Tech Checkers Conference and training day

Hi all,
The Teck checkers training and conference is to take place at the FRA building in Daventry at 10Am until 5PM latest.


You will need to bring any food and cold drinks with you, tea and coffee will be provided.


Delegates confirmed so far

Dave Moulds and Ed Wallace representing Robots Live

Pete Lale Representing Roaming Robots

James Cooper and Wayne Cummins representing Robochallenge

Karoline Pannell, Geoff Smith, Kane Aston and Andy Kane for the FRA.

Robots in attendance Turbulence, Ploughbot, DB5 and Kan-opener.

The aims are to get a better understanding of the build rules and how to apply them.

It may be that the tech check sheets need to be reworked to meet with current and future standards.

Saturday 9th FEB

I will be there with Robo Challenge also.

i would have gone, but i am in Barnsley doing some pr work for our pending event.

If anyone would like to sign up on my behalf, please email me :)

John

If possible Ill be there too, as DRG member.

(Message edited by maddox on February 05, 2008)

Can we get the address please ? FRA Building in Daventry is not accepted by our TomTom.

the address of a daventry address is on the bottom of this page

http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/meetings/017_13_10_07.pdfhttp://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/meet...7_13_10_07.pdf

i guess its the same one but cant post it here just incase its not

(Message edited by john on February 05, 2008)

Thats where Im going :)

Ill be there for robots live / robochallenge

FRA building address does not exist on most sat nav systems.

Most sat nav systems are a few years out of date with post codes.

Old post code NN11 5RB

Your names on the list dave. Hopefully my new heli will have been delivered for then so leo can show me how its done :lol:

Is it worth coming to see Grant?

ye it is

Probably not lol. Ive never even tried to fly a heli before - and leo has only hovered these types. I might have even broken it testing if it does arrive ontime :lol:

I might come have a quick peek anyway, flew mine into a tree when I first used it, its never been the same!

just take it steady and only hover till you get more confident then try some forward flight,

it will click and you will be using all the 4 channels at the same time in no time

im at the point at hovering inverted and doing pyros ( spinning back end round a few times ) and loops are cool but dont half get ya nervous :)

might be worth getting some of those trainer legs for it...

My satnav got pretty close to the location- it got to the industrial estate, its pretty easy to find it once your in close proximity.

Dave you have me you dont need Satnav.

Ed, your cars screwed in all respect. i was gona suggest ill drive us there lol

:rofl:

Ed,

Have you finished the job on that bit of Ti? If so, can you bring it on Sat please?? :)

So you got Ed to do it in the end - LOL.
Hope you charged Geoff a few astros. LMAO.

Mr Stu

Dave can you fit turb in you car, if not will take my mums, think i can put it on the back seats.

Geoff, yes its done and I will bring it with me.

Stu, first one is a freebie, but i could do with a couple of astros.

Thanks Ed. :)

just ask for a couple of new endbells ed, need some of those :proud:

Incase anyones had the same problem as me, andy posted; Old post code NN11 5RB which i pressume to be a typo.

I couldnt get that one to register in my sat nav, so went onto kanflu and got the addy off the homepage which is Unit A2 Brunel business Park, Drayton Fields Ind Estate, Daventry NN11 8RB

That one works fine.

Yer i had that problem but presumed james new the proper one.
Ive got my heli, flown it a couple of times (well hovered a couple of feet off the floor) and crashed it. Ordered a new gear which i hope will be here before we leave in the morning. Ill bring it along anyway.

Interim report from the tech checkers training day.

Delegates from FRA safety approved event organisers completed a training course on robot technical checking.

The course contained the following

A read through the 2008 build rules with particular emphasis on the changes for 2008 concerning Radio rewrite to incorporate 2.4 GHZ and to clarify pneumatic rule changes for pressure relief valves and their requirements.

In groups-inspect 3 styles of robot. HW, pneumatic and hydraulic and either featherweight pneumatic or featherweight all electric.

It was agreed that certain parts of the tech check sheet would in due course be revised to reflect modern practises.

Also discussed was the fact that for the events so far this year that Roaming Robots and Robots Live have mandated with the backing of the FRA that carrying/ bench cradles be used together with appropriate sharp edge protection on safety grounds.
It would appear that some machines still ignore these safety considerations despite some being given safety equipment by event organisers.

Some machines are still devoid of the fitment of a power light which has been mandatory since 2005.

A collective decision by all the event organiser robot tech checkers endorsed by the FRA executive from TODAY, will no longer sign off as fit for arena use robots that do not satisfy the build rules in respect of

Cradles

Sharp edge protection

Power light fitment.

It was agreed that the tech checkers have a duty of care to you the roboteer and to the event organisers who they are acting for. It is not an easy task for them.

