My team competed in FLL this year and we are thinking of doing FRC next year. Does anyone have an estimate for how much time will be required, or costs and space issues? And is there a place where I could go to find FRC resources for new teams? Thanks!
In my experience FRC takes 15-30 students, 5 digit sponsorship figures, thousands of student hours, and at minimum a few hundred square feet of shop space. The jump up in resources is going to be stagering coming up from FLL, so be prepared for that.
You can do it though. FRC is a great program! There’s lots of people here who can help you and answer your questions. The FIRST website has resources for new teams, and FIRST likely has a local organization for your state that you can reach out to. (FIRST in Illinois, FIRST in Michigan, etc)
There’s plenty of other people on here writing posts for you, I’m sure. You’re in the right place. Thank you for reaching out.
+1 lots of time and money, equipment. I have seen many good FRC teams with less than 15 students. You will need a mentor or 2 or 5 that are willing to spend a ton of time with you. I would suggest seeking out a local FRC team and meeting them where they work and talk with them.
Can you be a little more specific on your location?
Boy oh boy have you come to the right place.
Registration will set you back $5000 ($6000 for rookies), but total costs for travel, parts, tools, shirts/buttons, etc. may very well raise that to a few tens of thousands of dollars.
If you can stand wading through the FIRST website that’ll have some resources and info you can use. You’ll also want to stop by Screensteps Live for electrical and programming basics, and browsing CD for anything else you need won’t hurt either.
For time, you will definitely want to set aside at least a few days a week during the Build Season (first Saturday in January to mid-February), and whatever weekends your events fall on, which run 2.5-3.5 days depending on whether you’re in a district or regional location. Other than that, you’re a bit more free to choose your schedule. You’ll want some time in the fall and early winter to prepare, and you will probably have regular meetings after your season ends.
Obviously the more space the better, but you can make do with a space about the size of a large classroom (we do).
Good luck!
Time required will probably be one of the most shocking increases. I know my team clocked over 100 hours, but I’m not sure of the exact figure. But with that in mind, make sure you put quality of your team over quantity. For one of our regionals we sent only 8 people but those where the kids who had a genuine passion and committed their time and energy to the fullest.
This is also probably one of your best resources when looking for advice or help. If I could so make the leap to say, a question never goes unanswered. Also use veteran teams within your area if you really want some advice on fundraising around you etc.
Best of luck!
My #1 piece of advice is that if no one on your team has ever done FRC before, FIND A TEAM TO MENTOR YOU! It’s quite frankly **staggering **how much stuff you don’t know that you don’t know as you start FRC. Even if you have a couple of veterans, it’s really a good thing to do, because FRC is such a team activity that VERY few people know everything that the team needs to do. (To clarify, I am certain that I am NOT one of those very few people, as I have learned more things each year so far.)
Second, find sponsors Edit: my take on FRC budgets and finance.
Third, find mentors. While there are a few “white glove” teams out there where the students take care of everything (or believe they do), most FRC teams depend on a solid corps of mentors to handle both technical (engineering calculations, general building know-how, project management, tribal knowledge) and non-technical (pay the bills, arrange transportation/hotels, deal with sponsors, and interface with the school or other primary sponsor) matters. Note that some of your best mentors (esp. technical) are likely to come from the same companies and government agencies which are likely to sponsor you! When you deal with sponsors, find ways to encourage them to bring a LOT of employees to your demos and sales pitches to improve the chances of finding a mentor.
Build space is the fourth priority (though the one that 3946 is currently in crisis with). You need some place to work. You need some place to store your tools and robot and parts. You need some place for drive practice. The closer these three places are to each other, and the more you can “leave things out” at the end of each session, the simpler things will be.
Additional support: You will need transportation to events. You will need some sort of insurance “top cover” for all the stuff you do; do you really want to file a claim for an injury sustained by a non-family-member teenager using power tools on your homeowner’s insurance? Depending on where you are, you will want or need “field trip” top cover from the schools that your student members attend.
I have toyed with the idea (of starting a small independent team) myself.
The highlights of my advice to myself are:
- Buy/build a basic Kitbot (wheels, bumpers, electronics, and nothing else). Get it by buying a 2017 Kit-Of-Parts and/or whatever it takes to scrounge up whatever you need for it.
- Take that Kitbot apart and put it back together a couple of times.
- Learn to drive it well, and maybe tweak the driver station set-up a bit.
- Write and iteratively revise the software that Kitbot and driver station use until you are happy with it.
- “Manage” your software in some sort of record-keeping system.
- Then build an add-on mechanism or two, or three, and add a sensor or two, or three.
- Use a little CAD along the way.
- Compete in an off-season event or two.
