Rookie Brazilian Team #6404 needs help

[igorteam6404]

Hi Guys,

First of all, thanks to pay attetion for this thread, i'm from FRC team BrazilianStorm team #6404 from São José dos Campos, Brazil and it's our first year in FIRST and we are going to compete on South Florida Regional in Palm Beach. As everybody knows we cannot fly with our batteries and we have to find ways to provide it. We are a state high school and we have a lot financial problems but now is batteries time, is possible any team that is going to compete in the same regional can lend some batteries and charger during the regional?

We have already contact FIRST to provide some batteries but it's not enough.

We appreciate your attention and help!

[Dwight_2]

If you still extra by the time competition rolls around be I can contact some of the other teams in Florida that are going ( my team is not ) about getting you guys some help I'm sure someone would be happy to help.

[EricH]

FIRST will have "International Batteries" at your event. Admittedly, there are only a couple of them per international team attending, but that should help a little.

[MARS_James]

Originally Posted by EricH

FIRST will have "International Batteries" at your event. Admittedly, there are only a couple of them per international team attending, but that should help a little.

We have 9 international teams so hopefully they send per team and not just a flat number. That being said we may be able to help with batteries but not a charger since we have a battery charging station. So worst case either borrowing a few batteries or just coming over to our pit and borrowing as needed while giving back the dead ones.

[rich2202]

You can order batteries from Andymark for delivery to the Regional. If you are financially strapped, that would be a problem.

Find out what other teams will be at the regional, and send messages to them. If you ask in advance, I am sure there will be more than enough teams that can each lend you one battery.

[kelsey.m]

Hey,
I coached an international team (4928) in the UAE and we had the same dilemma. A few things that we found out...
1) The batteries that FIRST has for international teams all got shipped to the location with the field. For our first year, we were the only international team at our event so although we had only been promised 2 batteries, there were actually 6 (maybe 8?) available to us. It was great to have extras! Some of them were on the older sided and didn't hold the full charge. So, check the number of international teams registered for your regional event.

2) We had an awesome mentoring team (LiveWire 3562) that was attending the same regional as us. And they were driving there, so things like heavy/bulky power tools were easy for them to bring and share. I'd highly recommend sending an email to some of the established teams attending your Regional if you don't find someone through this thread. It was also great to Skype them all Build Season and then meet up face to face at the Regional! If you can't find someone who can promise you good batteries, I recommend buying some locally once you get stateside. Where cost is an issue you can always try to find a team who will buy them from you after the Regional? But again, if you find a mentoring team close enough to drive, they might be able to transport the batteries to Championships should you qualify, or hang on to them for next year if you think you'll return to the same Regional?

3) This idea doesn't help you for now but our second year it worked to have a team mentor who was visiting stateside pick up our kit. He left the batteries with family who then drove them to the regional we were attending. Excess baggage fees were still much less than full KOP shipping to our team's location.

Good luck and if you need anything, just ask - FIRST is full of people and teams that want to help you have an awesome experience!