Powering up weapons

At the last few events I have seen that a large number of roboteers are powering up robots with weapons (such as flippers) in the down position. A few times now when powering up flippers they have fired, so far we have been lucky that no one is in the way. I think that every robot with an active weapon should be powered up with the weapon held in fired position by a support and a number of people seem to agree with this. Why is this not checked at events?

i agree alot safer

David,
You have raised a very valid point there.
Maybe its somthing that needs to be looked at for inclusion in the FRA safety doument.
e-mail me, and lets see if we can come up with a form of words that covers it.

Geoff.

David

Not having attended many events I cant say that weve ever noticed this problem. Although weve never had any problems with firing whilst arming and also Weird Alice may not be rated by many people as one of the most powerful flippers, but being that it is full bottle pressure and when it does work properly it scares the hell out of me, we always have and always will arm it in up position. Ultimately each team must take responsibilty for there own safety.

Regards

Ian
Team Weird Alice
http://www.weirdalice.co.ukwww.weirdalice.co.uk

A valid point david and perhaps the activation order should be looked at.

IIRC (cant find it on the new site):
Tx on.
Rx on.
Remove locking pins (unless weapon is locked in fired position in which case this is done last).
Link in.

Now to me that seems wrong. I thought the whole idea of a locking pin was to provent the thing from moving if it accidentally fires. But if they are out before the link goes in then surely there no use.

Have I got teh order wrong or have i miss interprited the use of locking pins?

Regards
Ian

For some RC setups the Rx has to go one first. I dont think we can set a fixed order. But maybe as part of the tech-check the roboteer who activates the robot should demonstrate the order. The weapon doesnt have to be in the fired posistion, but as long as it cant move if activated. The locking/holding device shouldnt be removed until the robot is fully powered up and in a stable state.

We need to turn on the Rx first as well so that when the Tx is turned on it sends the failsafe info quickly, then when the link is placed the weapon usually activates for a split second (dont know why) but for us thats not a problem.

Ive seen this happen a few times as well David and people need to be more careful. For flippers that power both ways I certainly would not like to put my hand in and remove the locking bar, much safer using electric :) but Im not too clued up on the gas rules.

David, I strongly disagree in the case of M2 and have previosuly failed to get the FRA to realise that not all robots are the same and that the arming sequence varies. Whats safe for one bot may not be for the next. The last thing I remember on the subject was my suggesting that every team should have their arming up sequence in print. This could form part of the tech check to show that the team has considered a safe system, all they need to do then is follow it.

Paul

We arm Mute as follows
RX
Wait for fail safes to transmit
TX
Gas On
Link in
Remove locking pins (Mute front flipper is locked in fire postion)
When door is locked plug in buddy box

This weekend a lot of bots seemed to be have trouble with interference, but with no way of telling what frequences are on we will never know what was going on

I would not consider ever removing Tauruss locking pins if the flipper was active.
Each robot is differant, and the method of securing flippers can also vary.