I agree that the safest way ive seen i think is on the old turbulence when you had your wheel exposed. That was a simple yet i would imagine prone for damage method.

I think lever bottles should be banned, either drill it and fit a wing nut and bolt, or use a screw valve so they can be turned on slowly.

When i arm ripper... link goes in, bottles are turned on slowly using screw valves... if a burket is stuck it will only go up slowly.... i stand back, and then turn on my tx, and drive away.

If my fire button is in the on, ( it cant as it is default to zero ) but if it did fire im away from it. Ive never had a problem.


The argument for tools came years ago when a roboteer knocked himself out by being silly when arming his robot, we needed to disarm the robot quickly, and didnt know where he had put his tool !!!

Imagine 3 robots upside down in the arena, pete has to disarm them.... IMHO I dont think his job should be made harder by trying to use a tool for each one to turn a bottles off. Now he uses his hand and within a second its turned off and safe.

Bolts get rounded of, they break, threads get damaged etc.... why complicate things ???

I dont see why it is so diffcult for people not to have to use a tool.... one of the principle decisions we make when designing our robots is in the layout.... plan for a link, dump valve, and and access to bottle etc.... if you cant then you need to change your design.


Is it that hard?

I try and push students all the time to plan these kind of things, and not leave it until afterwards.
Saying that, a lot of the time they dont liston, and end up having to chop bodywork away when they realise they cant put their link in !! they learn the hard way.

Ill never use a tool on a robot to disarm, and hope the rule doesnt get changed as it was made for good reason.

My Thoughts