I do have concerns. As Jonno said it will only take one incident, and that will be it, they would just get banned on the spot, so anybody running them would be stuffed, and thats best case scenario.

I disagree regarding featherweights being in more extreme conditions.

If they were to come in as a legal source, before attending any event the tema must declare what setup they are using. I can just see people buying cheap ebay packs and throwing them in a heavyweight.

As for the argument that all betteries have a risk, of course they do, but in 10years i haven't seen a single lead acid battery fail in any sort of dangerous way. When NiCads/NiMhs go up, they just smoke and can be got outside quickly. The issue is the LiPos produce a flame, this is a risk to everybody and to equipment/arenas/venues.

As for Big Nipper running the tests, they started at the beginning of the year, and at the end of the year it will be passed to the FRA whether they want to put them in the rules or not. I agreed to them allowing to test the LiPos as they were looking for new batteries and were willing to spend the money on them and run the tests. They are a team that have used Lipos for many years in the featherweights (and in probably the most extreme FWs). Big Nipper is an ideal robot to test them as they have a high power usage (Mag 4/8wd and electric weapon) and if anything did happpen it will be in the most secure robot.

Everything we do is a calculated risk, i think Lipos are one that we don't have to take. I don't see any issues why teams wouldn't want to run A123's they have proved themselves.