You can also get the classic L shaped wrenches for quite a bit cheaper. It’s made out of hardened chrome and is made by Wiha as well. We bought some of these, and they have never failed us.
Eventually we will add this all to the Botsnstuff.com wiki for safe keeping. We have already filled out the screws and standoffs.
Also a side note. I have tried to find alternative sources for the collars 5/32" ID for cheaper then VEX with no such luck. Likely to get them made any cheaper we would have to go to a source in China and get them custom made.
I ran into the same thing. It was especially bad with shaft collars being out of stock for so many weeks this past season. Alternative ones I found have a 1/64" bigger hole and cost a little more than Vex.
I did not try and source from China as shipping times and availability were of more importance.
You can get foam tiles at Sams Club but they are not the same. So buyer beware.
I believe Vex uses SoftTiles. You can buy some there but you won’t get the red/blue tiles like Vex sells. You won’t get them much cheaper there either. But you can get a dinosaur on it!
If these are to be in a competition they should be the same color as the VEX tiles. A programmer may have gotten to brilliant idea to use a line tracker or light sensor to determine if the tile is grey or not and if it isn’t grey it wouldn’t work. It would be more likely for a programmer to do this looking for a red or blue tile (I’ve done this) but still possible that it will be done with the grey ones.
however these don’t seem to work with the VEX chargers.
tmart also sell multimeters which can be useful for testing batteries or even continuity on motor and sensor wires, some even have a battery load test.
I think this is a much cheaper alternative for the VEX Floor tiles. Although not shown in the picture, the flip side of the tiles is almost identical to VEX’s floor tiles. It isn’t as durable though.
Wow, I never looked at how cheap you can get foam tiles or that the VEX field tiles went up in price. Are they still the same as before?
At the current price, the kit from VEX works out to $5.75 per tile. The Harbor Freight ones work out to $2.50 a piece, or $90 for a full field, so it is a significant savings. I had looked at the HF ones in a store, and they seem thinner and flimsier than the VEX ones, but should work fine unless you are trying to combine them with old ones. After looking on eBay and Aliexpress, it seems that these are by far the cheapest you can get.
Note: The price calculation is at the “sale” price, but it is unlikely to find them at the normal price. You can also get them cheaper with the coupons they always have, and with 20% off it comes to $2 per tile, $72 for the field.
Based on the 1" tolerance rule in the field, I doubt 0.05"-0.1" in height variation will make much difference. Just make sure that the tiles have the texture on only one side.
Can’t seem to find prices on line so give them a call. You will have to specify the polycarb size and thickness and color (we bought 10 black and 10 clear).
We bought these rubber bands a while back, they work well and are VERY cheap, at least when compared with VEX rubber bands. They are ~7x cheaper than the VEX Rubber Bands.
Another kind, that isn’t as cheap, but in my opinion, is better because of the different colors and overall quality is: