Radio Shack and Robovation

[dmellich]

Sources tell me that Radio Shack, FIRST, and Innovation First are finalizing a deal that would give "control" of the Robovation program (former EDUbot) to RS. By control we're talking manufacture, distribution, and sale through their retail stores for the masses. Hmmm........

[David Kelly]

Originally Posted by dmellich

Sources tell me that Radio Shack, FIRST, and Innovation First are finalizing a deal that would give "control" of the Robovation program (former EDUbot) to RS. By control we're talking manufacture, distribution, and sale through their retail stores for the masses. Hmmm........

I heard something about that also. I wasnt sure if it was just a joke by the person that told me, but apparently not because others have heard about it as well. I wonder if anybody else has heard anything....

[Clark Gilbert]

I was actually going to call Radio Shack here within the next few days to talk to the manager about a job. If this all goes through and I do end up getting a job for this summer I'll try to get some details......

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Clark Gilbert

I was actually going to call Radio Shack here within the next few days to talk to the manager about a job. If this all goes through and I do end up getting a job for this summer I'll try to get some details......

Funny story about that... I once applied to work at Radio Shack when I was 17.

My interview went great and the manager was ready to hire me. All he had to do was administer a scantron like test for the corporate office. The test had various questions about honesty. For instance, "if you saw someone stealing what would you do?" or "What would you do if a sibling stole from the store?"

After sending in my answers the results came back- I was too honest, and probably lying on the test. The manager didn't really know what to do and stalled for a couple days. He wanted to hire me but needed to get the okay from a superior. I decided waiting around to see if honesty was respected in the company was too much for my wallet to handle; so I started working at Sears in the Tool Territory.

[Joe Ross]

I think this is great!

The EDU controllers are very usefull for small, or even large projects. One of my friends used one for a class project this year, and it let him concentrate a lot less on the electronics and more on the code.

Right now, the main reason it isn't more wide spread is the cost and marketing. Getting them into Radio Shack solves both of those. Marketing is easily taken care of, and cost will heavily decrease once IFI starts making the volume needed to supply radio shack. Even if each store in the country orders 5, that will still far exceed the volume that FIRST and Battlebots uses.

This is a great step for Innovation FIRST.

[westfalia]

I'm pretty sure it's not a rumor at all. At nationals, I was talking to some pretty important people from radioshack. They came up to our pit and started asking me what I thought about the EDU kits. And of course I told them that I thought they were great.

So if they'll sell them in stores, I wonder if they'll take off like they did in teams. As a kit to use as a hobby, I wonder if they'll be confusing. Programming is confusing to me. I'd probably understand it given some time though.

So when will it be that we can buy our OI's and speed controllers at radioshack? I want to see that day, you know. When we tell a member of the team in week 5.75 of the build season, "hey, go pick up a new speed controller!"

[Adam Y.]

That's odd I remeber reading about a robotics kit going to be offered at Radioshack long before this thread ever came out.