AndyMark Spring/Summer Product Launch 2021

Nick_Lawrence · May 4, 2021, 9:08pm

Hi y’all!

It’s been a few months since you’ve heard from us. We enjoyed following along with teams competing in INFINITE RECHARGE at Home and have been cheering teams on as they succeed and push eachother to achieve and submit higher scores. We’ve also released a bunch of new products over the last several weeks and wanted to highlight a bunch of things we think teams will find useful. We heard your feedback a few years ago, and have worked to be more frequent with product releases well before the start of build and competition seasons, so that products are available for teams to try out over the summer/fall and have more time to evaluate what products are right for them.

Sushi Roller Intake Wheels

This one has been on our to-do list for a very long time. We’ve had several roller product concepts bear this name in development for a few years, and we’re excited to finally bring this one to market. The Sushi Roller Intake Wheels are an excellent choice for robot intakes, internal conveyors, feeder mechanisms, or anywhere you need a durable, compact and grippy roller. These rollers are made with a robust polycarbonate hex bore hub, so no external hub is necessary - just slide them onto a hex shaft, constrain them axially and you are good to go. Available in a range of durometers for a wide variety of applications, these cute little rollers are great for getting a grip on things!

We recognize that this is a product that is likely to be used in quantity on robots; so we’re launching them with some quantity discounts available to make larger volumes of this product more accessible to more teams!

5mm Hex Bore Compliant Wheels

You asked, we delivered again! We recently also made 5mm Hex Bore versions of all of our polycarbonate-core Compliant Wheels available for sale. We received many many requests from FIRST Tech Challenge teams this past season who are in the REV Robotics ecosystem and would like to use our Compliant Wheels on their robots.

8mm Bore Entrapption Star

Speaking of FIRST Tech Challenge-focused products, we also received a bunch of requests this season for an FTC friendly version of our Entrapption Star. We now have one that has our usual 16mm diameter bolt pattern with 8mm through hole that is compatible with our line of Nubs!

More Bearing Options

We just recently added a bunch of new options to our bearing offerings! Some are sealed versions of popular bearings we already sell, some are new sizes that are popular in the world of bearings. We recognize that this is a good opportunity to provide more useful parts to more teams, and it’s pretty easy for us to source many different kinds of bearings - if there are specific bearing offerings you would like, drop us a note and we’ll consider adding them to our product line!

FRC Home Practice Perimeter

Ever wanted OFFICIAL FRC Perimeter components in your practice space? The time has come! The FRC Home Practice Perimeter is created from various sections that come together to create a square arena. The border stands 21 inches tall when upright and can withstand heavy robot impacts. Made from strong aluminum extrusions and our favorite clear plastic, polycarbonate. Together, these combine to form a contained and safe practice location. This perimeter’s size and shape can be adjusted by rearranging existing parts, or adding an FRC Perimeter Side Border or the FRC Perimeter Gate.

AndyMark Goat T-Shrt

This stylish shirt is just what you need to complete your robotics wardrobe. Here at AndyMark we have a thing for goats and we heard you like them as well. We had goats and totes, and then there were some goats and moats, and now we have a goat in a boat! Boats are just what every well prepared goat needs while preparing for next year’s water game.

Battery Charger Repair Parts

We’ve had some requests for these parts for teams to repair their Battery Chargers. Over many seasons, the fuse can break from transportation or the holder wears out. We’re sorry it took us so long, but these are finally available.

Adafruit Distribution

AndyMark is excited to have recently become an official distributor for some popular products from Adafruit! We’re starting off with some items we think are useful both for teams and for hobby usage too.

Expanded Tool Offerings

We’re always listening to feedback from teams, and we received some that would like the ability to purchase some common tooling consumable items from us. We’ve recently added taps, countersink bits, drill bits and even a tap wrench to make more tools more accessible to teams!

Steel 1/2 Hex to 3/8 Hex Adapters

A long standing product, but we’ve made some updates. These updated high strength steel adapters allow for the conversion of 0.375-inch hex shafts into 0.500-inch hex shafts. Or 0.500-inch hex holes into 0.375-inch hex holes. We now offer this adapter in both 1/2" long and 1" long versions to be more up to date with product standards in our market. They’re also both made of steel for a more robust solution than the previous aluminum versions we used to sell.

Like usual, this is is just a snapshot of our newest offerings. Keep an eye on our New Products page for even more things I did not list here, and for more things coming later this year!

Sincerely,
-Nick

Aaron_Li · May 4, 2021, 9:15pm

Disappointed that the goat didn’t return.

marshall · May 4, 2021, 9:16pm

Yes, so much that I’ve sent many emails that never got returned. Thank goodness I have my own AM1Nick4U that I can communicate with.

mdurrani834 · May 4, 2021, 9:21pm

Hm. This shirt will make an interesting addition to AM goat theory.

john3928 · May 4, 2021, 9:37pm

Goat in a boat? Sealed bearings? There can be only one conclusion…

gerthworm · May 4, 2021, 9:40pm

We have Andy, a goat, a bag of sealed bearings, and a head of cabbage. We need to get them across a river in a boat.

