[BB] So, what about the Classmate?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Kims Robot

One would guess that either
1. FIRST was getting more of a discount on the parts than they are passing onto us (ie maybe they got compressors for free??)
or
2. FIRST is actually making out on this deal... paying less for the kit, but passing on a lesser savings to us (ie reaping the $500 towards their own use... Im seriously hoping they are using that to build up their grant program)

Either way... I'm not a fan of the withholding/reuse... I would rather see teams have the election option (ie my team would pay the $6K to get a new controller and all those parts, other teams could elect to save the $1K and not get them).

Don't forget that it's $6,500, in reality. Costs increased, but by withholding pieces of hardware, FIRST is able to reduce what we're paying at the same time as they reduce what we receive. It's no great bargain.

[Trent B]

Im kinda surprised to see that the battery charger is one of the items on the list to get reused, granted quite a few teams have their own complex battery charging systems which they may not even use the kit chargers in.

[lynca]

Originally Posted by Cory

But we have to buy $1500 worth of stuff to get the same kit we had last year.

Isn't progress great?

I'm not happy about the re-use idea. But I like the price drop.

2011: $4000
2012: $3000
2013: $2000
2014: $2000
....
2030: $2000 (this would be the optimal saturation point ! )

However I hope that price of re-using everything continues to go down until its about $2000 to register for FRC . This would be the magic number to help FRC expand tremendously. Any other guesses for the ideal Registration Fee cost?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by lynca

I'm not happy about the re-use idea. But I like the price drop.

2011: $4000
2012: $3000
2013: $2000
2014: $2000
....
2030: $2000 (this would be the optimal saturation point ! )

However I hope that price of re-using everything continues to go down until its about $2000 to register for FRC . This would be the magic number to help FRC expand tremendously. Any other guesses for the ideal Registration Fee cost?

I don't understand this at all unless you plan on gutting every robot you have....

[Molten]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I don't understand this at all unless you plan on gutting every robot you have....

Or allow people to just buy the parts they want with a few less restrictions. I can't tell you how much stuff comes in the kits that goes completely unused.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by lynca

I'm not happy about the re-use idea. But I like the price drop.

2011: $4000
2012: $3000
2013: $2000
2014: $2000
....
2030: $2000 (this would be the optimal saturation point ! )

However I hope that price of re-using everything continues to go down until its about $2000 to register for FRC . This would be the magic number to help FRC expand tremendously. Any other guesses for the ideal Registration Fee cost?

How do you propose we get to a $2000 registration fee?

Unless the KOP doesn't exist it's not happening.

Again, how is this perceived as a price drop? You're paying $1000 less for an item that is now worth $1500 less. You just lost $500 of value compared to last year.

[Joe Ross]

I wonder how many different versions of the classmate that FIRST has to buy to comply with the many different wi-fi regulations throughout the world.

[nathanww]

Probably just one, since I'm guessing that the control system will use either the linksys routers or the FRC field system again this year.

[EncodersRUS]

Originally Posted by nathanww

Probably just one, since I'm guessing that the control system will use either the linksys routers or the FRC field system again this year.

It's actually just got a quad-band, and I'm assuming that all the extra instructions for flash drive use are for foreign teams.