Talk to the FRA

[RogueTwoRobots]

I should clarify my comment that John has quoted.

The 2.4GHz compulsory use in featherweights from 1st January 2011 is not currently listed in the rules and I am basing that off what I read in the meeting minutes from (I think) two meetings previously.

Having said that, the date for compulsory use of 2.4GHz in heavyweights was 1st January 2010 but I've seen a heavyweight running on 40MHz this year. It can be in the rules, but ultimately the final decision should lie with the event organsier as its their staff running the event and their arena marshall that's most at risk from the supposed 'dangers' of using 40MHz.

[john_frizell]

if they buy a 2.4ghz set first off then they won't have to buy another set in one years time. Agreed. If anyone is going to buy new radio equipment it should be 2.4 GHz.

But my post is not about that, it is about people who are trying to break in to this wierd and wonderful sport - especially younger ones who may not have much money and may have limited technical expertise. There is nothing like your first fight for developing a long term commitment and we should make it as easy as possible for people to get that first fight. So any radio system should be allowed, subject to the caveats above. If someone wants to armour up a toy truck, put a link on it and show up, we should let them run it. Don't laugh - the first two featherweights to run on Robotwars were both armoured model cars.

[joey_picus]

just to be technical there was the featherweight heat of the first wars - Cunning Plan and Vector Of Armageddon were most definitely not model cars and Bugs was a lot of R/C car parts in a homebuilt chassis :P

I have to agree that 40mhz should not be totally banned though - we shouldn't be turning away people purely because they have the 'wrong' radio and I've yet to be 100% convinced of the alleged safety case for their prohibition (and imo talking about the cost of sets is beside the point somewhat, just my opinion)

[psycho_fling]

when i first started off i used 40 mhz and from the start i had trouble with interference and safety issue of not failsafing etc. but when i bought my dx6 all that stopped and now i don't have any issues and i am confident every time i try or go into a battle it will run as i tell it.

imo 2.4ghz cuts out a lot of troubles and hassle and can make the sport more enjoyable from the start. when i was using 40 mhz i was spending a lot of time trying to get it to work but now i can spend my time on better designs and battling

alex

[RogueTwoRobots]

Ah but suffering such problems with 40MHz educates you in matters such as proper aerial installation, effective routing of wires, electrical noise suppression etc. By going in to 2.4GHz straight away you don't experience these situations therefore you don't get the chance to glean your knowledge on one aspect of robot problem solving. Sure you may be rewarded with interference-free performance in the arena but you don't give yourself that chance to expand your brain

Don't get me wrong, I am well aware of just how effective a switch to 2.4GHz can be, having changed Carcinus over and now converting my two 40MHz radios but I still think there is a place for them in the spobby.

but when i bought my dx6 all that stopped

One comment that has stuck in my mind from the 'Safety issues' thread in the Safety Discussion section was along the lines of 'switching to 2.4GHz doesn't solve the problems and eliminate the interference, it merely masks it'
So all that interference is still there, it's just that the radio system 'overpowers' it

[joey_picus]

That thought came up last night actually - it worries me slightly (albeit in a totally non-engineering capacity) that people could be thinking that a switch to 2.4ghz will solve all their safety issues, when in fact a lot of them are due to some other failure and are just as likely to affect 2.4ghz robots as 40mhz ones (Big Nipper and partially Maelstrom at Wigan last year come to mind)

[psycho_fling]

yeh but whats the point of learning about all these problems and how to sort them when you don't need to and will be changing to a different system soon. you could be spending time learning and expanding knowledge say on welding, materials, weapons, cad etc

and ok it may overpower the interference but in doing that it gets rid of other problems associated with interference

[john_frizell]

just to be technical there was the featherweight heat of the first wars - Cunning Plan and Vector Of Armageddon were most definitely not model cars and Bugs was a lot of R/C car parts in a homebuilt chassis

This is correct. And there were feathers in the second wars too [mostly built from RC cars]. But I don't think there were any in the 3rd or 4th wars. My original post refered to the two feathers that appeared in the 5th wars - I had completely missed the earlier ones in the first and second wars. But my original point largely stands - most of the early feathers were converted RC cars. Any if anyone wants to get a start by showing up at an event with an armoured RC car, we should welcome them, even if is running on 27 MHz AM.

[typhoon_driver]

Thing is, when was the last time someone actually turned up at an event with an armoured RC car?

[widow_twanky]

Thing is, when was the last time someone actually turned up at an event with an armoured RC car?

There've been quite a few at Roaming Robots over the past few years. Normall these are allowed to compete even if they are single channel. Reality is that a change to 2.4ghz for everyone else means that the whole 40mhz frequency is available if someone does turn up with a single frequency rc car.

As people have changed to 2.4ghz I don't believe that people have carried on doing the usual stuff to surpress interference meaning that the risk of interference has significantly increased on the 40mhz systems.