HiTechnic IR Beacon

[mattallen37]

Why is the HT IR Beacon http://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commer ... key=FTCBCN only available to FTC teams? "The IR Beacon is only available for registered FTC teams."

[nxtreme]

I imagine it's because they don't want to share their nice technology . No, as far as I know they are available once a year for a couple months to "regular" people like us. I think it's because HiTechnic doesn't want to run out of stock while FIRST competitions are going on as they want to give everybody a equally fair chance at winning. That's my thought on it. You can build your own using a 555 timer and some IR LEDs or a 556 (or two 555s) to get even better range.

[mattallen37]

I know how to build one, but I don't have an IR Seeker v2 yet, so for now I don't need one, I just thought that it is interesting that HT doesn't sell them to the public, and I was wondering why.

[gusjansson]

I don't know the exact details but this has to do with the agreement we have with FIRST. Essentially, all the IR Beacons are reserved for FTC. Last year after the FTC competition we opened up the sale of the Beacons as we had a few left over after the season. At this time I don't know if we will open up the sale of the IR Beacons to everyone after the season.

Gus
HiTechnic

[HaWe]

why not?
won't you like to earn money?

[mightor]

why not?
won't you like to earn money?

Maybe manufacturing costs are high and the target audience small. In other words, not a very attractive product to keep a large stock of.

- Xander

[mattallen37]

I can't imagine that it costs too much at all to make, especially in bulk. It doesn't even have a case.

[alpharhino]

Luckily my Dad is an FTC coach, plus I have a brother which knows nothing about programming so I get to play with all of it when the year is over.

[HaWe]

well, you're a lucky guy then, but how will that help us all?