good event, shame Alpha wasnt at its best but still did well. Well done RIP (again, you wait till next time :P)
Best food so far at an event!
115 flips in one fight, and we only used half the gas! :)
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good event, shame Alpha wasnt at its best but still did well. Well done RIP (again, you wait till next time :P)
Best food so far at an event!
115 flips in one fight, and we only used half the gas! :)
Just managed to pull myself out of bed :-)
First off a huge thank you to all of you (stus mentioned just about everyone i can think of).
We were overwhelmed and honered by the fantastic response right through from opnening applications to attend, to the event itself. Weve learnt a huge amount about running events on a bigger scale than we have before, and despite certain staff shortages (jas :-p ) I think we just about managed :-).
Were already in talks for an even bigger event next year, so things are looking good on that front. The last 2 Inspires and featherweight smashes have more than proved that Featherweights make great entertainment to a live audience, so, as Ewan said, we can hopefully look forward to a lot more featherweight events in the future.
All in all I had a great time, and hope you did too, and a big thanks for putting up with the various re-arrangements of some of the fights to accomodate for other machines having problems. Many thanks,
Eddy
another superb smash.
thanks to every one who came and all the antweight teams that made it here.
the event would have been brilliant had tx control not let it down. looking forward to doign the smash 05
Stu and Ed, thanks for having us. It was a great day out and I thourghly enjoyed it.
Mike.
Hang on a sec. Chris, what problem with TX control? as usual they were very efficent. If you are refreing to the frequency clash problems with the feathers, that was not their fault. May I sugest with all due respect that 1), Did the antweights check the frequency table on the featherweights.org site? (Please note that FRA rule 4.6 very clearly states that all teams MUST have AT LEAST 3 altenitive RX & TX crystal sets available) & 2) The ants take advantage of the altenitive frequency available under FRA rule 4.1 I quote..
Rule 4.1
All Featherweights, Lightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight & Superheavyweight robots MUST use VHF frequency band 40 MHz..........Antweight robots are permitted to use the VHF frequency band 27MHz
Maybe when the ants share an event with other weights that they take advantage rule 4.1 In fact, I itend to propose that this be made a mandatory change to the rules at the next FRA meeting, as it would certainly be an easy way to eliminate the kind of problems we saw yesterday.
I done a report... see http://www.micro-maul.co.ukhttp://www.micro-maul.co.uk
Hey Hey - cool it.
It was not the ants fault.
FeatherWeights.org would like to and still are working very close with Ant Weights. We try and get the ant weights in the action and did so in the afternoon to keep the public happy, and we tried to make somthing big with the 3rd place play off and final of the Ant Weights.
Lets no point the blame at anyone - if anything it wmay have been my fault in placing TX control so far away from the ant weights. Something for us to fix for next year.
But the main mmm well not problem but ISSUE was that there was dobule the amount of ant weights this year, and 50% more feather weights. That was the problem.
also the other problem we have at our events which you dont get at normal Roaming Robots events, is that we had 2 arenas on the go with alot of robots. I think we did pretty damn well, and Angie at TX control was doing a great job, even more than she was asked, as she kept going to the ant weight area to get txs etc. She did a fab job.
please dont point blame at anyone - we all worked together in the end, and sorted the problem, something for us to learn from in the future. Chris that comment was out of order. it was not a big issue- just a delay on the Ant Weight fights. sadly we need the feathers running all the time as they Were the show. Ant Weights were filling in the spaces, and the ant weight roboteers understand that is what they are doing at a BIG event like that. hence why you only see about 6 ants at Roaming Robots events as there is no time for ants, its heavies and feathers in the big arena all the time.
But it went well, everyone was happy.
It went well, and we look forward to the 2005 event.
Mr Stu
http://www.FeatherWeights.org>
OK all,
Sorry, no offence intened to our antweight friends, it was just that I saw just how hard Angie was working, the poor girl didnt have chance to draw breath! (She was moaning that she only got to see one fight all day!!)
Like Stu, I Was just a little un happy with Chriss comment. Chris, Im quite happy to accept that it was badly worded rather than a direct complaint about TX cont.
