2011 Events.

[AlphaTauri]

If you have the tools, the materials only cost about $50 total for Trajectory. I'm not sure about Sounds of Music, but it seems that it would naturally be more expensive because you have to build 2 instruments.

[bridgebuilder25]

I heard that Sounds of Music was the most expensive event for a lot of teams a couple of years ago. Awesome.

[eta150]

Sorry i kinda blanked out - i meant to put in that robotics events like sumo bots can cost upwards of 300 dollars - im doing the event next year and we calculated we'd need at least 340 for everything necessary, probably more for extra parts...however, 1000 dollars for robocross is...i don't know, not something every team spends? That was basically half of our budget this year so ya...i realize that build its do take a lot of money, but honestly, there are only 3 or 4 in mind that come any where close to hundreds of dollars - i personally will probably end up spending upwards of 150 on towers next year, sumo bots will definitely be expensive as a robotics event, and heli/sounds? Now, this is for div c. I dont know if Mission is coming back next year, if it is, add that to the pile.

But seriously a 1000 dollars for robocross? My friend did that last year in the the 8th grade, she spent less than 140 and got 3rd at state...maybe illinois isn't as competitive as PA or SC, but 1000 dollars seems like an odd case.

Sorry, I meant to say that we probably spent that total for 2 years. Also, it was a robot that came in 4th at nats, and the parts came from a ridiculously expensive vex kit. What I should have said is that the robot may have cost that for 2 years, but we didn't actually have to pay for it, because our tech ed. teacher got it from the district.

[robotman]

These events can't run u past 100 per

They definitely can. Last year we spent around $1000 on a robot.

In B division during Robocross in 2 years we probably spent about that.

ok for my 2 years in robocross i spent:
first year costs
320 for the vex parts
50 for the battery charger and batteries
25 for omni wheels
25 dollars for wood for field
second year costs
60 for 1 controller batterry and 2 robot batteries
5 for molding for field

so for two years of robots I spent a total of around 485 dollars for robotics not cheap but the major costs are in buying the kits.

[smartkid222]

I dont know why you guys are complaining. It's not that hard to spend one lunch hour doing a bake sale - our school is probably the poorest in our region, we actually get no funding from the school, we have to raise everything ourselves as the students. That doesn't mean ask our parents for money, but spend countless hours over the summer doing car washes and bake sales, and sell T-Shirts for the science department.

These events can't run u past 100 per, and theres wat? Sounds, Sumo, and Heli. I realize there are still other build it's, but Im pretty sure ur teams do get SOME money from ur schools, you just have to work a little to raise the rest. A bake sale for us gets us $50-75 profit EASY.

It's hard to create fun built-its that don't require a little spending - or at least i can't think of anything that isnt too simple.

Or you could be like my district and not be allowed to do fundraisers. However, we are given a large budget which pretty much covers mostly everything. The bad side of that though is that everyting we buy needs to get approval from the district, so things we order take months to actually get to us.

[ichaelm]

Imho, the robot really shouldn't cost you that much. Assuming you have a practical understanding of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetics, you don't need anything like vex. I build most of my electric stuff out of parts I got from old broken things. For example, I just built a high-speed continuous-rotation gearless servo (which conveniently interfaces with radio receivers by PWM) with parts from the old junkyard challenge and some other stuff I had lying around. As long as you have some friends/family who don't like throwing out stuff, and/or access to dumpsters, you shouldn't need to spend much money at all. The only thing I could see actually buying would be the R/C hardware, because you need one with interchangeable crystals. Also it might be a good idea to buy some lightweight aluminum or plastic from home depot or something. And perhaps some rechargeable batteries are a good idea. Other than that, you can save a lot of money with a little creativity.

Additionally, if you want your robot to do things automatically without you having to tell it to, you can buy an Arduino or a BASIC stamp (30$, but I got mine for 10$ because I sent them a nice email).

For sounds of music, money will probably be an issue if you want to go for gold. You need it to look and sound as good as possible, so no pvc-pipe marimbas or plywood guitars. The "workmanship" section of the scoring seems to strongly correlate with money.

[eta150]

Wow Ichaelm, you already built something out of the JYC? That's impressive.

[bridgebuilder25]

The issue with salvaging scraps is that you have to be much more knowledgeable about electronics and stuff like that. Most people want to do the events well in as little time and difficulty as possible. Kits and components prebuilt for exactly what you need serve those needs, but you pay the price.

[robotman]

EVENT LIST is up

[amerikestrel]

Oh good. It looks like the only major change from what we knew is StC instead of SoM for B division.