Hello, im starting a new frc team this year and looking for parts. My team wants to compete at the Texas Cup in August, so waiting for things to come back into stock isn’t an option.
Looking to purchase:
Falcon 500
REV Power Distribution Hub
Roborio 2.0
New or used is fine, please dm if you have anything you are willing to part ways with
Mods feel free to move this
Is there a reason you need a PDH and roboRIO 2.0? The PDP and original roboRIO are plenty good for building a robot, and will be much easier to find secondhand.
I guess the main reason is that I would rather not have a set of outdated electronics we would only use at a single competition
But if I cant find anything else, they are certainly a good backup plan
You will likely have much better luck asking people for outdated electronics. Almost all teams have lots of old electronics that they are happy to give/loan!
The PDP and roborio aren’t exactly outdated yet. They will still be competition legal for at least next season (and probably a few after that)
Specifically for the roborio, the 2.0 is not all that much better/different than the 1.0 (and is somewhat worse in some ways cough cough sd card)
Was just gonna say this. The differences between the Rio 1 and 2 are very small in practice.
I think just the point is they want new stuff because it is a purchase for future use, and even while it is allowed this season and likely for the foreseeable future, they just don’t intend to get the older versions unless absolutely necessary to keep them from that nagging idea to purchase the newer versions when you already spent it on older capable hardware.
The quick answer is the hardware they want won’t likely be available on the timeline they want, so without the generosity of others to sell them their team’s spare hardware, they will have to seek out older hardware or other alternatives.
The new PDH accommodates more power circuits than the older PDP. As a rookie team, you should not really be running into the limitations of the PDP for quite a few years. If you are, you are likely to be trying to build something too complicated and beyond your capabilities. I did inspection at Houston Champs last month and saw quite a few competitive robots using the PDP.
As others have said, the newer components are very much in demand at this time. Market forces are such that they will be sold at or near MSRP if you can find any available. On the other hand, there have been threads on this forum where teams are selling the older parts at a steep discount or giving them away. You will also be able to get enough parts that parts availability will not be a constraint when you design your new robot after Kickoff.
As a rookie team, money is (or will become) a significant concern for your team in the first few years so getting good parts at a big discount or for free will make it much easier for your team to survive long enough to become sustainable. The survival rate for rookie teams here in the Texas District is not particularly good so being able to stretch your dollars is a good thing.
Lastly, keep in mind that you will really be competing with the other rookie and perpetual rookie teams, not the top teams like 118 and 148. Having done inspection at 5 events in the Houston area, I can tell you that many/most of them are still using CIM motors.
Edited to add: You may also want to join the Texas Robot Mentors Slack channel by filling out this form. It is easier to connect directly with other mentors, especially those near you. You may also want to participate in the Texas Mentor Workshop being hosted in June by Spectrum and several other prominent Texas teams. Being able to network with the other mentors local to you will be very helpful.
Something tells me this rookie team isn’t going to be a typical rookie team. A few signs:
Maybe they’ll find a team or two with extra PDHs or roboRIO2s that have no expected need for them through the fall and are willing to roll the dice that the supply chain doesn’t go from bad to worse. However, I’m guessing that the Falcons might be harder to get teams to part with, especially since there is at least one mention that these won’t be resupplied until November. They didn’t say how many they need, but if they are looking for 10 or more, that might be a tough ask.
You are correct, this is technically a rookie team, but we have lots of frc and ftc experience.
Also if anyone has a limelight that they are willing to sell, we would pay full price (same goes for all the other items)
We are a pretty new team and made it to division semifinals with a used roborio 1 and pdp without any issues.
We are planning on using 16 motors (8 in mk4i) so having 16x 40a ports is really nice
If I’m not mistaken, I think you can actually use the new REV 40A breakers in the CTRE PDP to get 16 X 40A ports.
Hello,
Thanks for the suggestion on using rev 40a breakers
Also
Any eta on when the mk4i and brass flywheels will be shipping?
Thanks
Legally?
Yep. Q25 clarifies this and r619 doesn’t specify any limitations.