Best products from r/FRC

I'd say bump up the price range to $300-$400. This will increase the cost by quite a bit, but the improvement would be well worth the money. You would want to find something that has a pretty nice balance of CPU power, GPU power, and memory. For laptops at this price range, you'll want to find something with good integrated graphics, over 4GB of memory if you can find it, and have it be a 15.6 inch laptop. That last one might seem weird, but that is the size where you can usually find the best pricing because it's big enough that the internals won't be an absolute nightmare to deal with (which makes manufacturing more expensive), but small enough to not have anything too crazy on the outside, like a bigger display (which makes manufacturing more expensive). Here's a good example of what I'd recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i3-8130U-Memory-E5-576-392H/dp/B079TGL2BZ

If you find something else and aren't sure, I can take a look at it and give my opinion on how I think it will hold up.

You CAN use the same connector for most connections - given limitations on wire size and current carrying capability, but its a bad idea.

First off, check the game manual - lots of good info there. There's also some wiring guides online.

Motors and motor controllers power connections should use Andersons. Great connectors, shallow learning curve, easy to get good results, high reliability, current carrying capability for the connectors up to 45 amps - wire size will reduce this.

Our team switched to JST connectors for the CAN bus this year - much nicer than the bullet crimps we have used in the past. JST's are polarized and have a male / female. Each motor controller gets a male and a female, on on the in and one on the out of the CAN bus, now swapping in a controller is four connectors and you are done. One of our students spent a couple meetings with a bag of connectors, a wire stripper, a crimp tool, and her head phones and did every motor controller in the build space. Old robots, current robot, new stock.

PWM signals typically use Dupont connectors. FIRST has had a 'funny' (IMHO) rule about PWM signal wires that they must use a particular set of colors for PWM signal wires. Be sure that any extensions you make correspond to whatever your local robot inspectors interpret the right set of colors to be. (IIRC, Hi-Tec servos come from the factory with wires that robot inspectors would fail. Arguing with inspectors is NEVER a good idea - don't do it!)

Soldering is not always the best way to connect wires to connectors, properly crimped connectors are plenty strong on their own and allow the wire to flex a bit (especially stranded wire). Soldering removes some of that flexibility and can lead to broken wires. Be very aware of strain relief and range of movement for all your connectors.

When we teach wire crimping, the next step after 'crimp the wire' is 'try to pull it apart'. It's way easier to fix the crimp when you have all the tools and parts sitting on the bench in front of you, than to push everything together, put the tools away, and then discover a flying lead. Don't feel bad if your first crimps pull apart - I'm literally a grey beard and it still happens to me after 35 years of mucking about with wires. Just sigh, maybe say a few choice words ("ARRGH - Woodie Flowers Ponytail!") and do it again until you get it right.

I'm not Big Al, but here's my two cents.

• Every team should have a Battery Beak. I think the first one any of my teams bought was in 2815 in 2013, then I showed it to 1293 who historically stayed past the peak of the adoption curve for financial reasons. They went out and bought one, it's that good at preventing bad batteries from going out and that easy to use.
  
• Inspect your battery. Dents? It's shot. Inside these batteries are glass plates that divide each cell. When the glass breaks, it loses voltage. When the glass breaks only a little, it will lose voltage when it heats up (say, when a robot is drawing 100A from it). Which means it fails on the field.
  
• Did you ever see someone lift it by the cables? It's shot. There's no strain relief on those metal tabs, just a straight connection to those glass plates.
  
• For deeper testing, lots of people like the CBA IV for load testing batteries down to a certain voltage since it'll keep a constant load. You could do a poor-man's version with a car heater or two and watching the driver station logs. (200W is 16A, or about six CIMs spinning at free speed with nothing attached. You want a good solid discharge for this, so the battery chemistry will warm up. Two heaters would absolutely do the trick.) Any sudden voltage drops indicate bad cells, and it should be recycled.
  
• For most teams, you're only going to get 1-2 good seasons out of a battery before it needs to be demoted to practice and demo duty. Be sure to mark when a battery first goes into service.

