Well, my worst fears have come true. Team 5923 worked hard on a what I think is a really good strategy this year. However, a good portion of our strategy depends on getting Falcon 500’s. We do not normally participate in pre-sales as we do not have funds to buy on the “hope” that we might need something. AndyMark and Vex both say “out of stock” and phone calls have failed to produce a backorder shipping date (we are on all the so called waiting lists).
As of now, I really need at least 2 Falcon 500s and I will happily pay full price, shipping and toss in a few bucks for a thanks. Our overall plan was to use 4 and buy a couple for spares. If you have any to spare or bought them and have decided not to use them, please send me a PM!
Sadly there are a lot of us in this boat. We ordered ours two months ago and are still weeks away from delivery. We would probably sell a kidney from one of the less productive team members if we could get a hold of them sooner.
When I spoke with Vex last week they said orders placed now should ship in early February so you still have time to get ready for a late season event.
Unfortunately we gave Vex all our money before they announced the delays, so we can’t go out and buy a bunch of neos now. And sadly cims won’t work for some of the things we are trying.
We talked about that but the programmers have spent a lot of time teaching themselves the ctre system and thought the delay in learning a new programming system would negate the motors arriving a little faster. To be honest I think everyone is just pretty disgusted with the situation and doesn’t want to deal with it anymore.
I’m replying to this post not as REV but as an 18 year alumni & mentor of this program.
Things are not always going to go your way, you won’t always be able to buy the products you want, your robot won’t always work as designed, you will get a ref call on the field that you feel is un-fair, etc. Don’t be disgusted, Don’t be discouraged, Be RELENTLESS!
It is only one week into build season. With no bag you have at a minimum an extra week than in previous years. DO NOT GIVE UP! The Falcon (and NEO) are both new products. Teams have built awesome high performing robots for 25+ years before these products came to be, you can do it also!
If your programmers don’t want to learn new libraries, then use Talon SRX with MiniCim, 775pro, CIM, etc. You and your team can do this, we are all here to help you.
