Quote Originally Posted by k_c_r
One other possible solution could be to have what Mini-Maul Evo (I think it was that one anyway) had a few years ago. It had a spinning bar quite large in diameter too (~70cm I believe) but to deal with the link problem, the robot had a small pod that extended about 30cm out the back of the robot and cleared the reach of the bar to house the link and the LED. It would be extra weight but wouldn't be as much as what would be gained by extending the full back end of the robot.

Yes it could mean that machines might try and attack that small pod in order to immobilise you, but if you make it strong and compact, and have a suitably placed spinning bar as a deterrent ( ) it should be fine as a solution

Or you could go for a hollow shaft design :P
I've considered that. I've also pretty much come to the conclusion that it'll get horribly smashed and my weapon will stop working, plus the need for lots of wasteful additional high current wire run. Hollow shaft will be the way to go I believe.

One last bit of confirmation with regards to the 1.2 exemption (contacting the organiser with regards to any machine which doesn't fit within the rules): my understanding is that there is at least one full body spinner (Dizzy Tilly) that runs with a link under the robot and therefore in violation of rule 6.3.2 - in addition, every large flipper would as I understand it fail when in an inverted state due to the whole jumping 10 feet in the air issue. I might have to ask James about that, as he runs the only(?) full combat arena...