I’d like to pay Michigan prices and get 2 regionals for less than the price of one. Or continue to get the control system every year in the KoP.
Unfortunately life isn’t fair. At least FIRST is trying to make the KoP more valuable for as many teams as possible.
Then you’re lucky that you only have to endure this hardship for one year, then you are free to do as you please.
Would first choice be allowed for teams who chose to pick the $450?
Nothing implies that FIRST Choice would not be allowed if you choose the voucher.
Keep in mind, technically, and as the KOP Engineers view it, FIRST Choice is a completely separate component of the KOP from what you receive on kickoff, ie. when you get the kitbot.
I would assume so. FIRST Choice is available to every team; maybe some of the items aren’t normally available (or are much harder to get), so to not have FIRST Choice available to the voucher teams would be a slap in the face that they wouldn’t forget soon.
Could you please clarify what you meant by that 2nd sentence?
Before 2009, the Kit of Parts included a new complete control system every year.
OK so there was no connection intended to the 1st sentence then.
I’m with you in that belts is the way the more experience teams are going, at least in terms of drive trains, and that it would be great if AndyMark started offering support for belt pullies. However, I’m not sure that most teams (especially rookies) really know how to design a rock solid belt system. Although chains are a bit heavier and less efficient, they sure don’t require the same level of expertise to pull off.
Touché!
I seemed to have rubbed people the wrong way and I’m truly sorry for that. I should have waited longer after I read FRC Blogged and then maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to use the “s”-word 
Yes, we do have it good in Michigan and I’m grateful for that. We have a lot of dedicated people. Not only that - I bet we get our McMaster deliveries faster than you do - one day turn-around with UPS Ground. 
It is a good thing that the KOP is becoming more flexible.
So as a Dean’s List Winner at the 2012 Suppliers Summit I brought this up. Every year we go through the stress of ordering all the controls components that we need. We would be willing to pay the extra money to get a rookie kit and just get the controls stuff. So I asked Ms. Kate (head of KoP) if there would be any way for veterans to buy rookie kits. Since there is a lot of logistics in ordering parts from companies and setting up inventories she said that (if FIRST were to do that), veterans would have to make that decision in late Spring because that’s when the KoP parts of begin to be ordered. Obviously that means that it could not be done for this season but they said they would consider it for next season.
I will note that at the Suppliers Summit us Deans List kids also suggested giving the option to replace parts of the kit with vouchers which would give teams flexibility. We were all pretty excited to see this email because we got the ‘Oh-yay-they-listened-to-us’ feeling.
That is an interesting position to be in, I do see your point.
As Akash pointed out $450 isn’t hard to raise nor is it a lot of money when on an FRC team. Our team raised $3000 after expenses over the course of 3 weeks selling raffle tickets to a Boston Bruins game. We were inspired by another local team who when in need of cash fast raffled two $100 gas cards.
Could a team that elected to receive the hotbot in the fall but doesn’t actually use any of it on the robot come build season still count $450 worth of PDV qualified parts as kop?
If so’ this would be a pretty easy decision for my “sophomore” team.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I would always choose the HOTBOT option.
Haha sorry, my smartphone autocorrect isn’t literate in FRC lingo.
If hotbot means a chasis built by 67 I would gladly take that option.
As the saying goes…
You always pick HOTBOT.
We get the same thing. Order by 12:00 AM, get it by 3:00 PM the next day. They actually deliver in a McMaster-Carr vehicle to us though
On a more general note, I am very in favor of not only FIRST’s opportune and advantageous decision to adapt the KOP to various types of teams, but also of its transparency. We asked for it, and sure enough we got it. From Einstein to CMP to the KOP, FIRST is letting us in on the decisions they make and I feel that strongly benefits us both as a community as well as competitively.
With regards to belts, 1515 took FIRST’s move as inspiration to finally make the switch from ANSI 35 to GT2. We’re probably going to go for 5mm pitch (standardized), and 9 and 15mm widths.