Spinner compatible arenas?

[craig_anto]

As i previously said in the Rebel Robots topic, Im not willing to state how many types of weapons are registered, There are more than 3 thou

[joey_picus]

I take it there is at least one spinner then? (I cant really imagine Scorpion, Carnage, etc not attending)

[john]

theres more then 3 craig just said

[joey_picus]

Ah, misread the post

[blazerbotics]

Our arena can be setup as a class 2 featherweight arena (12mm polycarb and 6mm roof), but its reduced size (from 12 x 10 meters to 8 x 6) means the shows would be mainly featherweight oriented, which is something were not looking at doing, as the costs would be the same as if running the normal heavyweight setup. It is a shame we lost the featherweight spinners from the normal live shows, as they did have an extra impact on the fights, nowadays even when there€™s 15+ featherweights in a fight they don€™t have the same impact on the audience as the heavies and can lose interest very quickly, this is the reason for us introducing the house robot into the featherweight fights. It€™s just that to be able to run the spinners the arena has to be more or less the same specs as if we were running heavyweight spinners.

Regarding the heavies, our arena is capable of being ran as a class 2 (12mm poly sides and 6mm roof), but the costs and restrictions (not just that of the arena itself) make it currently not viable to run it. If there was an opportunity (financially, TV etc.) then we would look at it again. But as Jonno said its not worth it for the few spinners that exist, you also get the argument of how many others are going to be willing to fight the spinners on a regular basis. Weve had teams refuse to fight the likes of THZ and Tiberius in the past, so I would expect them to run a mile if they had to fight a spinner!


Alan
http://www.robotslive.co.ukwww.robotslive.co.uk

[john_frizell]

Is there any possibility that stronger netting can be found which (perhaps in two or more layers)
would meet FRA requirements for running feather spinners?
Id run mile toward a fight with a feather spinner and would build one as well if thre were somewhere to run it.

[leorcc]

As would I.

[grant_ploughbot]

Before the ruling for for 5mm polycarbonate roofing came in we were in the process of designing our arena when an object went through a net roof and so we made a device to test different materials to see what would be viable (as said, polycarb can be a pain to put on the roof).
We tested all sorts of netting, lorry curtain sides (multiple layers with stainless steel messign sandwich) and multiple thicknesses of polycarb and woods.
We were not able to find a single type of netting/fabric that would even slow down our test projectile, even with mulitple layers and tensions. Even most types of wood could not stand up and yet 5mm polycarb bounced things off all day long.
Looking at the specs, to find any form of fabric or netting capable of with standing even a featherweights tooth comming off would be far heavier and more expensive than polycarbonate. We couldnt even find anything close to slowing down our projectile.
The FRA also looked into this with their own testing and came up with similar results.

As jonno/alan have said - trying to put up a structure to hold a large area of polycarb will require forklift trucks/cranes and most likely an articulated lorry with ALOT of hard work. I know our arena is heavy enough at over 2 tonnes, trying that with a heavy arena isnt something I would want to do every few months!
inner arenas bigger than that stu:wink:lol

[leorcc]

When you did the testing, did you tighten the netting up or did you just let it hang over?

[james...venom]

both, the bullet wasnt even remotely slowed down. there was nothing that acted even similar to polycarb.

So is it all worth it? may spinner pieces of debris may be contained in net roofs but as demonstrated at this years UK champs the odd piece that really comes flying off wont even blink at netting, tarpauling, stainless steel mesh etc etc. A piece from a hornet hit, bounced off our screens so hard it slightly melted the surface.

regards making a heavy arena to be honest i dont think heavys are anywhere near the calibre of the current featherweights. And so arnt as enjoyable for me personally to watch. seeing the flippers lauch thier opponants 10 times their own hight, seeing spinners spin up in under a second is pretty exciting stuff. just my oppinion.