-
Throughout all of the above, very
carefully pay attention to how long every task takes from start to finish. - The ability to accurately predict, plan, and manage your time (and project complexities) will make everything else flow sooooo much more smoothly.
Then pay a $5000? registration fee, and have a great rookie season.
Why carry out my suggestions before registering? Because getting a floor of experience under you without rookie-season deadline-pressure will enable you to minimize a bunch of high-risk heartache, and get you ready to hit the ground running when the gun goes off on your first build season.
Building up enough enough experience to make accurate plans that are based on meticulously-recorded experience, instead of on naive opinions, will especially help keep you out of the ditch.
Being an FRC team is a complex activity, but the complexity isn’t infinite. Tame it, and then go conquer the world (or at least change your community a little bit ;))
Blake
This really needs to be a multi-year relationship. One of the hardest things to do is to learn how to do effective fundraising. Many new teams in Texas have died because they never learned how to do fundraising effectively.
Are you sure you have to start a new FRC team? It is likely that you will have a better experience if you join an established team in your area. It would be of great benefit to you to put your real location in your profile so that you can be visible to those teams who can join or who can help you.
Also on the topic of sponsorships, asking for sponsorship from companies to whom have connections you know people from (relatives, friends, etc.). I helped raise $2,500 for my team from my Stepuncle’s company, Logistiview (who develops augmented reality devices for use in commercial settings like warehouses).
I Highly, HIGHLY, suggest finding a vetran team in your area and asking for their help. specifically a team with a blue banner in the past year or two (chairman or robot) or a well known team. Often times teams like this would be more than willing to share experience that it is hard to on a forum like this, as it needs more of a personal touch. They may also let you use some of their tools such as bandsaws and electrical supplies. Whatever I say about starting a rookie team would be an understatement, it is hard. But trust me, there is a saying on my team, “the more you put into this program, the more you will get out” and I cannot tell you enough about how I have grown due to it.
Also many things from this old PDF may help
Thanks everyone for all the advice. We went to Houston Champs for FLL this year so we know there’s lots of time involved but obviously FRC will be a lot more 
As far as creating a new team, we were thinking of joining an existing team in our region for now and seeing how that goes.
One more thing-- where would I buy/get the kitbot from? We want to start getting used to not working with Legos anymore XD
Again, thanks everyone for the help!
In addition what type/software do most teams program with? I’ve read this year’s rules but can’t seem to find anything (missed it maybe?)
Here’s a link to a thread about inventory:
And a slack group for 2018 Rookie Mentors:
Also I agree that you should contact FRC Teams in your area. They’ll guide you through the process and are always willing to help.
Some teams use Labview, it’s a very basic software. Our alumni have found it not terribly useful outside of FRC, so we have looked into other languages the last couple years.
We use Java and Python for Vision. Python is harder to work with. Java is fantastic, and the programmers enjoy using it I’m told.
Other teams use C++ with a lot of success. Use what you are comfortable with, there are plenty of tutorials online for any of the big three (labview, C++, and Java).
My non-programming advice echoes what’s been said earlier. Find sponsors, find mentors, learn CAD (Solidworks or Autodesk can be had free or at a discount for FRC, OnShape is gaining popularity as a cloud based program), learn programming, and get the tools necessary. Feel free to PM me any questions you have.
Surely you don’t want us to deprive you of the valuable learning experiences that comes from doing that research? 
I’m no expert on the subject. However, by simply having Google run a search using “purchase” “FRC” “KOP”, I quickly found my way to this page:
2017 Kit of Parts
You should be able to start there, and get to the right answers.
To build a first FRC bot I think you need the items in the Rookie KOP, and I think those items include the crucial main computer for the bot (and maybe some driver station items too?).
Blake
AndyMark sells the am14u3 here, which I believe is the same one in the rookie KOP.
No of course not 
Just confused by the results I find, since it appears to me first doesn’t distribute them directly?
FIRST does. But only at Kickoff to registered teams–see also “Kit of Parts”. And there’s the option to get an AndyMark voucher instead (BTW, if you’re a rookie team, don’t take that option–you’ll thank me later).
Instead, you want to use the Kit of Parts list to figure out what you need. In this case, the Drive Base Kit has the list–compare to the AM14U3 to see what’s missing or not. (AM part numbers are included on that list.)
Then grab the Yellow Tote list and see what else you would want–this is stuff you’d be getting in your rookie year anyways, but some of it would be really handy to have two of. (Like RoboRIOs.) There’s also a control kit available from AndyMark (linked of the AM14U3 page) that would cover many of the non-pneumatics items from that tote.
CD is a great resource to find potential mentors and teams to help. Thus, it might be helpful to change your location from “Somewhere” to where you actually are. If any potential mentor happens to see this thread and wonders where you’re at, like I just did, they’re gonna check your location, and you might lose mentors that way.