Making a link/power light a universal requirement would put off newcomers who (like pugster) who have just got an rc car and shoved some armour on. For scenarios such as batteries under flippers etc the choice to have an easily accessible link/switch should be that of the builders.
Got to agree with the original post too. For all the effort it takes to add a link/power light to the robot and the safety improvements associated with them I would say its very important, to be honest, I fitted mine before I was even aware that it isn't in the official rules just out of good practice. Bear in mind that as/if this class progresses these machines are only going to get stronger.
Not sure if putting off newcomers is really a worthy reason to forget safety. Imagine if that logic were applied to racing cars, we don't use fire protection suits - they're uncomfortable and stop people from coming.
OK maybe that's a little extreme but the logic is along the same lines.
I haven't built a beetleweight but it doesn't take a genius to see that something like 180 could be extremely dangerous.
to stick with your car analogy you don't wear a fire protection suit when you're nipping down to the co op in your renault clio. but say if you're going to the co op in a vehicle that is essentially a gas tank with a large engine attached driving at excessive speeds you would use a fire safety suit.
Then a line must be drawn. When is something safe, when is something not? That's the difficult part. It's either decide individually which robot is deemed dangerous (if BWs became very popular then this would be impractical), make all of them require safety components, or make it OK not to have any at all. Seems safer (lol) to make all of them require safety equipment, doesn't it?
+1 for link
featherweights don't have a set rules for them all, for example pneumatic systems require to be able to be locked. requiring all beetles to require a link and powerlight is like requiring all featherweights to have a locking bar even if they have to pneumatic system. beetleweights wouldn't have to be judged individually they'd just fall into certain categories. For example, if the beetleweight in question is/has:
a spinning weapon
lipo's
a pneumatic system
accessing the battery involves contact with the weapon (ie jamies bot)
if the beetleweight had any of the above then a removable link would be a requirement.
Safety is always important, considering a link on a beetle could probably been something like a deans connector it doesn't ahve to weigh that much or really weaken the armor by putting it in, its not that big of a sacrifice mounting one.
Well I still think they should be needed for every one, because I don't want the corner of a 3lb robot falling of the table and landing on my foot, I think it should be needed in all robots unless there a special case like a rc car, but it still wouldn't be to hard to wire one in, even if someone has to do it at the event for them, I just think that it will make every thing safer, as it would be hard to draw the line, like I wouldn't want a razor sharp axe slicing over my arm, etc
it is just so hard to add a removeable link to an rc car
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