I was thinking, Is there any merit in this question of ants using 27MHz when compeating at the same time as the 40MHz guys?
Im not an ant builder, but I would be more than happy to have your or any other ant builders opinions on how practical it would be.
Lets not allow a misunderstanding to spoil what was a bloody good event.
Im not sure if this is feasable but with regard to the antweights here are my thoughts.
1. There is no point in trying to get the ants onto 27mhz because most people have invested in 40Mhz equipment. Although I appreciate that some ants do run on 27Mhz.
2. The solution would be to ensure that all ants CAN change their crystals in say a couple of minutes.
3. For all roaming Robot and Featherweight.org events four frequencies could be allocated to the ants for the duration of the event. The same four frequencies would be used at every event in the future. Crystals could be made available by the event organiser.
I appreciate there are a few little hurdles to get over, like deciding what frequencies, and the issue over transmitters with single or dual conversion. But it should be a workable solution.
Any antweights who use 27Mhz could continue doing so, and those on 40megs could use the four standard issue crystals available at every event. (If they want to invested in their own set of the nominated crystals..thats their choice)
My suggestion is 40,685,785,885,& 985.
Antweight roboteers could continue using whatever frequencies they want at Antweight only events like the AWS.
Featherweight and Heavyweight roboteers would have to respect and avoid the above four frequencies in the future.
Any comments welcome.
Ian
B:):)BED on the frequencies.
I meant to say 40.685,40.695,40.705,40.715
Ian
no no wat i was saying that in the morning it was very hectic and there were lots of clashes
it was better in the afternoon.
saying it was tx control is not true. it was the fact that in the morning session alot of the antweight (who had feathers) were fighting and there were lots of clashes.
i can understand that in the morning all the mellees etc happend so alot of freq were taken.
i was very manic and half awake in the morning and didnt really know wat was goign on which was probally why i thought it was bad.
looking back at it wasnt tx controls fault but jus the vast number of robots :P
anyway im sorry if i was getting at people.
but back to wat geoff was saying
all antweights follow that rule but there wasnt
and yes i did check the freqs off the site and did extra emails to the antweight roboteers to conferm there freqs i then did ant clash sheet which was fine.
the thing is like you said
yes people did chaneg there frequencies which affected the frequencie tables so it was harder.Quote:
Please note that FRA rule 4.6 very clearly states that all teams MUST have AT LEAST 3 altenitive RX & TX crystal sets available
but freq were very good its just it was quite frustrating in the morning session when we couldnt have any battles.
however it didnt spoil the day and the ants finished in good time with the feathers.
again sorry
oo jus read wat ian said
me and my dad had that exact same discussion in the car and thought it would be a very good idea
We had a sort of the same idea, just i didint continue with it as i didnt think i had the right to say Ant Weights you can use the freqs between so and so and so and so for our event thought id treat everyone equally. But as we found out, something a bit more major needs to be done.
And above sounds all cool.
Mr Stu
And peace returns to the ant/feather commnities :proud:
Ian, I like that idea, may be worth some further thought. Try posting it in FRA safety and lets see what responce it gets.
Yeah good idea. Something is being mentioned at the FRA meeting about Ants and TX Control i have herd, so we will see what has to be said and whats donea bout it at the next meeting.
Mr Stu
FeatherWeights.org Crew
I like the surgestion Ian but if i could just make a surgestion. I sugest 40.665 be one of the antweight frequencies as 99.9% of antweight builders have this frequency and as most starter sets come with 40.665/40.675/40.685 i think that these frequencies would be most suited to ants.
Having said that i really should say that from an antweight point of view At alot of events we are really knocked around. Admittedly people pay the money to see the Big boys fight but we should not just be a side show.
When I ran my event in Ireland i held the AWS and i also had Big Brother on demo. People have not stopped asking me about antweights since. They are becommign more and more popular over here as we can travel to england with them easily. If antweights were used to their fullest potential then between each featherweight/heavyweight fight (while robots are taken out and new ones put in) antweights could be used to fill this void.
