im wondering how many teams are getting an extra CRio For a Practice bot.
We already have ours in.
One of ours mentors got one for us to use and he’s going to use it off season
We would like to but the money is an issue. We have the cash but were saving in case we need something more important
We bought a second one. We have had great results for the past few years building a second robot for debug, prototyping, and practice, and we didn’t know the rules would let us keep the robot control system if we wanted to instead of shipping it. We also didn’t want to have to dismantle this year’s robot’s brain in order to build next year’s robot.
We already bought one, actually FORD motor company decided to buy us one after we demoed our last years bot, our current (aka finished bot) and the one being machined right now.
we bought duplicates of everything except the CRio and its modular so we just swap it quick…
We have the IFI system set up in the 2nd bot for practice driving then we keep the CRio in the main bot for debugging and programing purposes.
We were fortunate enough to be able to purchase a complete second control system. With our design this year it may be the only thing that saves us…
We actually plan to purchase the bare minimum pieces to use with the 2nd CRio and be able to swap it out during the offseason to do a number of other projects.
I would encourage other teams to think about it if they have the money.
You can get a digital side car, power distribution board, and the 120 Amp breaker for about $300 … just dont’ forget to buy the connectors (including the battery connector) and the breakers… so for less than $400 you can set up another prototyping board and just have to swap the cRio back and forth…(along with reprogramming it by cable…)
Not a bad approach… and you have 2 digital sidecars already in the kit…
This really allows alot of flexibility for bench testing
My team has three cRIO’s but only two complete control systems.
We have designed our electronics board to be completely removable from the main machine within a matter of a minute or two. Snap it into the slot on our “twin”, hook up the connectors, and you’re good to go! So for now, at least, one cRIO is enough.
For the price that NI is offering for a second cRIO, it is wise to get one for the reasons stated above in this thread. 
So…Is it too late to order our additional cRio from NI for 800$ (or was it 600$)?
Our team coach called NI earlier this week to check on the price of a cRio. We got a quote back for 1,500$, which is the regular price.
Who should we call or is it too late?
Your team is eligible to purchase 1 full I/O and controller set for $750 this year (others are at the higher price). Perhaps the sales rep didn’t look up the proper part number…
We got a second CRio, but because our first one broke. Now my team is broke…(cuz they are so expensive to buy.)
Unless yours broke through some action not covered by warranty I’m curious as to why you didn’t take advantage of the free advance replacement with overnight shipping on RMA’s during the build period.
Who do you contact to purchase one? Just a local sales rep/distributor?
http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-2823 gives the procedure.
Note: only “the person who is listed as the primary mailing address” is an acceptable purchaser. National Instrument’s list of those people is taken from the teams’ shipping contact in TIMS.
Alan, thanks a lot!