Featherweight rule changes

[razerdave]

Ill be honest, when we had an AGM at Wales and we had the show of hands on the new 13.6kg rule, I put my hand up against it, because I like the 12kg limit where it is. It does mean were all on a level playing feild now, but still, even at 12 we could still of taken the americans.

PS: Why use a 1kg bottle if you can only have 600g of gas ? 700g bottle (like that used in Wedgie) hold the 600g of gas, so why waste 300g on a heavier bottle ?

[teammad]

Why use a 1kg bottle if you can only have 600g of gas

You can have as much gas as you want in the robot, as the 13.6KG limit is inc gas.

There are reasons against the 13.6kg limit. same as there were last year. I remember at the commitee meeting the regional reps were for the raise in weight until the event organisers had spoken and given genuine reasons against it. All agreed and a unanimous vote was then against the 13.6kg raise. This year the only people asked not to come were the Event Organisers as there was nothing that concerned us

13.6kg limit effects us more than it effects the roboteers. I know both us & Roaming Robots do educational projects where the rules have been given out for next year at 12kg. There are many more reasons and we werenot even told.

(Message edited by james...venom on October 16, 2007)

[geoff]

James,
The FRA holds the build rules and represents the roboteers, our members requested by a ratio of 2:1 that they wished the FRA to ammend the rule, this was duly discussed & voted on. That is called the democratic process.
As an E.O. you have agreed in writing to abide by the FRA build rules.
Whatever you do from an educational point of view is your business. Do you expect that any of your educational projects to attend and compeat in a combat event? If so, Im sure they would be glad of a little extra weight allowance!
As this ammendment doesnt come into effect until 01/01/2008 Im sure you have plenty of time to issue an ammendment to your educational project rules if you wish.
Im sorry that you dont approve of this rule change, but given that it was the will of roboteers plus it brings us into line with the rest of the world... In short... Live with it!

A democratic process is where you listen to both points of veiw and then make a decision. We had not even been notified that this pretty significant topic was on the agenda. This is the first FRA meeting that we were asked by the FRA NOT to attend as the topics didnt concern us.

[razerdave]

Dave Y: The original weight limit was 12kg plus a 600g allowance for gas. Now the weight limit has gone up and includes gas, that means that if you have, say, a 12.5kg robot you can have 1.1kg of gas ?

[leorcc]

David: That was always the case. Even in the current rules, if your robot uses co2 and weighs 10kg, you can carry 2,6kg gas. Same as the heavies btw.


(Message edited by leorcc on October 16, 2007)

[john]

david were not really have 1kg gas, the bottle is too big

were using the extra weight for a bigger and hopefully better ram then the one in beauty 2

as we have 1kg to mess around with and i think the ram is 1kg heavier

[kane]

The weight issue is always going to be a difficult issue. Principly, from the vote at the AGM it was clear that roboteers wanted the change. I remember the previous discussion well and the event organisers remain an important factor in my decission. Educational project remain a very important part of the community however I fail to see how the change could possibly affect any ongoing project or any new projects planned. Education generally has to be completed at a price point and so materials and components used would thank an increase in weight. On the other hand bringing the ruleset in line with the international community is becoming more important as time presses on and as the rule change has already been defered for a year it couldnt really be put off any longer. Anyway, those are my views.

[maddox]

There is no reason the educational efforts need to be competitive with the combat robots if it comes to fighting ability. Its nice, and a good option if the people educated want to have a combat ready machine.
Also, a good 12 kg machine will beat an 13.6kg avarage one, if all the other things are the same.

Also, in the end , does an event organiser need to adhere to the FRA rules? For aboutish the same amount of trouble the event organiser puts his/her own rules forward. Unfortunatly that will greatly limit the robots available. Unless the mayority of the roboteers elect to build to that event organisers rules.