I dont know what other people think but thats my surgestion
Regards
Ian
Just dont pick 40.685,40.695,40.705,40.715... They all happen to be the crystals Ive got! :sad:
Firstly, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS !!! RIP RULZ !! Æ’º
Big thanks, and well done to Stu and co, superb event, great atmosphere, some nice ideas, great tactical fights, and ermmm, loads of food yummy !!!
For me to install the arena and become a roboteer, was just superb, made a nice change to let someone else have the stress for once.
Something that we are seriously working on, is incorporating the ant weights into our events, primarily into our winter tour to run throughout the day in-between the other battles.
I have looked into the possibility of allocating certain frequencies to certain weight classes. And now I have all the information about which roboteers use which frequencies I will be able to suggest a solution.
Jonno
http://www.roamingrobots.co.ukwww.roamingrobots.co.uk
There we go, lease Feather Weight Smash 2004 helped you then for future events, and our future events.
Champions - hmmm your winning too much, i think i need new judges.
For me to install the arena and become a roboteer, was just superb, made a nice change to let someone else have the stress for once.
Yeah Thanks - i love stress. EEEK!! Mega stressful in the morning. And that talk to all the roboteers in the morning - god i wanted to just crawl under a rock and hide.
Mr Stu
I think we have to look at the video again stu there must have been some colusion with the judges and how much did it cost to win :) Jonno
well done Stu and the gang and jonno
we are the champs my !!!!
I would love to see the Semi Final fight with DTK again.
Mike.
Im sure someone has it on video for you to watch, but if you can wait - there will be CD of all fights coming out soon, with most fights being mixed between 3 camera angles. And i can 100% say the Semi Final Fights do have 3 angles on them. Should be decent.
Mr Stu
Cant wait to see the 3 camera angles of Alpha running away from Cutlet for most of the fight.
Nice driving Alan....but lets have a fight next time!
Ian
(Noooooooooooooo Im not bitter!)
Well done Jonno - flip-arama!!
(Afraid i dont do yellow t-shirts though)
Had great fun at this event, and was kept well busy. Thanks Adam with the hammer help - got a bit carried away there didnt you mate.
A good fun day :-)
Cheers
PK
Running away, not much else i can do! :)
I would like to see the DTK/Pimp Semi again as well, i could of beat a 3 wheeled PIMP in the playoff!
I think that if the 4 frequencies for ants is to be implemented, it will need some statistical analysis of which frequency crystals are used most by ants, and which combinations feather builders have. I currently only have two sets of crystals for my future feather (having been advised that Ill probably never need 3 as long as I have an unusual one), and Ive seen both of mine suggested as ant only freqs by different people :sad: so maybe someone would like to do said analysis and see which four would be most suitable.
Cheers
-- Kev
i am doing one, now i have all the information of who uses what frequencies for all weight classes.
Jonno
Well just to add to your list - my soon-to-be-bot (feather) will use 40.665 and 40.695 unless someone says it cant :)
-- Kev
First I would just like to say that the event in general was very good and that any problems with frequency clashes should not be blamed on those actually running the TX control who as has been stated above worked extremely hard. The problem as I see it from a slightly biased ANT weight perception is that there seems to be an inbuilt priority in robot competition which is directly proportional to the weight of the robot. I notice from the posts above that all the changes and restrictions are aimed the ants and none at the feathers. I can understand that the main part of the event had to be the feathers to keep the paying audience happy. But when in desperation we decided to run as much of our event in the lunch hour and I was just about to fight when my transmitter was taken back just so a feather who had turned up late could be tech checked I did feel a little agrieved. Also if one of the suggestions above which as I understand it is proposing to get the FRA to limit antweights 27Mhz is adopted I for one will be leaving post haste.
This was a great event, well done to all involved. Battles were great, food was great (nice pasties), the hammer was fun (more power next time).
We got to try Micro Mute 2 in both 4 wheel drive and 2 wheel drive (stupid stretchy chains), 4 wheel drive was much better. Some nice looking new feathers, thought odeon or odin or odo was robbed in the spinner frenzy.
Adam
Peter,
There is no proposal before the FRA to limit ants to 27MHz. It was mearly one of several sugestions that have been floated.