Hopefully from the training a common tech check procedure will be applicable across all events.

just wondered to make things fair can we add that is compulsory that all machines are weighed at every event, whether its a major competition or whatever, i would like to win a trophy one day, even if its not a main competition, but when robots are overweight and not being weighed it is giving a disadvantage to roboteers who are stick to the weight limit at every event.

Thats a fair point adrian - its something you should ask the event organisers for a particular event as some are serious, and some are just for fun, and others abit in between lol.
I will give you a call tommorow regarding your message yesterday - appologies for not getting back to you.

no worries grant, no rush, taking a year out from events to concentrate on new ventures, but will be coming back with a hw in 2009, moving up in weight now and away from feathers. :proud:
will still be following the forum mind, and coming as a spectator to big events for a change.

my question above obviously wont effect me personally until i come back with a new hw i am just talking in general as i know myself and a few others havent been too chuffed in the past
when we missed out on adding extra weight LOL

(Message edited by promo robots on February 09, 2008)

If robots are brand new, and they come to an event to test them out and are overweight, they should be allowed to drive in whiteboards where there is nothing at stake so they can at least dor their checks. But the next event they go to, they must be weighed again and then there is no excuse, you knew it was overweight before so you should have done something about it.

A robot being overweight MUST exclude them from any competition though as it is not fair to other roboteers.

Has this sort of thing happened in the past?

Yes, In both UK heavy and featherweight championships robots have been excluded because of over weight.

For the fighting robots championships the weight limit rules apply and should be enforced rigidly.

For the rest of the year it is mainly entertainment shows with an element of competion.
For these events it is not normal to have a weigh in and quite a few machines are a bit over weight.
I believe this is to withstand the the intensity of the amount of shows per year.

To be in full competion mode every event is unsustainable for most teams.

If weight were to be rigidly enforced for the 14 shows a year the numbers at the shows would decline. Our team would certainly reduce the number of events that we would attend.

This is why we have two machines, one for shows and one for competion.
The show machine has to be built a little heavier to withstand the duty and this enables us to have less maintenance and costs.

That is a good point. But you would not put the show Kan-opener in a competition, which is what Adrian refers to.

the rule should only apply to competition events not every day entertainment events. these entertainment events are a crucial part of building a successful robot and being overweight with added armour helps with longevity. amazingly i have been under weight with envy so i have no worries.

Well, Im not intending to take part in any serious shows, but Ive been building to the 13.6kg. Does this thread mean that people would consider it fair if I went to 15 or 20kg? (Thats not what I want to do by the way).

Surely fairness is important in any sport, even it its not competitive. I understand what Andy is saying about the rigours of competition, but perhaps we need a new weight for non-competitive robots, or a percentage of error.

In any case, if all robots were weighed, then there would be no rumours about a particular robots being massively overweight because everyone would know. And if 42 robots at Leicester is anything too go by, then it seems that FWs are not in danger of decline due to a rule that is clearly stated to everyone being enforced.

Just my thoughts anyway. I know that the tech checks that are carried out are about safety, and that is of primary importance.

Simon

My personal position on this is that you should be able to build a functional robot within the weight limit for that class. In fact its probably the biggest part of the challenge of building a fighting robot... finding the weight to squeeze in all those interesting features and nasty weaponry. It will always remain a choice between fire power and survival ability. If you would allow robots for non-competitive events to be overweight, wont that lead to the first 50-kg featherweight by August ? Just a prediction...

There has to be a limit to being overweight ...
So do we wish to define overweight as far as friendlies go... or do we leave this decision up to the competing Roboteers?

Id like to see the bots weighed as part of Tech checking and then officially marked on the bot... thus giving opportunity for objections to be raised.

my point was that i have a 100kg fully competitave robot ready for full on competition. but if i swap the ali armour for hardox it will be overweight. the initial robot if in competition would weigh 100kg. entertainment part of it would mean hardox panels would make my robot last longer. when the competition comes round then envy would weigh in at 100kg. whats the big deal with that. a 50kg robot would be a middleweight. i am sure roboteers have the sense to build a robot within the weight limits for competition and if said robots weigh more then they simply wont enter competitions.

if there was a rule written in stone that your robot wont be able to come to events and play because its 2kg overweight due to an extra bit of armour then i wont play in whiteboards. event organisers better get their hand in their pockets and provide sufficient prize money for my robot to do competitions all the time. a small trophy made from plastic wont be enough reward for my robot to enter white boards if i am not allowed a little extra armour

i am ranting. event organisers need robots to attend events or there wouldnt be a show for them. if they want 100kg robots and thats it, then make it worth while for robots to take damage at their events.

the uk champs has always been and worth doing for the prizes involved. 100kg robots can battle all they like in white board fights. ME....i would like the option to add extra armour to put on a show.

competition fights 100kg. defo
entertainment. event organisers descretion