High schooler here new to VEX, has around one year of prior experience with a school team. This year I want to start my own team at home but I don’t know where to start. My biggest problem is money. I don’t want to ask parents to pool in too much, so I want to get a few sponsors. First of all if I want to compete competitively (hopefully make state), what’s the budget roughly? $3,000? $5,000? Which kit do I buy? Do I buy one at all or just buy pieces separately? Which pieces can I 3D print? What do people usually 3D print? I’m not too scared of going deep into CAD, programming, or 3D printing; I just want to create the best possible robot. And then there’s sponsors. What kind of companies do I email? Can it be any business, or does it have to be tech related? Do I just straight up ask them for money? How specific do I need to get in describing my goals, plans, and how I plan to spend the money? Do I need to make some sort of formal document/packet detailing VRC, the parts, rules, budget, etc. and attach it to the email? If I DO get sponsors, do I have to meet with them face-to-face or online on a regular basis? Is it a one-time thing where they pay you and leave you alone or is it more mentorship based? Do I need to be registered as a 501 non profit? What difference does that make? I’m attempting this all solo with no team members or coaches…please help
I am not a home team, but I can help you with some of your questions.
The only things you can 3D print as a high school V5RC team (or middle school) are license plates for your robot.
About sponsors, there are many great resources across the forums here.
Here is a link to a very helpful post.
The simplest option would be to go through a school as they tend to have money, coaches, and most importantly possible team members, but if that is not an option then you have some work ahead of you.
I would strongly recommend that you don’t try to build, code, design, drive, and manage money and parts, all by yourself and at least find one or two local kids who think robots are cool and give them the parts to build mechanisms you CAD (little more complicated than Legos but more fun) and bring them along to competitions. Last season I was on a school run team with one person and that was still a LOT of work for me to get to state (2 hours a day for 10 months straight… not fun).
If you are willing to spend 2-3 hours a day working on the robot then you have a decent chance to get to state, and a really good chance of getting completely burnt out and end up wasting the thousands of dollars and dozens of hours. If you do really want to start now I would recommend starting designing on onshape and see what parts you use a lot to make the desicion of what parts to buy when you can be sure you are able to spend the time and effort every day.
While the starter kit ($1200) would be a good place to start (the super kit is out of stock), to be a really competitive team you will need 4 more motors ($200), more structure ($400), and maybe even pneumatics depending on how competitive of a state ($300). This is already a lot of money and this isn’t considering that you have to pay to register a team for a competition usually about $150 per competition.
The REC offers grants but from what I hear it takes a while to get approved.
Hi Kevin! I’m a 3rd year MS V5RC student in Houston (not a home student), and I’ll try to answer some of your questions the best I can.
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As far as money goes, I’ll be honest, stuff gets pretty expensive. Cost really varies on how much work you put in. More work means more parts means more cost, Also, you’re probably going to make a new robot sometime during the season, if not several. I dunno where you live, but I’d say email some local businesses by you (especially by your school) and ask for funding. As for how to email them, this article has some good advice. Also you can ask for grants from various organizations including your school and/or maybe run a fundraiser.
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Our coach buys our basic parts like metal for us and most of our robots get taken apart after worlds, so we recycle a lot of our parts. Also, I’m not a builder. So, I have no idea how the kits work.
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You’re not actually allowed to use or create your own parts in V5RC. You can only use what’s sold by VEX with the V5 tag, certain non-VEX components specified as legal by VEX; from specific to basic (i.e. custom smart cables and rope), and no more than a 12" x 24" sheet’s worth of polycarbonate which can be crudely modified (cut, bent, rolled, etc.). However, you can custom make cosmetics or license plates for your robot however you want as long as they do not serve a functional purpose or disrupt matches. The license plates also have to be in big legible lettering, clearly red or blue, and of course; two of each color on opposing sides. If the cosmetic doesn’t follow those rules and the ref calls you for it, it’ll be a DQ for that match and you’ll need to fix the issue and reinspect before you can continue matches.
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I don’t think the formal document is necessary ngl, but if you want to add it, go for it. Just be nice and concise.
I hope my advice could be of some help to you! Good luck
Also, some good sites to visit and use throughout the season are
- The VEX Forum
- RECF Library
- The Official VEX Q&A
- Purdue SIGBOTS Wiki
And some apps you should get on your phone are
- VRC RoboScout (allows you to scout other teams and look at your schedule. It’s essentially a better, fan-made version of an official app named VEX Via)
- VRC Hub (has a match timer, skills timer, downloadable game manual, and match scoring calculator for every season)
Wow that was amazing, ty for all the tips 