I have read the most recent threads regarding limited access to regulation FRC carpet and noticed there is still an absence of specific information that would help teams find suitable carpet alternatives for regulation event carpet. Now that FRC apparently has an exclusive hold on the Neyland III, 15" wide rolls for competitions has anyone found a good replacement?
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Idk that they do have an exclusive hold on 15 foot wide rolls of Neyland III. Maybe they have a hold on all new stock but some places might have small amounts in their warehouses still, especially different colors.
I can find it from random places online when googling. I never ordered from this place, but they do claim to sell it and have a bit of stock left (maybe 80 x 15 feet, or I’m misunderstanding how they quantify their stock). However other places do list it as discontinued. If the specs are known for the Neyland III, I’m sure we could do some research online and find a close enough match.
This is also not the right color, but the carpet type is correct at least
We still have our old strips of carpet that are getting near their end of life. We got lucky and got carpets from a trade show that was a close enough match for us over the years. Would love to find a new replacement finally
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It isn’t really that FRCFIRST Robotics Competition has “an exclusive hold on the Neyland III, 15” wide rolls" - the issue is that the manufacturer simply doesn’t make it anymore and came to an agreement with FIRST to do one more run for the 2024 season.
There’s more info on that situation here: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frcFIRST Robotics Competition/blog/2023-carpet-at-2024-events
Along with a recommendation on a replacement that you can purchase (though I haven’t heard from anyone who has actually purchased it on how close it is to the “real” carpet):
- The second option is to look at this carpet as the vendor’s recommended alternative. (Note that this carpet comes in 12 ft rolls, not the 15 ft rolls used at events, and is the same carpet tested at the offseason event, meaning tape will not stick well to the carpet.)
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Note the official carpet is Neyland II which was discontinued a long time ago, but they continued to make it just for FIRST. Neyland III was its available replacement, but that and all of their 15’ commercial carpet was discontinued last year to switch the looms to residential carpet.
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Correct. That’s why I asked if anyone has found a good alternative:)
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If I remember right I don’t think all the colors act the same, but this might be old info/not apply to Neyland III.
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I was more worried about how it affects any line following stuff. If the carpet was white for instance this would make finding the white lines (this is probably gonna be moot with AprilTags) in Auton with an openCV pipeline impossible, but the friction could be an exact match.
I’m partially color blind so I’m a terrible judge of colors especially shades of greens. The cameras have no deficiencies and while they could probably tell the difference between tan and pure white, the lighting in the area is much more critical due to less overall contrasting colors. Not a killer but you couldn’t just run it at comp as is without official field tuning.
Point being some colors are okay if the friction and other elements are close enough. Just avoid official tape colors if possible definitely.
We purchased carpet from Home Depot about 5 years ago and it has functioned in a similar way. Any differences in autos between our field and competition fields were unrecognizable or could be attributed to factors. We have been fortunate to have talented programming students and mentors who created multiple 3 piece autos last year that all functioned well on both fields.
When we purchased, we went to a few big box stores (Lowe’s, Home Depot, Menards) and asked if they could donate or discount carpet. Home Depot offered the carpet to us at about 50% off so we went with them.
We selected carpet based off a chunk of competition carpet that we had. Shout out to the FIN district for this crucial piece. We found a few options that appeared to have similar “construction” (weave, pattern, backing). We purchased 12ft rolls at a cost of about $450 after discount. Our field set up is the full width x 29’ ish.
I think one of the most important aspect of our carpets longevity and autonomous accuracy is the ability to bolt the carpet to the cement lab floor. If anyone is interested in that process, shoot me a DM.
Disclaimer: This is by no means a perfect substitute but our team believes this serves as a “good enough” solution.
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Do you recall the make, etc of the carpet you purchased from Home Depot?
I do not. I may be able to roll back a section and check the underside for identification. I’ll report back if I find it.
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To follow up, I couldn’t find the manufacturer or brand.
However, I ordered a free sample of the carpet listed in the manual as a suitable replacement. I plan to either buy this carpet or use it to match something close.
Worst case scenario, our mentors will each order the free sample monthly over the next few years until we have a half field. Foolproof.
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Just when you get the last piece FIRST will find a new carpet they like. /s
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This is the carpet that Collin says Gaffers tape won’t stick to. Can you/have you tested this?
Best place to get carpet is probably to call your VC, trading used carpet for setup/teardown volunteers can be mutually beneficial.
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I forgot about that. I bet you are right.
We will do a few tests and see what we find out.
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I ordered a sample too and will test! We did get a quote for this carpet locally so I hope it can be worked with!
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Welll… I was surprised. I figured gaffers tape would stick, but not probably stand up to repeated robot traffic. In reality, gaffers tape does not stick to this alternative carpet AT ALL. Nor does duct tape. 
Well, I’ll grab my roll of gaffers and head over to Home Depot. Worst case, I will have a cool story about how to get booted from a store.
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