I’ve been watching to see if they’re better/neutral/worse than the bins that were previously used. At practice it’s neutral, I haven’t noticed them being better or worse. For competitions, the new bins are less practical. The older bins were better at competitions because we’d have a single bin per team. which they’d store any parts needed for a quick repair.
I’m trying hard to love the ones I got, but I’ve been spoiled by the Team Virus tray inserts along with two Cabella / Plano boxes. The standard VEX insert also works well with the Team Virus inserts.
Here’s my thoughts (disclaimer: our organization receives the profits from the sale of the RoboSource IQ Organizers as a fundraiser)
The first bin in the “education kit” has an “organizer” of sorts–just made out of thermoformed plastic like packing material. It’s pretty difficult for even an adult to sort the parts back into it. The second bin has quite a few little plastic boxes, kind of hard to open, so that your young elementary age kids can spray IQ pins around the room as they try to get the boxes open. By the time you get to the 3rd and 4th boxes, the “competition add-on,” there is no attempt to provide “5S-style” organization, it’s just an empty box. Overall, I don’t know if the boxes will be durable enough for everyday classroom use or not.
You too can get spoiled, as the inserts for Generation 2 are now available from Robosource.
The trays fit into the original sturdy “generation 1” IQ tubs, which are still available as part of the V5 Workcell storage. Alternatively, the trays will also fit the modular toolbox systems from Menards and Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/large-modular-toolbox-58511.html
You won’t get sorting trays with the Menards or Harbor Freight boxes, but included in the RoboSource kits are labels for every part that doesn’t have a 5S position in the foam trays.
We got some kits about a year ago. I tried to use those new bins but they are so cheaply made that they are almost useless. Under any use the hinges start to break off, etc. When we got some extra kits later this year I emptied them out and posted to the school asking if anyone wanted to save them from the landfill.
(And thankfully someone did!)
The old bins are 100x more useful. You have some space in the bottom, and then you can fit two trays above that. They store well and stack well when empty. And they were probably cut because they cost a little more.
