Vex EDR
In order to start doing VEX Robotics, you need to buy the parts. This page will describe what you need to buy based on your needs provide cost estimates if money is a concern. This will be split up into curriculum and competition. There will be a section at the end for ways to pay for VEX if money is hard to come by.
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Disclaimer: I haven't started from scratch, rather I come from a team that has been pretty established, and we only a few parts we need every year. The lists in this comes from my personal experience on what we used, but it's not perfect and you may end up not using some parts or lacking others depending on the season and your own personal building style. It should still serve as a good foundation as to what to buy and how much starting a team should cost depending on how competitive you want to be.
VEX Store: https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexedr/products
Competition Costs
In order to compete you will need the necessary hardware and electronics. There are kits that you can buy and additional parts can be bought to supplement your robot. Complete prices will be at the end.
V5 Competition Starter Kit
Minimal Cost, Minimal Functionality ($1000) https://www.vexrobotics.com/276-7030.html#Kit_Contents This kit is for those who are less serious and don't want to spend too much money. Contains the basic electronics and some hardware, enough to build a little more than a basic clawbot.
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V5 Competition Super Kit
Baseline for Advanced Teams ($1650) https://www.vexrobotics.com/276-7040.html#Kit_Contents This kit is for those that are more serious. It more electronics and much more hardware to work with, enough to build a regionally competitive robot. You can just buy this, but you may want to buy more parts in order to build incredibly complex robots (these parts will be listed below).
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Additional Parts
Components break, parts are cut up, things are lost, and other reasons why you might want to buy more parts. Below is a list of these "additional parts," and you can see what you want to buy and how much.
HIGHLY Recommended Additional Parts - Total: $448
Optional Additional Parts:
Competition Field
Vex competitions are held on a 12' by 12' field and every year there are unique elements. This can be quite expensive, but there are ways to reduce your price.
Full Field (36): $250 ~$7/tile
Half Field (18): $125 ~$7/tile 4 Tiles: $35 These are regular foam tiles (2' by 2'). There are 36 on a whole field. It's important to use foam tiles because you want to test your robot with the compression and friction of the tiles. You should at a bare minimum have 4, but you should try to have a full field. |
Field Walls
https://www.vexrobotics.com/278-1501.html Full Field: $800
These are specially made titanium walls with poly carbonate glass. The individual pieces are 4' and there are 12 in total (3 per side). They are quite expensive, so you might consider making your own field walls if money is an issue. |
Game Elements
https://www.vexrobotics.com/276-6090.html |
----------- GAME AND FIELD ELEMENTS ARE SEASON SPECIFIC -----------
1 Kit: $150, 2 for full field: $300
You should try to have at least a few game elements to test with, and a full field is useful for driving practice. You can also buy individual game elements for $8. |
2 Different Kits, Total: $200 [Picture above is just one 1 kit}
If you have all the file tiles you might want to have these as well. These are part of the competition and it's good to be able see and test your robot with these. |
Complete Prices
Below is list of possible variations of what you might buy and how much they cost including the kit, additional parts, and the field.
The Highlighted part in green is our recommended for try hard teams.