Does anyone know what motor the KOP is going to be included with? My team is hoping to purchase the Andy Mark 2 speed shifter this year but we are kind of hesitant because the picture on the power distribution diagram that came with the control system looked nothing like CIMs.
No. We never do until we see the kit.
Unless your Dave, jk. Bill warned everyone that the KOP might change dramatically, maybe even the loved cim’s might go :eek:. Just wait until kickoff.
i dont see any reason why they would get rid of the cims though:confused:
they work so well
Just like First, If it’s not broken, make it better until it is.
CIMS are good at toting around 150 lb robots, it’s true. However FIRST does not guarantee that we will be building 150 lb robots come January. We could be building autonomous ornithopters for all we know!
I would be absolutely shocked if the CIM was eliminated. That being said, there is no way I would buy a trany before kickoff.
Even if the CIMs were eliminated, hopefully provisions would be offered, such as the AM Planetary gearbox for the FP motor. They also had a tranny for the mini bike CIM motor. So who knows, maybe new motors, but the ability to use the same trannys. 
maybe more powerful motors?
here’s the deal with that, if you Google “DC motor” that motor is the 12th result in the second row of images on my computer and it’s the only motor on the page that looks anything like 120 pound robot drive motor. also I really don’t see them getting rid of the cim I think it’s safe to buy your tranys early
The above is correct; we have no firm knowledge of the kit of parts until Kickoff, the early shipment of parts ('09 control system, '08 IR board) notwithstanding.
That said, we’ve had CIM motors in the kit of parts in varying quantities since 2002. I don’t know about 2002 and 2003, but the 2.5" CIMs in the kits since 2004 have been functionally identical beyond the printing on the housing. I’d be surprised if FIRST dropped the CIM motor, and a little saddened at the loss of a strong, near-indestructible motor, but I wouldn’t put it past them.
As FIRST gets larger and in more countries, I would hate to see the announcement of new motors at kickoff. The costs are huge to order something during build season and paying $$$ for either 1 or 2 day air costs to get them. We hate ground shipping during build season for obvious reasons. 
True, that would suck a lot. The Cims are pretty awesome, but with if we had mag …
This is just speculation, but on the AndyMark new products page there’s info on new toughbox accessories which i would imagine means toughboxes will be the KOP transmissions, and that would also mean CIMs.
Trannies can always be modified to work with other motors, I think the kilobytes made fisherprice motors work with the kop gearbox.
No matter what the clues are, it just isn’t worth the risk to buy transmissions or Kit specific parts before you actually have the kit. There are rumors, yes. However, let’s look at the facts of what we KNOW about next years motors: NOTHING. Some teams may make the decision to go ahead and order transmissions before the season. That is their GAMBLE. My team will be waiting until we know what we need to do before we start spending on hardware. No matter how you look at it, locking yourself into a design before you actually have any of the facts isn’t a smart move.
and andy mark also has a new planetary gearbox. is it an adapter for a new motor?
Why doesn’t someone watch the sales of cims where ever First gets them and see if there is a spike, like lets say 4 times how many teams there are?
no picture andy?
maybe something is not happpening to the cims?