As of today the First Choice site is up at http://www.andymark.com/FIRST-Choice-Public-s/411.htm
Is there anything on here that seems to stick out to anyone? It all seems to be fairly standard stuff, but they do have the photoelectric sensor again this year…
Has anyone ever used rotary limit switches before? They were also in the first game hint invoice sheet.
We’ve used the Rotary Limit Switches several times.
We used it last year as the “bottom out” signal for our lift mechanism.
We used it Breakaway, again, as a kicker ready signal for our spring loaded kicker.
It’s highly adjustable position wise. Which means you can mount it in a variety of places and positions. It’s far more robust than the micro limit switches. I’d use it again. It’s a good switch if you need something robust.
This is an error on my part! There is a roller limit switch in the game hint.
In regards to FIRST CHOICE, I see things that make up “train” parts. train wheels, rails…then out there on a limb is this linear encoder? That’s like a magnetic motor…interesting stuff.
In 2009 we used them on our internal elevator
I find the Chassis Lift Kit interesting, in that it would tend to imply a possible bumper height change (more like 2010 than 2011).
The interesting bits, however are probably the unreleased parts at the bottom.
The rotary limit switches are delightful. Your choice of NO or NC wiring, two directions, tough as nails.
There’s some interesting stuff on the FIRST Choice list, especially the lack of a Tetrix kit. (Yay!)
Also, just to throw something out there, read the FIRST Choice list with a grain of salt. Most (All?) of the items are donated, so they might not be needed or relevant to the game.
unless the tetrix kit is one of the unknowns at the bottom :eek:
Let me live in my delusional world where minibots never happened and the Tetrix kit doesn’t exist.
It looks like they might be clearing out some parts. There were two gyros listed - one with headers like last year’s, and one without headers like the 2010 variant.
I think some people have forgotten what the purpose of FIRST Choice is, not just here but on other threads. Before we start game speculation, we should remember that it’s supposed to replace the costs and logistics of sending a lot of parts to teams by making most of those parts available but only if the team wants them. This allows them to put less stuff in the main KOP and make a greater variety of stuff freely available to teams.
That means that game-specific parts aren’t really likely to appear on FIRST Choice, because everyone will need them; they’ll instead be in the regular KOP. FIRST Choice is more like our run-of-the-mill KOP stuff that FIRST felt wasn’t worth sending to everyone. They either wanted to add it to the KOP and decided it was too specialized, or they had been putting it in the KOP and seeing a general disuse of the item.
True, but, remember, the minibot parts kit (the extra parts) were in the FIRST choice and had to be hidden for obvious (now) reasons.
Last year the Tetrix offer on FIRST choice wasn’t hidden before kickoff.
We could all see it by December 13 and speculate on why it was offered.
Since the 2010 wheel mounts was a rather specialized part specific to that year, and due to the fact that they had a tendency to cause the frame to deform when it moved, throwing off the alignment of chains in some cases, I wouldn’t be surprised if AndyMark donated them just to get an overstocked item off of their hands. This doesn’t mean they are inherently bad, but it wasn’t worth buying them at full price (in my opinion). They would make interesting arm mounts, especially if they were used in conjunction with the nifty slew bearings donated by Igus 
.
i found the pneumatic muscles interesting, but that’s just me. i don’t remember if they were legal or not before now, but the availability of them is what caught my eye. everything else seems normal, including the linear stuff, we actually used the bearings by bwc (the double v bearings) for a crab/swerve drive.
The pneumatic muscles were available from FIRST choice last year as well.
i’d disagree somewhat… what if they are EXTRA game pices? kinda how the kit came with 3 tubes last year, they could have included in FC extra tubes and uber tubes…
Does anyone have any ideas about why they’re offering a control station box? Have they offered this in years past?
This could be a possible element for controlling a mini-bot, or to be used in autonomous like that one year that I can’t remember off the top of my head…
2008, when teams supplied their own IR remote and Game Hint #1 was the receiver.
No, it hasn’t been offered previously. But, there are a number of possible uses, and many teams build a button box for their control station.