Not located anywhere near the PNW but can answer some safety questions.
As long as you never work on live circuitry and connect + to + and - to - you should be safe (kind of an obvious thing to say about electronics as it’s true for most cases). And with the voltages you’re most likely working with (3V-12V) you should be safe even if you do mess up (and the voltages and currents you’re working with is where it’s important to make the distinction between safe to mess up and NOT safe to mess up).
The most damage you will do is short something and break the arduino or other circuitry you’re working with. A lot of times genuine arduinos will have short protection and be able to turn back on.
I would suggest using a different type of motor controller though such as a shield that fits on top of the arduino.
Maybe this one (cheaper) or this one (better)

PM me with any questions if you’d like and I’ll try to answer them.

The camera available in FIRST Choice isn't cheap in terms of FIRST Choice points, but it is very cheap if you buy it elsewhere. Amazon has it for $21.

This year, I would recommend a USB camera (cuts out one of the two cables needed for an IP camera). Pretty much any USB camera should work. Unfortunately the new control system is not yet available to the public and I haven't heard of any beta test teams trying out different cameras, so I don't think there will be any people qualified to give a recommendation.

Since the Lifecam 3000 is available in FIRST Choice, I would say it's a fairly safe bet.

EDIT: It occurred to me that you might be looking for a recommendation for using with the old control system (potentially for an offseason project). If that's the case, then all I can really recommend are the Axis cameras, as that's all I've really seen teams use.

The XT60 connectors are very nice. My team switched to them this year and we love them. Very easy to solder and virtually indestructible.

Nike Toki Low's. I love them! No matter what year's game I'm playing they still work with the rest of my chassis. Plus they come in size 15. I've got them in both Black and Black/White and even go so far as to have a match set and a practice set. I would definitely recommend them!

Have you tried the goggles that look like this? https://www.amazon.com/3M-91252-80024-Chemical-Splash-Impact/dp/B00467C7AE If it works for you a bunch of school science classrooms have them, if you're a school team. I'm 90% sure they're compliant but if they work for you it's good to make sure.

spotlight, uh, limelight, uh

​

there are some good fisheye ones that are pretty helpful

These are the best safety glasses available IMO

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B006WPSDXS/

aiight

Rice Eating Meetup on Friday, somewhere in Cobo: Be nice 4 free rice. Y'all better bring some furikake to that meetup bc eating with only soy sauce is kinda boring imo

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G5X7DMC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_xv8jDb0Z498WJ
Here is one that looks pretty similar to the one that we have, pretty cheap too.

Our team bought a postal scale last year similar to this one. We balance a big piece of wood on it then zero it and put the robot on. Weighing it is super important because you don't want to be drilling massive holes or taking off components in the pits. I've seen teams spend hours in the pits sawing and drilling because they were overweight.

Edit: looks like marshallm900 and I had the same idea.

My team uses Anderson Powerpoles just about everywhere we can. They allow for easy changes without coming apart accidentally. We've got four colors of them on our robot, to match the wires they're used on (red/black and green/white). They even snap together to make two-wire plugs.

Connectors

Crimper

Colors available

What are you using the laptop for? If it's something like live score data or scouting sheets, you may be better off buying a relatively cheap 8" Android tablet and a high-capacity USB battery pack. You'll be in about $120 and have a longer battery life than the laptop ever could.

Resin Printers ftw
Not the cheapest but if you're willing to pay, this thing makes unbelievably strong and high quality prints

Nice! - now you need a patch....perhaps an idea from USCG Air Station Astoria...https://www.amazon.com/USCG-Station-Astoria-Oregon-Patch/dp/B07CNSXFCL

This should work nicely for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Weigh-Shipping-Stainless-Extendable/dp/B0153I0418/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1452095816&sr=8-4&keywords=package+scale

Also, you can find a local pet store and they will have scales large enough to weigh a robot.

2 Pin JST https://www.amazon.com/Hilitchi-300Pcs-Housing-Terminal-Connector/dp/B0188YKCFC/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1511450043&sr=8-16&keywords=2+pin+jst+connector

These are commonly used in RC applications. Another application to highlight their security is for the main power for 1-3lb battle bots. If they can have the robot be bounced around a polycarbonate box without disconnecting, they will probably stay connected in an FRC robot.