Dropbox

Dropbox is a free service that stores files in the cloud. We use it to store and share important files, like Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), invoices, bill of material (BOM) information, etc. Dropbox has really great software, and once it's installed the shared folders just appear as a regular folder on your own device.

We encourage any of our students, mentors, and parents to sign up to see these shared files. The only reason we're not making them (all) public is that some files (especially invoices) have personally identifiable information.

(We could use GitHub.com to also store and share files (we do that with some files), but it's generally more difficult to use than Dropbox. We tend to use GitHub for things we want to make public or link from public pages or sites.)

Setting it up

Everyone will use their own free Dropbox account to share the team's files.

The first step is to send an email to "frc4931 at gmail dot com" with your name. We'll then send you an invitation for Dropbox (we get an extra 500MB of free storage with every person that signs up using our invitation!) and a second invitation to see the team's files.

Follow the link in the email from Dropbox and just complete the signup process. Dropbox is free, but they'll offer some paid upgrades -- you only need the free option.

After signing up, Dropbox will encourage you to download their software. We recommend that you do this, because their software really makes it easy to use Dropbox from your own device's operating system. Once you install the software, Dropbox will create a "Dropbox" folder on your file system (the exact location is specific to your operating system) that automatically synchronizes with your Dropbox account. Just then just use your computer's operating system to view, copy/paste, or move files into the "Dropbox" folder or any folder underneath it. That's it!

When you click on the link in the second invitation email to share our team's files, your "Dropbox" folder will automatically contain a folder called "FRC4931", and that folder will be our team's area. If you don't see this,

You can install the Dropbox software on other devices, and once you log in they all see the same stuff. And you can even log into your Dropbox account in a web browser and see all your files and folders.

Our shared files

At this time we've set up this folder structure:

+ FRC4931
   + 2014
      + Invoices
      + MSDS
      + BillOfMaterial

The Invoices folder is where we keep a copy of all invoices of ordered material so that we have an accurate record of how much things cost. We may also start scanning in receipts for local stores. All this information will be used to compute the cost of our robot. FIRST requires and will check at each competition an accurate cost breakdown of the robot (excluding items from the standard kit of parts).

The BillOfMaterial folder is where we keep information about all materials and parts that were used on our robot. FIRST requires that everything used on the robot adheres to their requirements. For example, FIRST requires that all pneumatics solenoids be rated for a certain maximum pressure, so any solenoid rated at a higher pressure cannot be used on the robot. FIRST requires and will likely ask at each competition for information about every part used on the robot.

The MSDS folder is for storing electronic Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for all materials. These sheets provide proper handling instructions and safety information. FIRST requires that we provide an MSDS for all materials used on our robot.

Note: The actual robot BOM (including quantities and prices) should be done on a spreadsheet. The above files are required as proof that the price information in the spreadsheet is accurate.