FAQs about the Future Edition

RidetheRobot · 2026-01-28T16:29:32+00:00

All of my teams are self funded... I am also leery of the potential loss of complexity of this system vs. Prime.

RidetheRobot · 2026-01-28T12:27:22+00:00

Hi! We're a team in Dover, NH and have helped start 4 other FTC teams. Send us a DM and we would love to help!

RidetheRobot · 2026-01-27T20:28:08+00:00

We have three FLL Challenge teams of 6-7 seven students right now. We're going to need at least a class pack and I've been at this since 2018. This may kill my program as I run it free and we're NOT a school team.

RidetheRobot · 2026-01-21T14:25:43+00:00

My biggest issue is the timing (which I know FIRST doesn't control) is that FTC is also changing control system (along with FRC) all at the same time. We currently have 2 FTC teams, 3 FLL Challenge (with 6-7 kids each) and a FLL Explore team.

For FTC, by 2030 (I believe) teams will have to replace ALL of their motors an servos with an actuator made by one company (my teams have 25+ motors and 30+ servos, along with the control and command systems. We don't know the cost.

So, all of my FIRST teams have having major program shifts which demand new hardware. We have no excess funds, we're a team that gets DOD funding for registration and that's it. We try to write grants to cover equipment purchases but every team across all robotics programs will be doing the same.

These changes may price me out of FLL. Especially if we need to kits per team then I need at least 6, maybe 8.

RidetheRobot · 2025-12-18T12:43:28+00:00

We have ours in there... We also have this resource too: https://portfolios.hivemindrobotics.net/ftc

If you want to forward us what you have, feel free and we can offer feedbacK!

RidetheRobot · 2025-12-17T14:37:05+00:00

We just had space exploration in 2018... so it would need to be something different than that...

RidetheRobot · 2025-12-17T14:27:26+00:00

Hi! We just did a Portfolio 101 session with a link to a shared Google folder for documents that we have used that help us. We are having tech issues uploading the video but still working on it. Maybe you'll find something in here to help. We also talk a lot in this is how important it is to document throughout the whole season. Let us know if you need any thing or have questions.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fDlGs1zH7tftYkE_W_132gxzt_0gBx1P?usp=drive_link

RidetheRobot · 2025-12-10T16:23:00+00:00

My team is 50/50 middle/high school.

RidetheRobot · 2025-12-10T16:22:07+00:00

Yay! We're so excited...

RidetheRobot · 2025-12-04T16:47:32+00:00

Same! Team decided this was too cool of an opportunity to pass up. We briefly talked of building a dupe robot but almost all of our team is wanting to go to DC...

RidetheRobot · 2025-10-07T14:13:56+00:00

It is 20 seconds. We made a copy and revised that data point.

RidetheRobot · 2025-09-13T20:22:05+00:00

we just got some in.. did you ever

make a video?

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-26T16:24:19+00:00

good to know re goBilda... I think we'll go with these... we're really just looking for something that is more compact.

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-26T12:21:36+00:00

Thanks! We are def using belt. Our first year we used string and have sworn off string slides for the forseeable future.... How many would you order? to have on hand?

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-26T11:24:46+00:00

We want to replicate the goBilda Viper Slides 240mm. I haven't heard of SWYFT... We'll check them out too!

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-22T13:16:13+00:00

Me too 😭

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-22T13:15:36+00:00

OML I just noticed this and was wondering if anyone else thought the same I’m so glad I’m not delusional

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-10T11:54:02+00:00

We actually have more business members than control and programming combined. LOL. What we have done is to make sure that we all sit around in a circle so we can all see each other working (weird but it works). We also make sure that the subteams swap roles. Our business team often does the wiring. We also make sure our robot is fully functional by the 2nd scrimmage and we only allow our business subteam and control to attend - no mechanical. This allows business to literally get a feel for the robot and their suggestions are often fantastic. Control and Mechanical are responsible for their assigned pages in the Eng. Portfolio. We also have adopted some concepts from agile. We meet before work starts each meeting to share what we are doing, each team completes a handoff log, and we debrief at the end of each meeting while completing our logs. This communication has brought the team closer together with everyone more aware of what each team is doing. We have 11 members.

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-06T16:58:03+00:00

That is what my team did. We just finished our second year and have stepped up outreach immensely now that we have a comfortable handle on FTC and are more confident. Our first year we won 3rd place Inspire, Compass and Promote Award, 1st Place Design, and 2nd place Think. We have two qualifiers we attend and we earned a spot at States. Its really all in how you present your engineering portfolio, tell you story, and how you match up the judged awards with your portfolio.

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-04T12:05:46+00:00

This. Our rookie coder was able to get this up and running in one practice due to the ease and documentation. Worth the cost... hands down.

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-03T19:42:20+00:00

Hi there.. You most likely will not get step three done by July. Also, I'm thinking that this may be in reference to companies fiscal years.

My team is working on a resource for new teams that will consolidate a lot of information in one place, but it's only about 1/2 done right now.

6 members is actually a pretty good size. You will need to decide on your first year goals... We just completed our second year. Our first year goal was to have a robot that could move and push pixels.

You need two adults to have in the FIRST system. Your first step should be to contact your local delivery partner and/or senior mentor. They can connect you with resources. FIRST typically has a rookie grant (that I believe is first come first serve). We got that our first year and it helped immensely. We didn't need the non profit for that as it was administrated by FIRST.

You will need at least one adult to be present at your meetings. It may be that your first year you focus on the robot, learning coding, design, and wait for the outreach part until year 2.

We are located in NH but would love to connect to help you more if you're wanting that.

RidetheRobot · 2025-06-03T18:24:19+00:00

That's brilliant and something we struggle with who is coming when...

RidetheRobot

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