I found out from Lego Education catalog that there will be new Tetrix Robotics Kit. The kit will have metal gears. Why not metal gears for Vex Robotics Kit?
well i think vex is going to be coming out with metal gears soon. i’m just wondering why lego is using metal gears? lego motors don’t really produce enough torque to strip the plastic ones…
I think/know that lego is coming out with a new kit for FTC; It might have stronger motors, I have no clue. There are probably some others on the forum with better knowledge of it than me.
Last may year at worlds, vex announced the Heavy Duty gear kit. It had a metal 12 tooth gear, and double-thick gears of many sizes.
Read Thread New VEX Stuff., posts #7 and #8.
FYI the tetrix kit does not just use lego motors, it uses 4 strong dc motors as well as 4 strong hitec servos
as far as i can tell, the new FTC KOP is going to include a few servos, dc motors, and NXT motors, along with the NXT brick. i dont think you can buy just the tetrix kit, its just a part of the FTC kit. though i could be wrong…
There are numerous reasons not to use metal gears, the most obvious of which is cost.
Now, if you are requesting higher strength gears that is a different story. There are many ways to increase gear strength other than increasing the strength of the material itself.
Coming soon.
-John
4 SERVO motors
4 DC Motors
1 LEGO Education Base Set
lots of extra sensors
lots of metal
10 metal gears of various sizes
hitechnic electronics
the tetrix kit is the ftc kit 
Your definition of “lots” and mine must be pretty far apart.
FYI - here is what Tetrix includes at this time. I believe the components for the FTC kit come from many vendors with LEGO being only one of them (HiTechnic, and Lynxmotion being two others, I believe):
http://catalog.pitsco.com/store/default.aspx?CategoryID=157&by=9&c=1
With all of the new products that have been announced for VEX, I don’t feel compelled to migrate to Tetrix. However, they have some interesting components (tubes, clamps, servo joints, motor/gear hubs with set screws, etc.). They are not cheap however.
-Glenn
Thanks for finding that, I was starting to wonder if you could even buy more Tetrix without going through FIRST.
And WOW is that stuff expensive!
34.95 for 1, 120 tooth gear!!! :eek:
I do like the pliers they offer:
http://catalog.pitsco.com/store/detail.aspx?CategoryID=157&by=9&ID=5490&c=1&t=0&l=0
I will get that for my Vex work. Those darn nuts are always slipping out of the wrenches and needle nose I currently use.
Regards,
Mike
I just like using Nut Drivers.
I totally agree that nut drivers are great and I use them too. There have been a few times, especially when building the Vexplorer, that I needed to hold the nut perpendicularly or squeeze into a spot a nutdriver would not fit - and I think this set of pliers may do the trick.
However, if someone has a better idea, then I am open to suggestions.
Thanks,
Mike
How soon? We spent all summer waiting for the heavy-duty gears, but they still haven’t been released…
Hmm, I think we should get this thread back on topic 
Anyways, @gblake: for $450 dollars you do get A LOT of metal, and some pretty sweet sensors (i.e. colour, accelerometer, compass), take the Vex Starter kit, throw in a programming kit, its still about 1/10th of the tetrix kit and for only $50 bucks less
Very true, but! I can’t think of how much money pitsco is losing because of this. Hope there investment pays off.
Actually the costs between the two platforms are comparable if you disregard any initial discounts offered. Aside from some of the accessories that we have all gotten used to such as omni wheels, chain/sprocket, tank treads, etc… the Tetrix kit cost compares favorably to the VEX platform with many of the comparable VEX parts added in.
[ATTACH]616[/ATTACH]
There are still some differences such as sensors that make for a gap between the two packages, but all in all the costs compare favorably once you level the playing field.
The real question is whether a team would really buy all 3 programming packages to use, or if you would prefer more motors and less servos, etc. There will continue to be trade-offs that teams must deal with depending on what they chose to utilize. The biggest impact to teams that I see is the limitation of power transmission components with Tetrix bundle.
We’ll just have to wait and see the accessories for Tetrix 
But yes I’ll agree the lack of bevel, worm, and pinion gears is disappointing.
Tetrix is worth $4000 dollars to buy everything in retail I believe.