Dream Products

Technical
1

What would have made your life easier this year if it were a COTS product? What do you dream were a COTS product?

I think an Ethernet switch which had passive POE 12v/5v/none switchable for each port.

The canivore also made me think that maybe an ethernet version of the canivore would be a good idea.

Servo brake stages for the Max Planetary.

14 Likes
2

If you wanted to make a one stop ethernet product you make it the poe and an additional canbus all in one

7 Likes
3
  • magic electrical issue detector
  • programming issue finder that knows exactly what you feel it should be doing compared to what it is doing
  • Bolts that change color when they don’t have loctite on them
73 Likes
4
  • Pneumatics that can create a scab near an air leak like blood cells
99 Likes
5

If there was a magical programming issue detector that worked, the company that made it would be swimming in money.

25 Likes
6

Functional GitHub Copilot for FRC (WPILIP plugin or something)

18 Likes
7

One of the big things I’d like to see is more sample code, code generation, or tuning utilities for many of the COTS products that are available right now.

For example, we bought a couple GreyT Telescopes this year and ended up running out of time to tune the PID on them to implement a “send to top” button or “fully retract” button. It would have been nice to have a software utility that guides a student new to PID through the tuning process.

Over the last couple years, the community has introduced amazing COTS mechanical systems. While WPILib has come a long way, it’s still out of reach for a teacher with a 5 student team from implementing a turret or RPM controlled shooter effectively.

It’s also unclear to me if the same financial motivations are there for pure software products in the same way they’re available for mechanical systems

12 Likes
8

Slip rings for pneumatics, only because they sound cool.

Actual slip rings with multiple inputs and outputs.

24 Likes
9

Time machine.

42 Likes
10

A combo left-handed metric crescent wrench / board stretcher / transmogrifier

14 Likes
11
  • More consistent interfaces between all the motor controller manufacturers
  • Magic tool that gives the CAD team the assistance they need to get things done more quickly (not knocking CAD, they just had a lot on their plate this year)
  • Documentation about the different dashboard interfaces and which one is recommended this time
  • A dashboard that doesn’t get completely replaced/rewritten every few years (with yet another API to learn)
22 Likes
12

Knew I was forgetting something. FRC compliant (non liquid metal) sliprings would kill in sales.

7 Likes
13

Ill probably think of other things…but a small fast linear actuator would be really cool.

Something like these servos but with the ability to run on a Neo 550.

That would be useful for hoods and things like that.

22 Likes
14

A CAD program that screams at me when I make a bad design

67 Likes
15

I’ll sit next to you and scream every five minutes and you can do the same when I miss something while reviewing the students’ code.

18 Likes
16

A CAN based (or just non i2C) color sensor would be amazing.

31 Likes
17

My neighbors would hate me

22 Likes
18

something that allows me to unbreak broken endmills

33 Likes
19

Parking brake for the back of a Neo 550. Pneumatic would be fine…but bonus points if it was electric and didn’t require pneumatics.

10 Likes
20

Oh yeah all 100 of them would fly off shelves every season. (At best)

Find another market that could use the same ones though…

5 Likes