andy mark wheels delay

[nuggetsyl]

http://andymark.biz/


ATTENTION FIRST teams
All 2009 FIRST Slick Wheels (aka Rover Wheels) orders will wait for shipment until January 12. We are sorry for this inconvenience and will have many more wheels very soon.

[cabbagekid2]

We were hoping to build our trailer by the end of this week. I guess not.

Seems like the demand of this year's game is creating a lot of supply issues.

[Matt C]

I'd like to reference a response to another post by Andy Baker.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ighlight=rover

Good point.

For practice purposes, a very easy thing to do is this:

Rivet on a 0.04" thick strip (or thereabouts) of Acetal plastic to the kit wheels from 2007 or 2008. The 2009 Rover Wheels are actually 6.08 in diameter. Keep in mind that this would be for practice purposes only, if a team wants to reuse their wheels from last year. According to rule R06, only Rover Wheels are allowed in this year's game.

Andy B.

So, all is not lost, you can still make a trailer.

[martin417]

This will be a huge setback for us! We had planned on receiving our wheels today. We want to try the wheels on last years bot on regolith so we can finalize our drive-train design. Having to wait another week kills a whole week from the build schedule. We will have to try something else.

[maltz1881]

We built our own wheels last night out of HDPE. We cut out blocks 6"x6" 1/2 inch thick. We lathed them down and put 3 together to make the wheels for the trailer. We are building 2 trailers and had the wheels taken care of within an hour.

[Matt C]

Unfortunately there are many MANY teams out there with no access to machine tools.

[Aren_Hill]

We ordered more wheels and some cims from AndyMark monday morning, and received them tuesday by like 11am...we selected ground shipping...

guess it pays to order early then

[team222badbrad]

222 placed our order the day of kickoff....

We already have our order.

[spc295]

why did first not just give us six wheels, what were they thinking? and why did andy mark not anticipate so many rover wheels needing to be bought?

[Kevin Sevcik]

The better question is why no one seems to have anticipated the large demand for these wheels and game pieces that only have one source.

[Andy Baker]

All,

We are in process of molding more wheels. We are shooting to have these wheels ready to ship out on Monday.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

[EricH]

Originally Posted by spc295

why did first not just give us six wheels, what were they thinking? and why did andy mark not anticipate so many rover wheels needing to be bought?

Maybe, just maybe, they couldn't make enough fast enough.

Imagine this possible scenario: AM hears about the need for X product from FIRST in December. They are asked to supply Y number of X product for the KOP and some extra. Possibly they do not know that this is the ONLY legal traction product, or that they need a lot more of it. They make some extra (say a couple of hundred) before Christmas, when they shut down for a week or so. At Kickoff, they find that hey, this is the only legal traction product, and they have to start the process at full speed from a standstill. But, teams are already pounding at their door demanding these wheels.

And maybe it takes a couple of weeks to start the process.

In the meantime, Andy has given a temporary workaround. Use it until you can get your order.

[GaryVoshol]

Please note that the rules say a VENDOR should be able to ship product within 5 business days. AndyMark is meeting that. Also the rules mention this may not be possible if there is a sudden influx of orders.

As for why only 4 per kit, most likely because that's the minimum number needed for your robot. (Yes, you can make a tricycle, but ...)

[Kims Robot]

If nothing else this game is teaching me patience is a virtue

Maybe they are trying to get us to be more self sufficient (ie making our own wheels and balls!!) Imagine that... a world of people who can think outside the box instead of just complain about supplier issues... (Kudos to those that have made wheels & came up with the ball redesign!!)

[=Martin=Taylor=]

If you have a lathe you can easily turn your own out of hard plastic (like delrin). It would be good enough for a trailer.


We put some 6" AM omnis on our trailer. I'm not sure how well this mimics using the real wheels, but it offered virtually no resistance to sideways or forward movement.

There are always alternatives.