FTC Team Resources

There’s lots of information and help available for FIRST Tech Challenge teams, everything from FTC event results to Preparing for Competitions. Let us know if there are more resources you’d like added to this page, or you can contact us if you have any questions.

• Workshops – videos and slideshows from past workshops.
• Managing a FTC Team – FIRST Team Management Resources page, Event Preparation, Finances/Fundraising, Mentors, including how to start a team.
• Fundraising and Team Grants – includes links to team grant opportunities for BC teams.
• FTC Competition Manual and Resources – official game and season materials, updated to new season after game revealed.
• FIRST Tech Challenge Docs – official documentation site.
• The official FIRST Blog – The FIRST Community blog is the primary source for inspiration and updates about FIRST programs. You can sign up to receive just FTC related posts. You can also sign up for the biweekly FIRST Newsletter, a roundup of posts and other relevant FIRST news and content from FIRST staff.
• Official FTC Discussion Forums
• Official FTC Question and Answer System
• Preparing for Competition (including Robot Inspection Check Lists)
• Engineering Notebook Portfolio (link to section 6 Awards in the competition manual) – A Portfolio is highly recommended for most judged awards at a competition and is required for the top judged awards.

Building FTC Robots

For most FTC starter kits there are “starter bot” build guides. At the top of Robot Building Resources page is a Build Guides section. Most of those guides have been updated for the INTO THE DEEP game.

• Robot Building Resources – official FIRST robot building resources page. There are also sections about hardware in the FTC Docs site.
• Robot Wiring Guide – highly recommended guide to wiring your robot. Teams should follow best practices when wiring their robots. This will help to ensure that the placement, connections, and security of their wires will lead to improved robot performance, eliminate intermittent electrical problems or entanglement issues, and allow for easy troubleshooting and resolution of electrical and/or signal-related problems.
• Legal and Illegal parts – official list in a PDF format file.

Programming FTC Robots

You might want to start with the Choosing a Programming Tool page which describes the three programming options available for FTC robots.

• Robot Programming Resources – official FIRST programming resource page. There are also programming sections in the FTC Docs site. There are tutorials for getting started with programming in Blocks and Java.
• Blocks Programming – official YouTube tutorials.
• Java Programming – official YouTube tutorials.
• INTO THE DEEP Autonomous Programs – local tutorials on getting the robot moving for the INTO THE DEEP season.
• FTC SIM – Learn how to program real robots using a virtual robotics programming platform.
• Centerstage Autonomous Programs – local tutorials on getting the robot moving in autonomous for the CENTERSTAGE season.
• Rover Ruckus Blocks Autonomous Programs – local resource with videos and sample programs.

Here are some sample programs in Blocks that you can copy and learn from. These are Blocks versions of the Java sample program available in OnBot Java or in the Samples folder in Android Studio, but were not available in Blocks. Note: as of the 2024 INTO THE DEEP season these programs are now included as Blocks sample programs that you can just copy when creating a new Blocks program. However, the pages below describe what the programs are doing.

Blocks Sample Programs

Events

Past FTC Season Results and Photos

Click on this link if you are looking for past FTC seasons.