Interesting new stuff
Looks interesting to me. The thing that caught my attention was this picture:
Is there any information released on this? I had a quick check on FIRST and could not find anything. This seems like a neat replacement of the driver station.
That’s the 2010 beta test kit. It was on Bill’s Blog a few weeks ago.
And here I thought their inexpensive rivets were great…!
http://www.andymark.biz/rivets.html
Rivets? Did you do that for US? Awe…you’re so nice AndyMark…At the rate we go we’ll need 4 boxes of 500 to just get started.
can we have CAN this year!?!?
Can’t wait to use more of those wonderful hex bearings, they make things so easy.
Does anyone have the weight difference in the ribbon cable vs. what is provided in the KOP? Otherwise some great new stuff. 
The Cable in the KOP weighs about ~.5 lbs and the ribbon cable is way way lighter. Specs and others things I have no clue about.
-RC
No one can say that the rules will positively allow it, however every indication we have been given (we being the beta teams) is that yes, can will likely be available to be used.
HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, it will not be directly supported - it will be done through a series of plugins written by a person volunteering their personal time to get it in place. In addition, a new black jaguar may or may not be availble, as well as multiple firmware updates for the gray jaguars.
Using CAN this year will not be a trival pursuit - it will take some effort for the team who decides to use it.
That and more info on programming languages for this year can be found on the beta test forums on the official first 2010 website, linked here:
http://forums.usfirst.org/forumdisplay.php?f=23
Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the beta forums.
I agree that CAN is not trivial but name one thing about the control system that is. I do believe that it will be much easier to implement than expected if devices like the 2CAN are deemed legal. The 2CAN was designed with both rookie and veteran teams in mind.
We may have to beg you to come over some time and show us how it works - we could probably hit you from over here at the Romeo Engine Plant 
Double Doozy – I love the name.
The double doozy just made my design so much simpler…holy crap.
AWESOME.
Surprised I haven’t seen this anywhere on CD yet: http://www.andymark.biz/am-0689.html
Not something I would want to use, but I’ll bet many teams will love being able to purchase a complete drive assembly. As usual, it comes with many awesome options!
I think it looks really cool. My only concern would be if your CG was off to the geared / chained side, then you might have only one CIM on the ground at a time. For that reason I would probably gear drive AND chain drive my module (Goes from 5.4 pounds to 8.4 per side though). Regardless I’m seriously considering it for 2011, with hex output shafts.
I was following it since I saw AM post up sketches on facebook. I was really happy to see it and the high level of engineering quality involved.
As with any system that you purchase, there are pros and cons, such as the Swerve Drive from Team221 llc.
11 will most likely purchase one this summer.
In looking at that (I admit I was intrigued by how nice it looks) I noticed it has the center shaft set up for a nano and a single cim drive.
It would be REALLY nice if they expanded so you could put a cim on both sides of the center shaft. You could have the option of taking the nano gears out of the ends and using them to use two cims to drive the center shaft.
Then you could use the chain shown here to power one end, and have a sprocket on the center wheel to power the other end.
Anyone know why they choose to make it 31" long as compared to a closer 37" with maybe a wide option as well?