As FRC Kickoff draws closer, VEX, and our parent company Innovation First, would like to make two quick announcements.
First off, we have made the decision that there will not be a Build Blitz in 2016. This year, we are shifting our efforts in supporting the FIRST community through other helpful methods such as motors.vex.com, PDV’s and additional team sponsorships. Past years content such as Karthik’s Strategic Analysis, Drivetrain Design Guides and VEXpro Examples and Guides can still provide a great starting point for your team’s season when the game is unveiled.
Let it be known that Build Blitz could always return sometime in the future. In the meantime, we still encourage teams to monitor other Robot in 3 Days projects, as their resources and lessons learned can be invaluable.
We would also like to take this time to officially welcome the newest members of #TeamIFI, teams 33, 254, 987, 2056 and 4613! This brings the total amount of teams sponsored by Innovation First to 9, spanning across 4 states, and 3 countries. It includes the following:
FIRST Robotics Team 33, The Killer Bees
Robotics Team 148 - Robowranglers
Team 254: The Cheesy Poofs
High Rollers Team 987
Team 1114: Simbotics
Rockwall High School Robotics - 1296
Team 2056 - OP Robotics
Black Hawk Robotics - 3310 FRC Team 4613 - Barker Redbacks
As always, Innovation First is extremely proud to be a Crown Supplier of FRC, and we wish all teams the best of luck for the 2016 season. Have a great year!
I know Robot in 3 Days is still doing their thing, but apparently Build Blitz isn’t happening this year.
It’s hard to build a (edit: good) robot in three days.
Besides that, I appreciate that they are instead spending their time furthering their support for FRC teams in multiple other ways, as they listed. It would be awesome to see the money spent on Build Blitz resources be given towards team sponsorships (one of the examples they mentioned).
It’s not terribly hard. It is, however, hard to build a robot that could qualify for elims in 3 days. This happens to be my goal for The GreenHorns this year.
I’m quite disappointed to see Build Blitz go, IMO it was the most valuable of the Ri3D projects, primarily due to the quick availability of their CAD files and variety of example mechanisms that can be easily built by teams with limited experience for relatively low cost in COTS components.
In 2014, our team lacked a proper design mentor (I was it) so in an effort to have a robot that did anything besides drive, we copied large portions of one of the Build Blitz shooter mechanisms, and directly adapted portions of the CAD model to our design. This was especially helpful because we did not have the expertise on the team to do the necessary calculations to figure out a good shooting solution or the time/resources to prototype a design.
In 2015 we worked with a local rookie team that had been registered (by someone in the school administration, because state of Michigan Grant money) prior to the season but actually formed the team 3 weeks into the build season. The designs from Build Blitz allowed us to help the team have a running robot in time for their first district. It wasn’t the most effective machine by far, but at least it did something aside from just driving around (which wouldn’t have been particularly useful that year).
You are probably thinking of this picture from 2009 or the collaboration between 148 and 217 in 2010 with IFI producing the sheet metal for both teams.
Partnerships don’t always last forever. Its rare if not impossible for a team to retain 100% of their sponsors, mentors, or teachers through the years.
Sad to see Build Blitz go but hopefully teams build on the lessons from 2014 and 2015 to have a productive build season. Thank you Vexpro for your efforts in those year!
I know the 2014 Build Blitz saved our rookie bacon–the Team JVN shooter ended up getting borrowed from heavily on our robot (and we cited our work)](https://twitter.com/GarnetSq/status/459121706087350272). But if anyone gets to shift their focus around without questioning from me, it’s IFI. 15 years of donating a freakin’ ton of product to teams, even through those late-2000s years where the control systems of two FIRST programs shifted away from their products, means they’re handling their business.
