FTC Questions

[Hallry]

Hello everyone, I had a couple of questions about helping start an FTC team.

1. Do you have to register an FTC team to buy an FTC kit?
2. How many hours of work does an FTC team require?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Hello everyone, I had a couple of questions about helping start an FTC team.

1. Do you have to register an FTC team to buy an FTC kit?
2. How many hours of work does an FTC team require?

Having two award winning FTC teams I think I can be helpful...

You have to be registered with FTC _AND_ registration fee paid in order to get authorization to purchase the FTC kit (w/Samantha radio module) via special pricing...

We meet two days a week right after school for 2.5 hours (Tues/Thurs) from game announcement in early September till two weeks before the competition in December... the last two weeks before competition we meet Monday-Saturday to be prepared for the event...

Hope this is helpful...

[lemiant]

Originally Posted by Hallry

2. How many hours of work does an FTC team require?

It depends on how well you want to do. The year I did it, the bot was at my house and I spent 15 hours a week on it, however that year we were world champions. The lower limit is probably about one three hour meeting a week, but if you want to do well you will need more

[Tim Delles]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Hello everyone, I had a couple of questions about helping start an FTC team.

1. Do you have to register an FTC team to buy an FTC kit?
2. How many hours of work does an FTC team require?

Thanks in advance for your help!

1.) I'm not entirely sure but I would assume so, as you can't buyt an FTC kit without registering for the competition. You can always buy the part separately and form you own 'kit'.

2.) A team takes as many hours as you are willing to put into it. If you want to be competitive I would recommend meeting 3-4 times a week, excluding driver training. As with FRC, designing a great robot is 1 thing, but having drivers that can control it and know what to do in EVERY circumstance is another.

Good luck!

Tim

[gblake]

The previous replies haven't said much about the length of the FTC season.

You can get a kit and experiment with it before the season starts.

The game/challenge is announced to the world on September 10 this year.

Each locale creates its own tournament schedule.

There might only be one tournament close enough for you to get to it. It might occur in November or it might occur in February.

There might be several tournaments close to you that are also open to you; and they could be clumped together (in time) or spread out.

Extrapolating from my modest Tetrix/FTC experience and my extensive Vex/VRC experience, I suggest that you can have a fun and successful season if you invest 40-80 labor hours into an FTC robot (some time is driving practice).

More time (and enough money for parts and multiple tournaments) translates into more iterations (more improvements).

For an FTC bot the hours obviously have be invested sometime between Sep 10 and your local tournament date(s).

Blake

[Coach Doug]

Hallry your question is very open ended. We've been involved in FTC two years, made it to World last year. Your goals will dictate the hours needed to obtain your goal plus as someone else mentioned, its also tied to the competitions you choose to attend.

For my team, we determined we didn't meet enough in our first year and in our 2nd FTC year, we averaged about 10 hrs. of mtg time per week from Sept kick off - all the way to World Tournament in April ( season length is another discussion ). Unless you really nail it at the first competition you attend, your bot will undergo some level of evolution between competitions ( sometimes even a revolution ).

Team size can help lower the amount of hours per team member. If you have a large team - say 10, you could have 2-3 students per night working on robot with no trouble and the kids rotate nights. You will need a solid design plan so the design doesn't evolve between nights.

[EthanMiller]

I captained a team that did quite well last year, and we met pretty much for an hour after school each day, with some of us staying later if there was a lot that needed to be done.

[MoeMom]

Hi Ryan, If you decide to jump in and join FTC, think about attending the FTC scrimmage Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Duel on the Delaware at Salem Community College in Carney's Pt, NJ. It's a great chance to try out your design and strategies in advance and get feedback, advice, have some fun, etc. before the official events. For info and sign ups here's the website contact page http://moe365.org/duel2011/duelcontact.php

It might give you the advantage of a mini-goal or deadline to aim for- then your team can recalibrate your efforts based on that...

Good luck!