They are perfectly legal to use (provided they are within the dimensional rules released on the 4th.). In fact, as of this year, it is legal to assemble them before kickoff since they are COTS!
However, 1989 has chosen to 3d print their chassis this rear rather than using a kitbot.
Or just mark the old stuff âold - 2019â with a sharpie. Boom problem solved.
There is a whole thread somewhere on how reuse needs to be expanded, donât disagree there. Just would have saved those parts for fun projects down the road.
Our situation was a little better than that half a dozen years ago, but we managed to get a grant for a trailer. We bought a way bigger trailer than we needed for actual transportation, so we could use it as outside storage through the year. And OBTW, that âlocked closetâ doesnât necessarily have to be âon siteâ (and off site would be even more secure against inadvertent usage of âillegalâ parts than a lock).
You may not be able to get as much as their original MSRP, but you can likely find buyers (esp. in the off season) and have $500-$1000 in the bank and a few more cubic feet of storage space.
We sometimes get to borrow the bands trailer unless there is a scheduling conflict in which case everything goes into the school bus
We had our own designs for like ever. Now IDK if there always was credit and there were missed opportunities but they have been a source to get some free aluminum
Wouldnât it be cheaper and less wasteful to just use these kit of parts chassis instead of consuming all the filament needed to print your chassis?
There was a thread a few days ago about a team selling old KOP drive trains. I bet thereâs a good chance you can find some teams interested, and you could sell those and put it towards some stuff to help your team.
So did 3946 before getting a trailer. The REAL purpose was outside storage, but itâs been a great PR tool and pit transportation as well. My last few months on the team (when we had more storage than previously), the trailer was effectively the garage for a golf cart we had made into an air cannon for football games and Mardi Gras parades and such. The golf cart lived outside under a tarp, chained to an antenna when we actually needed the trailer for transportation.
First we have very poor metal fabrication capabilities and then the school bought us meccanum wheels and it would be bad after there was so much money spent on those if we donât use them so meccanum it is and the stock frame does not lend itself to meccanum wheels. Now we have new management so IDK if that still is an issue. The 2nd reason - the one I can get behind it to replace the kit with 3DP saves at least 10lb in weight and gives more flexibility. Now it does not matter if we make the frame square, octagonal or oval with waves in it (now that would make for an interesting bumper lol) And other components can easily become a part of the frame. If you are in MAR we hope to show it off at Mount Olive this year - if everything keeps working, nothing breaks, no one gets sick etc etc etc
Trailer is on the wish list
Do you have to use mecanum? I mean canât you tell the school what you want?
Also, how much have your robots weighed in the past. Cause if theyâve been underweight by a lot, then you should use the KOP chassis since itâs going to be a lot stronger than a 3D printed chassis.
Iâm derailing this thread to remind everyone that itâs not âmechanumâ or âmechenomâ or âmeccanumâ; itâs âmecanumâ. Iâll never get to use this word in Scrabble if everyone keeps butchering it.
How about âvectored intake wheelsâ
Everybody knows that a Scrabble board is only 15 tiles wide, so that nomenclature is obviously right out.
This will be the 1st year with a completely 3DP robot. When we were AL. we hardly ever could do all we wanted as weight always was a problem this was due to us having to play junkyard war armed with a very few hand tools one year we ran out of al. and money and used some 2x4 from the wood shops scrap heap to make an arm. Things have been going better. Last years was a mixed one that had some 3dp and some traditional stuff on it over the summer we went completely 3dp and had a successful test at an offseason competition where we played defense with a way underweight plastic bot just to see if we can destroy it and it needed a little crazy glue once and only cause one of our engineers forgot to put 3 nuts and bolts in and held the andymark toughbox mini with a wheel to the plastic frame with one bolt. And that finally cracked. Now this is going to allow us to do everything we want to do feature wise on the bot without worrying about the weight. Drawback is that FRC is not really set up atm to deal with additive manufacturing a whole robot. We currently with the 3 printers we have (2 anycubic Chiron and one prusaclone) so less than $1500 in printers we can print a whole âkitbotâ skateboard chassis in 30 hours. And assemble it in 2. (if no one is goofing off or trying to impress the girls) We can print a rack and pinion setup that you see on top in 2 days. And now we have worked out the procedures to print a plastic frame fast and then wrap it in fiberglass or carbonfiber if we can afford that.
Yeah well the spell checker did not check that lol
If Iâm being honest here, this sounds to me like a recipe for a robot that isnât competitive. Your school administration should not be requiring you to use mecanum wheels; that needs to be a strategic decision made by the team based on the game strategy you want to play. Many (most) game strategies will work better with a standard tank drive than mecanum, and if youâre required to use mecanum then youâre starting the season with one arm tied behind your back.
In my honest opinion, your bumblebot is cool but for the season it makes more sense to use the KoP chassis. Itâs stronger, can be built assembled within hours of kickoff, costs $0.00 (because you already have from previous seasons), and doesnât waste any material or printer time. You can even spend your FIRST Choice credits and AndyMark PDV on some extra control system parts so you can assemble a second KoP chassis as a practice bot. If youâre not spending all of those resources making a custom chassis, you can focus your resources on making good scoring mechanisms and getting lots of driver practice. Even if it weighs an extra 10lbs, thatâs weight down low and well worth in IMO. The KoP chassis is plenty customizable (it can be used with mecanum wheels), and has all kinds of attachment points for mounting mechanisms. I know Iâve said this and you disagree, but I feel like I should say it again anyway. My high school team fell into the trap of making a custom drivetrain every year when we would have been much better off using the KoP chassis and saving our resources for other mechanisms.
Took a little bit of reading to fully understand this thread, here goes:
@OP It seems that much of you issues stem from the fact that your different approach to FRC isnât great for the environment. There are many approaches that are more friendly, but unfortunately it seems that those approach are ones you either canât do or donât want to do (And with some reason too).
FIRST doesnât hate the environment, it just happens that your unique approach has drawbacks.
As you seem quite passionate about the environment, why donât you guys start an environment initiative? Some ideas:
Itâs work, but itâs definitely a possibility to make more teams aware of this issue. Iâd be happy to get you in touch with some Purdue environmental science students if you (or anyone else ) are interested!
We do a few of that already. And yes environment is important. That is why we have some stuff on the drawing board that will take the prints and turn it back into filament - hopefully reliably and economically. Right now though school wanted to make 100% sure there is no ethics violation and yes seeing all those parts that potentially could get used for something like maybe a robot cart going in the trash was very painful for me⌠But then I am a bit of a hoarder lol