AMB-IT TranX260 Transponders

[BStoney]

All:

I put a call in this morning regarding the transponders that we are required to provide for the US competitions. I had to leave a message, but I am inquiring on the possibilities of a "group-buy" or a price break for the units (since nearly all of our teams will have to buy a unit). I will keep everyone posted when I hear back from AMB.

Later,

[Steve Yao]

No word? I thought I saw them for ~$350 somewhere. ..

[BStoney]

I haven't heard anything back yet. I am following up tomorrow (Monday) and will post what I find...

[BStoney]

OK, here's what I know as of this afternoon:

They are checking into what kind of price break they can give all of the teams, being that almost 150 teams or more would be purchasing a unit. The guy I talked to there is checking into the possibilities with the powers that be at AMB-IT. I will post something as soon as I hear back. I would recommend NOT ordering your transponder yet, as I think we'll be able to get a good break. Post up here if you are interested in this opportunity.

[Patrick W. Crane]

University of Victoria is in.

[Brian Perry]

McMaster University is interested.

Brian Perry
McMaster Racing Club

[Timmay!]

99.9% sure we will be in... (Old Dominion)

[Biggy72]

washington state is in.

[John Hunt]

Florida is in

John Hunt
UFSAE, Treasurer
www.gatormotorsports.com (http://www.gatormotorsports.com)

[Kerry]

Count Drexel in, too.

[lporter]

RPI is definitly in

[Matt Gignac]

McGill's in.

Matt Gignac
McGill Racing Team

[Sathersc]

Discount? yes please.

[Andy K]

I'm going to say that I'm tentatively in as I have yet to speak with our FSAE faculty advisor.

[Zanini]

Toronto is in.

Daniel
University of Toronto Formula SAE Racing

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

Are these required?
What other prices have people seen?
what was wrong with the ones they gave us?

[mario_rbr]

We are is interested, more info please...

[Bill Kunst]

Originally posted by drivetrainUW-Platt:
Are these required?
What other prices have people seen?
what was wrong with the ones they gave us?

Mike,
In the rules they state that the American competitors must supply their own. Get in on this deal, it won't get any better than this.
Bill

[Bowtie Man]

University of Manitoba will almost definitely be in.

Luc

[LU-Bolton]

Lehigh is in.

[JerryLH3]

USF will most likely be in. Any time we can save money is a good time for me.

[raska]

UBC

[Rocket]

Toledo is interested

[BStoney]

All:

AMB is still getting their stuff together and figuring out how we can work out the best price etc. I will have a call into them tomorrow to follow up after I talked to them last Tuesday.

Regards,

[Jersey Tom]

Colorado, Boulder - check.

[John Valerio]

Queen's is in.

[Erich Ohlde]

University of Kansas - Lawrence
We are definatly in.

[Tony K]

Colorado State University is always up for saving a bit of money... we have to offset the carbon cost somehow.

[David M]

University of Evansville is interested as well.

David Mills
Aces Racing
http://csserver.evansville.edu/~formulasae/

[DH]

Alberta is in.

[BStoney]

OK, I have finally gotten details from AMB.

They are willing to do wholesale pricing for us on the transponders, but they need to have them purchased via one order to make things go smoothly. Basically, I am willing to coordinate the order and distribute transponders if you are down with that. I am going to try to push for individual sales for each university still, but this is where we stand now.

Pricing without shipping/handling is as follows:

AMB-IT TranX260
- Rechargeable Unit - $365 retail / $315 wholesale (includes charging cradle & both AC/DC power adapters for cradle)
- Direct Powered Unit - $325 retail / $280 wholesale (12V, draws <40mA)

I think I can probably do most shipping, etc for less than $10 per transponder, but that is just a guess right now.

PLEASE EMAIL ME @ benjamin.stoneyATgmail.com expressing your firm interest. Thanks.

[John Hunt]

How do you plan on accepting payments? Paying non-approved vendors (ebay etc...) through the University is like pulling teeth.

John Hunt
Treasurer, UFSAE
www.gatormotorsports.com (http://www.gatormotorsports.com)

[BStoney]

PayPal will be the most effective, but I know it's a major pain to do that through some, if not all Universities. I am trying to work it out with AMB to accept individual payments, as it logistically will be much much easier.

[BStoney]

OK, here is the deal. I worked it out with AMB to have them accept payment from each university. I am waiting on the order form and will post here when I receive it. At that point, each university will be able to fax that into AMB and pay direct to AMB, as opposed to other onofficial payment methods.

Hopefully I'll have this form in my hands the first of the week.

No need to email me anymore at this point.