There is some talk of allocating certain 40MHz frequencies to certain weight classes to avoid conflict when more than one weight class are compeating at the same event.
But at ant only events you will still be free to use any 40MHz (or 27MHz) frequency you want.
Hope that clears things up a little for you.
Geoff.
P.S. Adam, Odin is a damn fine machine..But robbed!!...I dont think so!!
(But then of course I would say that, wouldnt I!) :proud:
Im sorry you felt that way peter,
but as you said, the Feather Weights were putting the show on, and needed to be tech checked and in the arena to fight. If the feathers were not running - then the public would have complained and demand ticket refunds and all sorts. And to bite the bullet - the event was called Feather Weight Smash 2004. It was clear from the start that ant weights would be gap fillers and run if they can get the frequencys they needed.
But i admit it was getting a bit silly in the morning, and when finally i was told about it from Chris and Craig - i sorted it with TX control by giving set times between Feather Fights for just ant weights then all was fine. It was just due to the LARGE amount of feather weight battles needed to take part in the morning to one put on the show, and two, to get ready for the semi finals etc for the afternoon.
The ant weights sorted most of their battles in the 1 hour lunch gap. It took 3 hours to get the feathers ready for the Quarter finals.
So sadly when its mentioned people are biassed on the size and weight of the robots- well thats because they need more time, space, safety concern etc.
But im happy to admit - it might have been my fault in placing TX control too far away from the ant weights, which was a big part of the problem. In future this will not happen, and all will be fine. Please dont get upset over something little. Like was asid above, TX control Angie and Rach did a great job!!! We all live and learn.
Mr Stu
Re: Ants. Our original intention was to run ants in exactly the same way as we did at the smash in August- which was a success and provided an excellent balance. However, probably due largely to us, we didnt anticipate the problems that would arise with such a large increase in robots from last year to this year.
I can sympathise with the ants. I spent my first 3 years of robot wars building ants. With that in mind i was fairly keen that ants would not be as sidelined as they traditionally have been. That paid off in August. On Saturday, I was meant to be doing a lot more with the ants than I was able to, due to the unfortunate incident with Jass car giving up the ghost, so I was fairly preoccupied trying to sort out the feathers. After Stu and I discussed the situation over lunch, we decided that, with things quietening down on the feather side, I could spend more time helping with the ants, and we organised some more firm times for antweight battles as Stu mentioned. Thankfully things got going in the afternoon, climaxing in a great final that everyone enjoyed (especially Andrew and Mike driving the antweight tornado and dantomkia against each other :-).
We will be discussing heavily, in our de-brief, how we are going to make ants a much bigger thing (as Jonno has already mentioned). I admit I rather naively hoped that the ants would run as well as they did last year, without so much input from us. But as they say:
Experience is something you dont get until just
after you need it.
Sufficed to say that next year, with such positive feedback from the various people in mayoral bling, we will hope to have an excellent feather and ant competition lined up. With the forthcoming launch of antweight.com- a sister site to featherweights.org- we are moving towards an organisation more representative and embracive of all the smaller weight classes. We have learnt an enormous amount about running events, and thank you all for your feedback- it is invaluable in helping us improve our event formula, and with the experience weve gained over the last 2 events, we are acquiring a fairly sturdy knowledge and experience base which we can build on for future events. As the not-so-great Take-That! once said: Things can only get better!
Report up: http://www.teammad.co.ukhttp://www.teammad.co.uk - go events then Feather weight smash.
Eddy,
It was D_Ream not Take that!
And as for the frequency thing...awe never mind, just give me another early 90s music quiz question! better still, the 80s
Ian
(Showing his age)
Ian u punker why u know popy crap like that :o
Report also up on http://www.ukrobotics.comhttp://www.ukrobotics.com - see LiveEvents/2004/FeatherweightSmash
Dominic
OK, 80s it is then Ian!...Theres a band playing on the radio, with the rhythm of rhyming guitars... Song title and artist please. Bonus point for the year! :)
My God.
80s Music - arrrgh.
Mr Stu
And your problem with 80s music is...? :proud: