It seems the WCP Page for the Kraken has updated, and includes this new notice:
This feels pretty weird personally. Has another FRC specific product have different pricing for non-FRC teams post-release? Why has it changed at all, especially mid-build season? Im aware the Rio has separate tiers, but every team also gets one free for being a team, and this hasnt changed since its introduction.
The Rios are now $3000 for industrial use… Model You are not allowed to buy them from AndyMark if you are not with a team.
Theory: this is a tax specifically on alums trying to use these in college projects
I know for a fact at my university that there are some students using Neos for projects while I don’t know if they are considering krakens I think they’re the target audience of that statement
If this helps keep the cost down for FRC teams, seems like a good move.
Being an FRC vendor at the scale of AM, WCP and REV is not for the faint of heart, with seasonality and customers on strained budgets (aka not really B2B with deep pockets) forcing margins to be fairly slim. Kudos to all vendors for the service they provide.
The Kraken is a killer product. I’ve used FRC hardware for some past work prototyping, and I wouldn’t blink at the price point depending on the project/application. There’s lots of smart motors out there with less features, lower performance, and rougher API’s that cost a lot more. It’s a good product and I hope it finds uses outside FIRST.
-Mike
It’s a solid brushless motor with a built in controller and a well-tested ecosystem at a very competitive price for what you’d get one of these for in industry. I wouldn’t be surprised if some industrial automation companies started using these (especially with FRC alumni pushing for ecosystems they’re familiar with) and trying to order in larger quantity. A different price for industrial use vs. educational use makes sense in not only curbing demand on an already high demand product, but also keeping the price low for FRC teams.
When we have spoken at ROSCon/ROSWorld, the professional roboticist people are most fascinated by the CTRE hardware/software. Genuinely, it’s been something that people have reached out to us about and ask questions about. It’s well made stuff and the prices are killer compared to much other stuff out there.
I believe this is the first time a product has been released and then has its price system change post release
Yes the falcons got more expensive but that was for everyone
The rios started at 1.2k for consumers and 450$ for frc teams
This is a first to my knowledge
In addition to Mike’s points about slim margins within the FRC marketplace compared to industry, there’s a supply-demand issue here as well. Considering the current demand for this product is outpacing the current supply, a higher price for non-FRC customers may go a long way towards protecting the supply for FRC customers.
They’re great motors and have a lot of features.
The alternative would be like a Clearpath servo or an ODrive + motor.
I could see using this motor in some of the projects at work, but the availability isn’t great and the voltage range/current range doesn’t make it easy to use with off the shelf power supplies
Not a bad price though!
Both of those are better then a kraken and are now cheaper then a kraken btw
Seconded I use CTRE stuff in prototyping for ROS and non Ros projects professionally. I have a test chassis with their encoder breakout, SRX mag encoder and a hex through bore adapter sitting on my desk at the moment.
Clear paths are better in some ways (mainly build quality, being more professional grade), but you don’t have much feedback from them, and the software api clear paths are not very good - I know from personal experience
ODrive might be better in some ways but it’s not an all-in-one package and there’s not a lot of support behind it
Having a market outside of first will help with the yo-yo demand. Which should help stabilize the supply. Especially off season. I am glad they are selling to FRC at a rather deep discount.
Its good to hear you’re liking the Kraken Mike/others, but this doesnt answer why this change happened today instead of at release, which is my main question. I doubt WCP/CTRE has had any change in opinion on the quality, so its interesting to see this happen now.
Is it a discount if they just now increased the price for non frc customers after the product was released?
Sounds like if you really want to know why you should just shoot WCP/CTRE an email…
To clarify all non profit / educational organizations K-College qualify for the $199.99 price point. This motor and other products are a TON of work and we try to keep costs down for teams.
The MSRP change happened today as we are finally in stock (Wooo!) and are starting to engage our commercial customers. The $199.99 price was the pre order and static price for EDU customers. We did not allow any large purchases from customers in the commercial domain that have reached out to us before and after the motor launch. This has happened to us on other products that have blown out inventory for FRC teams.
This change was reflected on the CTR site as well:
Maybe they found they under priced the motor. Maybe they are trying to keep current stock for FRC teams. [Snark]Maybe there is a boat payment involved…[/snark]
Have you been having issues with ODrive support? I work there and can pass it on to the right channels 