Thanks!

[Dan Nauts]

Originally posted by BStoney:
OK, here is the deal. I worked it out with AMB to have them accept payment from each university. I am waiting on the order form and will post here when I receive it. At that point, each university will be able to fax that into AMB and pay direct to AMB, as opposed to other onofficial payment methods.

Hopefully I'll have this form in my hands the first of the week.

No need to email me anymore at this point.

Thanks!

Is there a "window of opportunity" here? We'd like to get in on the purchase, but are little short as of yet.

[BStoney]

Shouldn't be any "window", but I will know more when I receive the order form sometime this week.

[Denny E.]

So which are people choosing, direct wire or rechargable? Has anybody been able to pin down the weight difference between them?

-Denny

[BStoney]

Direct Powered - approx. 70 grams = 0.154 lbs
Rechargable - approx. 120 grams = 0.265 lbs

...however, I don't know if the Direct Powered weight is including the wiring harness or not...

[damonlemmon]

UC San Diego will take an order form.

[DRTorkay]

Cal Poly Pomona is in.

[Jon_Dal]

Dalhousie will also take an order form

[Timmay!]

ODU will take one as well...

if you're e-mailin them out... tberr002 at odu.edu please http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[BStoney]

Ok:

Here are the details, and please read these completely before sending anything to AMB.

Please email: hector@amb-us.com
SUBJECT: TranX260 Formula SAE Purchase

In your email, please reference the "Formula SAE Transponder Wholesale Purchase" & include:

-Contact Information (including school/university)
-Billing Contact
-Payment Method (DO NOT INCLUDE PAYMENT INFO/CREDIT CARD #, ETC AT THIS TIME)
-Shipping Address
-Specify if you want Direct Powered or Rechargeable Unit

That should do it.

Regards,

[Arturo Mendieta J]

Hi B

I would like to know if you have a deadline to send to U the transponder's purchase information, also I would like to know about the shippng to México and my last question is about which unit (Direct Powered or Rechargeable one) is the best option for the competition

Thank U

[BStoney]

Arturo:

Payment and shipment is going to be handled directly through AMB. The guy's name is Hector, and he is really helpful, so if in doubt give him a call if you prefer not to email (+1 877 468 7269, Ext. 307). He is based out of Atlanta I believe.

In my opinion, the Direct Powered is the best option if you don't completely hardwire it in. Basically, what I mean is use a Delphi Packard WeatherPack or Deutsch sealed connector that would be the same on each car from this point forward. That way, the transponder becomes a plug and play system that you can take from car to car very easily. (That is, if you keep cars running from year to year.)

Also, for Cincy, I know that if we had a rechargeable unit, the charging dock would eventually get lost somewhere in the black-hole of an office we sometimes end up having by the end of competition each year.

[cmeissen]

Kansas State is in also. How long will this price be good for?

[JerryLH3]

Has anyone heard from Hector? When I sent an email, I got an auto reply stating he was out of the office then I never heard anything back. Just wondering if I should resend or if he's just busy.

[raska]

I sent an email late sunday night/early monday morning got the same email and have not heard back. I figured if he was away he probably had some catching up to this week and this was in line. I'd wait for another week anyways but anybody who hears from him let us know.

[Mike Cook]

Any word on this>?

[JerryLH3]

I've sent it twice now. I'll probably try calling later this week. See if I can get ahold of the guy that way.

[Erich Ohlde]

I emailed a couple of weeks ago and didn't get anything but the autoreply either

[JerryLH3]

I just called him a minute ago. He is working on making a pdf that he will send out to all teams that have requested to be in the group buy. After that, we can fill out the form so he can enter all the info in a database. He said we should receive that form in the next day or so.

[Savage396]

Just caught this thread today. Texas Tech University is definately interested as well.

Email is michael.t.savage@ttu.edu

Michael Savage
Texas Tech-FSAE
Engine Team

[BStoney]

Originally posted by Savage396:
Just caught this thread today. Texas Tech University is definately interested as well.

Email is michael.t.savage@ttu.edu

The post a few above yours has the instructions on what you should do to order.


Ok:

Here are the details, and please read these completely before sending anything to AMB.

Please email: hector@amb-us.com
SUBJECT: TranX260 Formula SAE Purchase

In your email, please reference the "Formula SAE Transponder Wholesale Purchase" & include:

-Contact Information (including school/university)
-Billing Contact
-Payment Method (DO NOT INCLUDE PAYMENT INFO/CREDIT CARD #, ETC AT THIS TIME)
-Shipping Address
-Specify if you want Direct Powered or Rechargeable Unit

That should do it.