The boat can only carry two things. Andy will always try to give the goat a hug, the goat will always try to eat the cabbage, the bearings will make the cabbage spin out of control, and the cabbage cannot pilot the boat itself.

What order of events are needed to transport all items across the river?

Nick.kremer · May 4, 2021, 9:42pm

Some members of the community are wondering if you guys plan to release shirt CAD, or possibly a CAD of the mannequin?

Jokes aside, those sushi rollers look neat

AriMB · May 5, 2021, 5:31am

Not to sound ungrateful, but I’m not exactly sure I understand the market for the practice field perimeter. It’s for a team that has $3500 to spend on a field perimeter, but can’t make their own from stock? And it’s 18x18 ft, which means if you want to get a full half-field (27x27’) you need two 6’3" extensions on each side for an additional ~$2000. I would think most teams that have the money to spend on something like this would be able to make it themselves for cheaper and would want either a half-field or full-field size to practice with field elements. Have you found that there is a demand for this?

As an aside, the sushi wheels look very useful for tightly-packaged conveyor systems, and they’re very reasonably priced. Looking forward to incorporating those into future robots.

troy_dietz · May 5, 2021, 5:58am

You’d be amazed.
It’s more of a “Can’t, or won’t?” situation.

Nick_Lawrence · May 5, 2021, 1:27pm

Yep, we’ve definitely had requests for this product. Not just for at home practice areas; but also so teams / regional planning committees / other groups want a professional looking, robust containment system for outreach events / demonstrations with FRC robots.

-Nick

Fields · May 5, 2021, 2:29pm

Is the sushi roll an extrusion cut to size?
If it is, I’d like to see an offering in 4ft stick form

Oblarg · May 5, 2021, 2:32pm

Credit where credit’s due, the sushi rollers look like a great product.

Out of curiosity - how much demand does AndyMark get for these products outside of the FRC market? A lot of the more general mechanical stuff looks like it could be adapted for a number of “real” industrial purposes…

$3500 is pocket-change for some of the bigger teams. I don’t think this is a product aimed at the entire market, or even a nontrivial slice of it, but they probably don’t have to sell very many of them to make a profit.

Nick_Lawrence · May 5, 2021, 2:39pm

This product is not, it’s entirely injection molded. The core is actually our 1" long 1/2" Hex Spacer, which also makes up the core of our 2.25" and 3" 1/2" Hex bore Compliant Wheels.

But… stay tuned.

Actually, a pretty decent amount. We have a decent (and growing!) customer base of folks who use our products in custom assembly / manufacturing line projects.

Sincerely,
-Nick

mdurrani834 · May 5, 2021, 2:46pm

Since we’re all asking questions now, I’ve got one too:
Why does AM list fasteners for $0.25 w/ the minimum quantity being 10 instead of $2.50 for a set of 10? Not really a problem, just curious.

Jon_Stratis · May 5, 2021, 3:13pm

To give you an example, this actually came up recently in a FUM discussion as something we would possibly want. There are larger outreach events that don’t have room for a full field, but need a border of some sort. A great example is the MN State Fair - we end up with 3 teams demoing each day (giving lots of spots for teams to participate!). You can see some of the border we’ve used in the past in the photo below (from 2018… took a little searching to find a pic that actually showed the border!). Having something a little more professional would be awesome, but there simply isn’t enough room there for a full field, maybe not even enough for half a field. There are a few other larger outreach events, involving multiple teams like this, where such a border could come in handy.

NathanNFM · May 5, 2021, 4:57pm

We used to do this, but have transitioned to open shelf bins of fasteners, so the part number now (almost) always corresponds to the individual fastener. This eliminates confusion if it’s 10 bags of 10, or just 10 screws, and prevents a ton of part numbers in the system, each for a different quantity. We stock almost all of our fasteners because they are used in one of our other products or assemblies, usually in some specific amount, so pre-bagging them doesn’t really make since when it would usually be our own staff opening those bags back up. We are still trying to standardize on what the order increment should be, usually based on price, to make it worth it to sell. There are fixed costs with each SKU sold, like the time of the picker to walk to that specific bin, and if they are only picking one $0.02 screw it’s probably not worth it, but 25 probably is.

Andrew_L · May 5, 2021, 5:04pm

I have a 5ft long hex shaft at home, yesterday was Star Wars day, and AM released the easily stackable sushi rollers in lightsaber colors.

Hmmmm…

Aaron_Li · May 5, 2021, 5:08pm

Do it. And while you’re at it, put on some LEDs too!

dirtbikerxz · May 5, 2021, 5:15pm

250+ dollars for a sushi rollers on a hex shaft “lightsaber” vs 200ish dollars for a custom lightsaber from galaxy’s edge… Especially one that’s supposed to be somehow fully retractable without those dumb telescoping plastic bits

Seems legit

Andrew_L · May 5, 2021, 5:15pm

Probably shouldn’t, last time I tried something similar my aim was off and I accidentally whacked my little brother into next Tuesday and had to let him hit me back a bunch of times so that he wouldn’t go running to mom and tell on me. Seeing that my brother lifts weights and no longer has the strength of a six year old I fear my lack of coordination may come back to bite me.