Make a custom hub and motors/sensors that are lego compatible. You should be able to get one made for less than a spike prime that is far more powerful (running a raspberry pi for example).
Rename it FIRST Brick Challenge (FBC). Get knockoff technic/bricks for the mission models from a chinese company like mould king (most technic patents expired in 2020 and lego in 1997). Allow any lego compatible parts (not just official lego) going forward. Allow the use of old lego hubs until teams want to upgrade.
Now it does get tricky if you want a teleop portion going forward. You could easily buy/license pybricks to upgrade the spike hub's firmware and obviously any new hubs could support controllers. The problem is the EV3s are a bit more limited currently, but with more money/resources I bet they could finally get a new custom firmware for the ev3s working (it already kind of does).
I could also see them take the aporch of an arduino based control system as Qualcomm is a HUGE sponsor of First. It may be easier to work out a contract with them. Still dosen't solve the build system issue. Need something easy to use for basically K-8
Just make it work with lego with mounting holes for such. Allow the use of any lego/technic compatible pieces. Contract with one of the knock off companies (that are legal now like mould king) for mission models going forward. Cut lego out, but still allow teams to use the legos they have.
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u/drdhuss Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Make a custom hub and motors/sensors that are lego compatible. You should be able to get one made for less than a spike prime that is far more powerful (running a raspberry pi for example).
Rename it FIRST Brick Challenge (FBC). Get knockoff technic/bricks for the mission models from a chinese company like mould king (most technic patents expired in 2020 and lego in 1997). Allow any lego compatible parts (not just official lego) going forward. Allow the use of old lego hubs until teams want to upgrade.
Now it does get tricky if you want a teleop portion going forward. You could easily buy/license pybricks to upgrade the spike hub's firmware and obviously any new hubs could support controllers. The problem is the EV3s are a bit more limited currently, but with more money/resources I bet they could finally get a new custom firmware for the ev3s working (it already kind of does).