Regards,

[SURFER1316]

Rutgers will almost definately be in. We were actually talking about this last night.I think anyway we can save a few bucks will help all teams. Are these federal funding cuts screwing you guys as much as they are us?

[JerryLH3]

Originally posted by SURFER1316:
Are these federal funding cuts screwing you guys as much as they are us?

No.

[Ian McMurdo]

Has anybody received their transponder yet?

[Zanini]

yup, close to over 3 months ago.

[Erich Ohlde]

we got ours about a month ago

[Biggy72]

I thought ours was lost too since we paid for it back in September, but it showed up around the 20th of December.

[Cory M]

FYI-

The 160 transponders should be fine for an FSAE car, and they are cheaper than the 260. The 260 is designed for cars so the signal is strong enough to go thru metal etc, the 160 is for karting. FSAE cars are so low that the 160 should work fine with an unobstructed view of the ground. Call AMB to verify this but I think the 260 is overkill and a waste of money...

[BStoney]

All:

Here is part of an email I received from Hector Perez at AMB...Please take note if you still plan to order a transponder from AMB with the FSAE discount.

"I just wanted to let you know that we appreciate all the orders that we have received from Formula SAE members.

Just to inform you AMB will have to place a deadline on the purchase of the transponder. All Formula SAE members must get orders in by Feb. 16, 2007."

Please refer to my previous post for ordering instructions.

[BStoney]

Originally posted by Cory M:
FYI-

The 160 transponders should be fine for an FSAE car, and they are cheaper than the 260. The 260 is designed for cars so the signal is strong enough to go thru metal etc, the 160 is for karting. FSAE cars are so low that the 160 should work fine with an unobstructed view of the ground. Call AMB to verify this but I think the 260 is overkill and a waste of money...

With regard to the model, you should probably clarify this with the rules committee prior to ordering because the rules specifically state the requirement for the 260...

"3.8 Transponders
3.8.1 Transponders – Formula SAE and Formula SAE West
Transponders will be used as part of the timing system for the dynamic events at Formula SAE and Formula SAE West. Each team is responsible for having a functional, properly mounted ransponder of the specified type on their vehicle. Vehicles without a specified transponder will not be allowed to compete in any event for which a transponder is used for timing and scoring.

Note: Transponders may be used for timing and scoring at FSAE Australasia, FSAE Brazil, FSAE Italy and Formula Student and may be provided by the competition organizers. The transponders specified below for Formula SAE and Formula SAE West may or may not be compatible with the systems used for other events. Teams should check the individual competition websites for further details.

3.8.2 Transponder Requirement
All vehicles must be equipped with at least one AMB TranX260 Rechargeable or AMB TranX260 Direct Power transponder.

Regards,

[SDSMTFSAE]

Count South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in...sorry we were a little late but we just now got around to talking about it. Let us know if anything develops about contact information.
Thanks

[Michael Royce]

Just so that everyone is aware, a team did ask the Rules Committee recently whether they could use the AMB TranX 160 transponder. This was the answer:
"We are sorry, but the Rule on this item is specific, and we have to apply the Rules equally to all teams. The TranX 260 is the required transponder. Even though AMB says the TranX 160 should be compatible, there are some caveats."

[Cory M]

Glad to hear the rules commitee is looking out for you guys http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif I guess it's only $85 dollars wasted multiplied by couple hundred teams, you guys don't really need that $17,000 do you?

Most racing clubs have a large supply of rechargeable transponders that they rent at their events for $25 per weekend, too bad FSAE can't do the same.

[Ian McMurdo]

To the above poster, SAE had been providing the transponders for loan free of charge for the last several years. At the West event last year the woman I got the transponder from mentioned something along the lines of: "make sure you get it back to me because a bunch of teams at the East event didn't bother to and its a real pain to track them down". Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why they no longer provide the transponders.

[Cory M]

Seems to me that the loaner program would still work as long as each team gave a credit card deposit for $500, if they don't return the transponder charge them with no exceptions or excuses. Seems to work for every car and karting racing organization... but then again maybe their admins are rocket scientists.

Anyway, what doesn't make sense to me is requiring everyone to buy an expensive 260 transponder when a cheaper 160 will work just as well and is fully compatible with the existing timing equipment. The original intent of my post was to save people like you money, but I guess your team is so well funded that you don't mind wasting $85, suit yourself. It doesn't affect me, I'm an FSAE alumni and ironically I have four AMB 260 transponders sitting in the top drawer of my tool box right now.

[fade]

so now we know where all the missing transponders are http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif