Hello, I’m Tristan a.k.a. Bloodsheddragon, and I’m glad to have joined the forum. My username comes from an old gaming name I used. Call me whatever you want (I hope I don’t regret that sentence!)
Though I am not new to vex, I am new to the forum community. Could all of you tell me a little about yourselves, like your experience, teams, etc. This forum could also help some other newcomers a little .
Also, though I have participated in the FLL and a local firefighting robot competition, I have never participated in the FTC/FVC, or the IFI contest. So, about how many people does it take to make a team? What kind of funding is needed, and are you all sponsored, or just have schools full of $ :D? Who are some of the major teams that have participated a lot, or have a good reputation for gracious professionalism (sharing parts, helping out, etc.) Who commonly has unique designs?
I’m hoping to get more into the Vex Community after having a kit for 3 years. Hopefully you’ll take that as a good thing .
It doesn’t take many people to have a team. They can even be as small as one person but I don’t suggest that.
As far as money you can compete with approx. $450 in parts. That will get you a starter kit, rechargeable batteries, and a programming kit. The registration fee is $75 and then you will have a competition fee for the competition you to.
Your next two questions I will leave for you to decide. Hang around here for a while and decide for yourself. Everyone on here will try their best to help you or anyone else who has questions.
As far as about me, I’ve competed in the FRC for 4years, the FTC for 2, and the IFI VEX competition for 1month. I’ve also helped out with the FLL teams at my school.
You are asking a lot of questions there, so I will answer some to the best of my ability…
tell me a little about yourselves, like your experience, teams, etc
A. I’m The_Wizard, a Cranbrook robotics participant, and captain of FTC team #39 The_ZipTies and have made it to atlanta this year and last. I also helped with Bridge Battle this year, and acted as an announcer at the Robofest BB Event
So, about how many people does it take to make a team?
A. From my experience, a good team uses from 3 to 7 people, depending on what roles you put them in. A good configuration I like consists of 1 captain (who does administrative work, planning, and acts as a field coach)1 programer, 1 main build (everybody can help building), and 1-2 Public Relations person/people (they help scout/market the robot) If the Builder and Programmer don’t, you may want to add 1-2 drivers.
What kind of funding is needed, and are you all sponsored, or just have schools full of $ ?
A. Some schools/community organizations provide adequate funding, others have sponsors. Like corpralchee said, "As far as money you can compete with approx. $450 in parts. That will get you a starter kit, rechargeable batteries, and a programming kit. The registration fee is $75 [for vex] and then you will have a competition fee for the competition you to. " If your planning on doing FTC, the registration fee this year is $450, + tourney cost, + extra parts (FTC comes with a kit, but were still not completely sure exactly what it will include)
Who are some of the major teams that have participated a lot, or have a good reputation for gracious professionalism (sharing parts, helping out, etc.) [and] Who commonly has unique designs?
A. Many teams that have forum users participate often, and usually do quite well. You should check the signature of some forum users, some display their team name, or even a website.
“Hopefully you’ll take that as a good thing .”
Welcome to the forum!
I’m a member of team 230 and as of right now our name is RATOM (Rage Against the Other Machine).
We have 2 teams at our school, 1 is made up of 3 people and 1 is made up of 6 people (my team has 6 people). In my experience you need at least 2 people to really work on the building and 3 is even better. More then that and I think you may start to run into trouble unless you all work really well together. It also probably depends on how many hours a week your team meets. You need at least one person to primarily do programming. My team prefers 2, but you can definitely make do with 1. Then you need drivers and often you can just use people from the team, but you can recruit other people if you really want to. So I would say a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7, 10 if some people don’t do anything or you don’t meet that often.
We come from a school full of cash! We get pretty good funding from our school. Occasionally there are fundraisers, and for our Lego League’s trip to Japan donations were solicited.
Yeah, most of the team’s with a member who posts on here do pretty well. This website is a great resource for robotics stuff in general and I for one have been really helped out by the stuff on here. Keep in mind that the more dedicated you are the better you are likely to do and if someone posts on here they are generally pretty dedicated.
