Locking bars and arming up!

[typhoon_driver]

"So rather then locking shut would holding open be a better method with fp flippers that have free floating arms, Robots in the pits all have there manual exhaust valves open until enetering the arena and being armed dont they ? "

Then I might as well not have an LED on my machine because as long as i have a removable link in my hand there is no chance of anything going wrong.

[psycho_fling]

This is something I have also noticed, when near the pen and the flippers are arming up i stand back as there have been numerous occasions of flippers going off and the owners looking sheepish and indicate that their fingers weren't on the controls

so i agree that the rules should be enforced better and the pin removed at the last possible moment

[Shakey]

I completely agree! I have an electric axe feather underway and testing that weapon was scary. It could easily cause serious injury or even kill. Remember guys we design these machines to punch, rip and shred metal or to fling 13.6kg/100kg lumps of metal across the arena, beating a human is a cakewalk for our machines. There is no excuse not to have a locking bar, they aren't difficult to make and in my opinion should only be removed at the very last moment as the robot is entering the arena.

I have done a lot of rifle shooting in the past and in my eyes a feather with the link in and no locking bar on its active weapon is as bad as a loaded rifle with the safety off.

[beast]

ok I was not going to say any thing on this (because I dont use a locking bar when gassing up )

when I gas up the flipper, it can fire at any time as we know, a loaded gun someone said yes I agree and I don't want to pull any thing out of a loaded gun.
safety 1st I agree both beast and all the beautys are a little different to all the gas robots out there I can get at the co2 valve very easy with no hands in robot as they don't have panels
if when turning the gas on I only turn it a 1/4 as it fills buffer tank and at the worst flipper moves slowly and goes up

I do agree with a 17mm socket being used
I know all robots need to be looked at differently I have spoke to kane and grant and johnno about this and willing to listen
but once a robot is gassed up don't go any where near it not even to pull a bar out but im sure wen can have a discussion any time.

[adz600]

i agree with all the safety ideas, just thinking that locking open has less risk possibly then locking shut. If fired with pin shut how do we say that the locking device is strong enough for that amount of force or even the pivot for that matter, locking open would allow the ram for fire freely but with no effect, your arm would never be deep inside the robot over the ram when arming up or shouldnt be. Like maelstrom just requires pulling out on a rope and the arm falls shut, possible trap point but kept at arms reach is very safe, might use this idea on ceros as there is no locking device yet, not got that far into the build.

[beast]

if it fires yes it will be hard to get the bar out you just un fire but if the valve is passing you have to dump the gas


the device strong enough depends on welds etc and some of the welds I have seen are a bit poor and would never pass a weld test

locking up I realy don't like that idear at all.

[Max]

Just to add to the discussion- I have had problems with both of my spinners where I have powered it up with the locking pin in, it turned out that the motor was actually turned on! So it burnt out the motors which was annoying. If I hadn't had the pin in I woul have seen it start to spin and could have just ripped out the link immediately.
Although it could be argued that it was a good job I had the bar in otherwise it would start spinning and could hurt someone, so I am not really sure what my point is!!

[typhoon_driver]

Don't EVER bother turning on a spinner without a restraining device in there. You can buy new motors, you can't buy new fingers, limbs etc

John you of all people should be using the correct restraining devices being someone that has been in the sport for years.

[Bacon Wizard]

Someone was telling me on my build thread:

"I'd gladly take a shotgun to any of my bots"

And yet there are bots out there with weapons that scare the crap out of you, yes?

There ya go then.

[widow_twanky]

IMO it does depend on the robot, method of turning the bottle on, position of the valves etc.

The way hydra, dantomkia and rattler are built with access to the side for arming etc means they can fire all they like, if you aren't in line it's not a problem. The only one which moves is rattler and the gas key puts you well out of the way anyway. A misfire happened at the 02 with no issue on rattler (then disturbed). They are designed to be armed this way. They will also not turn themselves over if they misfire.

That said there is absolutely no way I would arm Diablo without a locking bar in it. The valve is in the robot and it throws itself all over the place when it fires, it would be simply suicidal to take the same approach.