V5 cost?

I’m starting to plan for next fall’s season and want to know if anyone knows of an estimated cost for the new V5 system?

Good question! I’m just starting to plan for next fall, too. I think there will be a lot of trickiness to it based on packaging. I really want to see per item pricing so I can figure out how many motors, sensors, etc. I can manage.

Personally, I’d like to go 100% V5 next year for consistency going forward from there, plus because I really, really like having the LCDs built in, especially to the remote, and I figure VEX will have solved the integrated motor encoder issues, which will cut down on wasted space and wiring and be more similar to the VEX IQ motors in terms of management.

A VEX reseller rep said that last time there was some buy-back program to cut down on the costs some. I haven’t seen anything official about such a program this time, but I hope it exists as it would be extremely handy when dealing with school budgets.

The trade-in program for V5 is described at the bottom of this page.

Also, here is a quote from @Paul Copioli (from this thread) describing the expected prices for V5 products:

Based on my back-of-the-envelope calculations, it should run you about $388/team according to Paul’s statements, this would get you both the starting bundle and 8 motors

Thanks all! This is sounding better than I feared.

Does the programming studio include robot C ?

I spoke with VEX Sales about a month ago and they said after trade-in of your existing equipment you could get the new cortex, controller, (1) battery, the radio and the “necessary” cables/adaptors for about $200. Which is not bad. We have 2 sets to trade in so $400 is reasonable to get 2 V5 sets back.

My understanding is that the VEX Programming Studio will NOT include Robot C. Nor will Robot C be compatible with V5.

Some VEX authorized resellers will also be handling upgrades on the same terms. Here is the text of the link published above in this thread:

Just send us your current VEXnet System Bundle (VEX ARM® Cortex®-based Microcontroller, a VEXnet Joystick, and (2) VEXnet Keys), to receive a 50% discount on the V5 System Bundle, which consists of the following:

(1) V5 Robot Brain
(1) V5 Wireless Controller
(1) V5 Robot Battery
(1) V5 Robot Radio
All necessary charging cables & adapters
In addition, each trade-in will receive a one-time use coupon to receive 30% off an unlimited amount of V5 Smart Motors. 

Additional information about the V5 Trade-In program will be coming soon.

Does this price include trading in your old system (Cortex, joystick, vexNet keys)?

There are no VEXNet keys in V5 because the brain and the controller have an inbuilt radio.

He said trading in the old system.

I’m a little confused. Presumably the “V5 Wireless Controller” is actually a wireless controller and so has its own built-in transmitter/receiver. If the “V5 Robot Brain” also has this built in, then what is the “V5 Robot Radio” for?

The V5 brain doesn’t have it built in.

Ok so clearly I can’t read and I don’t have the correct information. I apologize for providing incorrect information.

Have any specs of the V5 battery been released, other than they are LiFe? Beta testers are not able to talk about battery performance, but we’d like to know how many batteries will likely be needed for each competition robot to get through an event for budgeting purposes.

I just emailed [email protected] about that. They advised that you have at least two batteries for each team, so one can be charging; they did note that these batteries will likely be good for several matches in a row