I was lucky that I got my starter kit at Radio Shack when they stopped carrying them, it went for $100, and $30 for the programming kit! I’ve ordered batteries and more gears, platforms, L brackets etc. I was just asking the Q because looking at some of the competition robots and they’re huge! (for vex, anyways). However, if my friend and coach for other competitions joins me, we’ll have 4 kits (coach has 2) all with chargers and extra sensors.
I was planning on having me (as programmer/advertising/mechanism controller) a friend (building/movement controller) and a mentor. (parts, help, and all of those “the most important thing is that the most important thing remains the most important thing” messages) I typically (as shown by other robot competitions) work better in a small group than a large one.
Are you required to pay the $450 for their kit, or can you use your own?
Information is still sketchy, but from what I understand, you will need to pay 450 to register a FTC team. The kit should be part of the registration process. How much Vex they will be allowing in FTC next year is still not a solid factor that we know, but you will need to pay the $450 regardless.
Sorry if I’m spamming you with all my questions, just say the word when I’ve posted too much.
So what’s IFIs competition’s price(s)? Just for required fees and field pieces, not parts and kits, etc.
Also, anyone have some links to some really rememberable robots you or others on the forum have made? I’ve tried surfing the gallery a bit, but its all new stuff.
As far as cost for the IFI competition there is a $75 registration fee. Each competition will have it’s own associated fees.
For parts you can easily spend $1000 building a VEX robot. You can also do it for a lot less than that. I think if you don’t want to limit yourself too much be prepared to spend around $700 on parts.
1). I’m from FTC team 25, the Rock-n-Roll Robots. This year was our first season, but we somehow made it to the championship and ended up on the second-place alliance. We’re also an all-girl team run through the Girl Scouts, so we’re not exactly typical.
2). My team has seven people and we function decently. However, we usually only have 3-5 people working at once (our team members are scattered over ~50 miles of Los Angeles, which makes it pretty hard for everyone to come to every meeting) which seems to work pretty well. When all of our members are there, we rarely have enough mechanical jobs to occupy everyone.
3). We’re sponsored through Girl Scouts and by grants from engineering companies that sprang from agreements with Girl Scouts. Which is good, because we spent a good chunk on parts this year alone. I estimate the parts on our robot alone cost ~$500 or so, not counting all our spare parts and other assorted junk.
4). Given the nature of the teams and the overall competition, I think a better question would be who doesn’t have a reputation for gracious professionalism. There’s also a lot of veteran teams (many who are unfortunately dropping out of FTC).
Tons of teams have unique designs. Like it was said above, checking out the Bridge Battle teams would be a good place to start.
That’s quite enough, just research online to see which extra parts are often useful in competition (I’ll say the linear slide and advanced gear packs).
Which is OK too - our team had two people (who also were the two drivers). The one caution I’d give is that you may need some people in the stands. We ended up seeded at nationals, and had no clue who to pick, because we had nobody scouting out other robots.
No you’re not, and since you have four kits, I’d join IFI. FTC will only allow metal parts from the vex kit next year, not to mention that IFI is a lot cheaper (since they make money from the kit you compete with).
Lastly, where are you from and what competitions would you attend?
I’m from CT, as I am 13 I can’t give anymore detail than that. I do not know what I will attend, but I regularly attend a worldwide competition for firefighting robots using a vex kit, and also (less frequently now) attend the FLL.
By the way, if I don’t respond to your post- Don’t think I didn’t look at it, I just couldn’t think of anything worthy enough to be posted after yours .
My name is Xavier and I am the captain of SHIRT or Stephenson High Innovative Robotics Team. I have been active in FIRST and or VEX for three years but my team ha been around for 4 or 5 I think. I am in love with VEX and dont want to leave but I will (im a senior)
My team has about ten to 12 people but that really is not needed by far. I think 2 should be the very minumum to create a robot that will “win”. As far as the rep thing goes just about everyone who has posted on this forum has a good one. hmmm unique design… my school never gives us money until we beg for it for the champ so we usually just have all members pay dues.
I got my kits in the Summer of 2006 for %50 off of the Radio Shack Retail price. I got 3 Starter Kits plus extra metal and the Programming Kit. I loaned all my Vex stuff out to the local High School FRC team to compeate in FTC MAR-2008.
The FTC Team I helped (Team 582) had 5 Team Members. Two were very much into the Design and Build process.
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