Die Wheel"

http://ecat.burndy.com/Comergent/bur...Other Features

It seems like it has two wheels? can anyone clarify this?

[scca229]

Originally Posted by snoman

a crimping tool that cost more than $200can anybody tell me why that's a good deal

That is a very high quality (think industry quality...mine has put on several thousand connectors from 1ga to 6ga in telecom sites over the years) ratcheting crimping tool that is the correct one for use on the 6ga Panduit power lugs that have come in the KoP in recent years. This tool makes very quick work with these lugs onto the 6ga power wire with a connection that will not come apart. Many teams do not use the provided lugs because they could never crimp them correctly, causing failures, and blaming the lug when it was the tool used. I believe that having the correct crimper available is great and an even bigger bonus that it is a real one and not a cheap one.

[Monochron]

Does anyone have experience with the CUI encoders in FIRST Choice that they are willing to share?

I notice that they are much cheaper than the Grayhills that are usually recommended and wondered about the CUI's quality/durability/precision/ease of assemby/maintainabiltiy/etc. Our team was planning on buying a couple of Grayhills this week before build season, but if these can do the trick then I would much rather spend credits than money

[Michael Hill]

I just found an archived copy of the 2014 FIRST Choice and was a little disappointed to find that nearly everything was either the same "price" or "cheaper" last year. I've added 2014 credit prices to the spreadsheet I made available earlier. Some things are a rather drastic increase. For example, the Classmate went from 100 credits to 200, lead screw from 5 to 20, slewing ring from 5 to 100. The only thing, I believe, that is "cheaper" is the 4-slot cRio, dropping from 100 to 40.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

I just found an archived copy of the 2014 FIRST Choice and was a little disappointed to find that nearly everything was either the same "price" or "cheaper" last year. I've added 2014 credit prices to the spreadsheet I made available earlier. Some things are a rather drastic increase. For example, the Classmate went from 100 credits to 200, lead screw from 5 to 20, slewing ring from 5 to 100. The only thing, I believe, that is "cheaper" is the 4-slot cRio, dropping from 100 to 40.

Yes, but the objective wasn't to make things fewer points - it was to normalize them so that their rough value was equatable to their point value. The last couple years, you could have loaded up on fluke multimeters and sold them for a big profit - much like the video card this year.

The values seem fairly accurate except for a couple exceptions this year, and there's a lot of worthwhile stuff in there. We can always use more pneumatic tube, hoses, batteries, spikes, etc.

[IceStorm]

I would look to add some of the pneumatic components to your list as a rookie team. They used to include more of them in the kop but that has been lacking the past few years and we have had to either purchase those parts or use our credits. Also while those speed controllers are not the most current ones that teams are purchasing they certainly do the job just fine and can save you some money in the long run.
I agree about the batteries and shipping costs. Are team is fairly close to andymark and can either pay lesser shipping or occasionally have another team mentor that goes through the area that will stop and pick items up.

[AllenGregoryIV]

I throw this together pretty quickly but this is what I would want if I were starting a rookie team this year and I was guaranteed to get everything I wanted from first choice. This isn't in order of priority or anything like that and any priority list should have way more items then are included on this.

Notes: I don't like jaguars and I'd rather buy batteries and chargers from other sources. This also assumes that you would like to build a practice robot and have some knowledge of the old control system.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...dBQ/edit#gid=0

[HydePhoenix]

Thanks for your replies. This begs the question - that I had yet to consider: Will we, in our rookie year, have a practice robot?

This might seem OT relative to FC, but if we do plan to have a practice robot, looking at the very high $ / credit for the cRIO and PDB, the time is obviously now to make this call.

The change in the controller makes me wary of grabbing the cRIO since FRC is moving in another direction (right?), but two considerations push me toward this:

1. We have scheduled time for robotics every day through the end of February, so a practice robot would give us something to do once ours ships; and
2. Outreach seems to be one of the most promising arenas for us during our rookie year, and a practice robot would help with this since it would give us something to show....

Thoughts?

Thanks again!

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by HydePhoenix

Thanks for your replies. This begs the question - that I had yet to consider: Will we, in our rookie year, have a practice robot?

This is a decision you have to make as a team. If I were starting a team I would do whatever was needed to make some type of practice robot. My first year with Spectrum we build a practice robot but we did it by removing nearly all of our electronics from the competition robot on bag day and reinstalling them at our first event. It would have been far easier if we had a second controller and everything even if it were an older generation since most of the code is transferable from the cRIO to the RoboRIO (depending on your programming language and features you choose to use).

We also were meeting every day throughout the entire competition season, Jan-Apr. So a practice robot was very useful.