Supply chain shortage, 2022-2023 season

FIRST General Forum
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Given the current state of supply chain shortages what products are you concerned will be unobtanium in the coming build season?

Given the currently “Out of Stock” status and unknown timelines for restock I am concerned this coming season for:

  • REV Power Distribution Hubs
  • roboRIOs
  • Falcon 500s

What other specific FRC components and materials are you concerned about for the 2023 build season?

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I’d be specifically concerned about anything with a chip in it. But really everything is liable to go out of stock and not be available in a reasonable amount of time in this climate.

I’m making plans to basically load up on equipment as early as possible in the pre-season, and design around what we have in shop. Making designs without supplies in shop is going to be a massive risk this season.

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Pretty much all electronics.

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While teams may face out of stock and long lead times, The real big shock may turn out to be price. Double digit inflation is real. Start pricing now. Check your budget. I just installed a motor today that doubled in price in 9 months. Yikes.

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That’s triple-digit inflation :astonished:

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Falcons are optional because neos are available.

Rev power distribution hubs are also optional.

Limelights, and raspberry pis for other options are not coming on the market in quantities.

A sheet of aluminum that used to cost $100 is now $400 or more.

Polycarb is just as bad.

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Jetsons.

Pis.

Various cameras.

Good thing the arbitrary price limits will totally keep up with the increased costs for this stuff. I can’t wait.

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We were really hoping to jump fully on the Falcon 500 train next year, but it looks like at this pace we’ll only purchase a few and use them in conjunction with NEOs.

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We use onlinemetals.com for a lot of our aluminum. Sheet prices from them for 6061 are the same today as they were when we purchased during the 2022 build season in Feb and Apr. They have gone up about 33% since the 2021 build season. I’m not sure when the reference date is for the 400% increase you have seen, but at least some suppliers have not raised aluminum prices by anything close to that recently.

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Anyone know when REV PDH will be back in stock? I’ve been seeing posts from a few months back stating sometime this fall, but has there been an updated date?

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There hasn’t been any update yet. Check out the REV ION thread for Greg’s answer to the question there.

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Most worried about REV PDH being in stock.

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My worries:

  • I’d really like to move our team to the PDH. I suspect that despite the best efforts of the REV crew, for a chunk of the season it will come down to who can whip out a credit card this very second. And I’m not sure we’re in that position, so I’m braced for another season of the CTRE PDP.
  • If NEO and/or SPARK MAX become unavailable, that’s going to crimp our ability to keep other robots operational. And while we can work around some of that to an extent, doing things like converting our 2021 chassis to CIMs would be self-defeating (in that it then becomes pretty useless for autonomous development).
  • If FIRST gives us a game where the answer is very obviously an elevator, I expect that’s going to be a pinch point on a few things since each of the big manufacturers has their own spin on it.
  • If the answer is very obviously pneumatic wheels, yikes. We murdered those in 2016 even without the help of the world melting down.

I think we can adapt and overcome on many things, but those are the ones that have me more concerned than average.

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I hope suppliers can post more often on the status of what to expect in the coming months this Fall. This is a serious issue. Its hard enough trying to build robots with supplies readily available.

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We use allot of 7075 and it has gone up substantially from our black Friday purchase in Oct 2021. I have noticed some metal commodities drifting down in the last couple of weeks.

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Why do you specifically use 7075 for parts so much? Is there a reason you use it so much over 6061?

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It makes a nicer gold when anodized :slight_smile:

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I see this too. That’s why I have been looking at Intel MiniPCs. Lots of availability and good performance with OpenCL and OpenVINO.

The problem I have is finding USB low latency cameras. PS3 Eye looked promising , but its no longer working in Ubuntu.

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Strength and toughness. Allows stronger and lighter parts.

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How are we feeling on game pieces? Stock issues for game pieces have been common even before COVID, and the past two seasons were no exception.

I realize this is kind of a non-answer, but my guess it’ll likely depend on how much a team will need to practice vs how much comes in the KOP. If you’ll only need one thing like 2014, we’re probably good. If we’re in a similar situation to 2020 where the KOP doesn’t even come with enough game pieces for one robot… Well, I hope suppliers are working on implementing team-wide quantity limits and a PS5-esque lottery system.