Heavy Weight Spinners 2011 !!

[teamhunt]

In my opinion, if we are brining back HW spinners, we may need to consider Tap-Outs or some other kind of rule (say once a robot is not moving or is unable to fight as well as it should, a spinner must not attack it) other wise the ammount of HWs turning up for event will be less and less from where people dont have the money to fix them (even wood can be a bit costly after a while!!)
I know its what we do, but theres some of us who just can't keep up with the ammount of money that goes into these robots.
Following on from the rule idea, maybe once a robot is not fighting as well as it should, let the robots still fight but the spinner must not be used (unless the driver of the slightly broken robot gives permission for an all-out feast lol :P)
Yeah it should be fun, seeing at how most of us love this in the first place for the spinners, but everything must have its limitations in my opinion (this isnt america lol :P)
Matt

[widow_twanky]

Agree completely with you Matt but I think you may have misunderstood a bit. I think Jonno is not proposing a return to full combat competition as this would need a complete rebuild of the arena and would probably increase the cost of venues due to the time taken for the team to build it.

My understanding is that Jonno is essentially proposing a 'demo' class of robots with some robots built to rip apart some sacrificial armour on come specially built cannon fodder. Thus giving the crowd what they want and put on a bit more of a show.

Andy

[cliveb]

I think some people might be getting confused on jonnos concept

i believe he would/might limit the disc material to certain metals and the wood concept comes in for the armour

so all the entrants have metal discs of certain restrictions and are outside at least covered in wood to add the destruction element

alex

Damn and I had just placed an order for a nice large balsa disc for our new weapon system

[grant_ploughbot]

Its nice to see some good thinking going on here, but I am a little worried about the concept of any form of spinner in an arena with a net roof or a single gap in the screening.
A Bosch 750 can get a disc with some pretty serious power in it, and limiting the diamtre isnt nessasarilly going to effect too much. Compare it to the old scorpion Jnr, 1 astroflight (similar/less power to a bosch 750), a tiny diametre disc and thats pretty powerfull! There's no way I would run that in an arena with a net roof after the testing we conducted during our arena build.

It only requires a single bolt to be hit by a disc to have a serious projectile, and after the few close calls in past events I dont think safety can be comprimised by running any form of spinner in a net roof (unless it gets to the point they will hardly damage wood).

I will try and think up some ideas that could make it work....

[psycho_fling]

@ Clive

yeh i had a similar conversation with jonno today,

[gravity]

Can I weld a disk to gravity and try it out at RIAT ?

[Marien]

I think some people might be getting confused on jonnos concept

Maybe a little bit about where the wood should go :-)
But I am serious about the HDPE disc.

[psycho_fling]

well the whole point of the wood was for the destruction element

[craig_colliass]

Just a few thoughts on the idea

Arena
With regards to bits coming through the roof of the arena my first thought would be to leave the netting as usual and then fit over that 1 of 2 parachutes or similar secured to the sides only and left to rest in folds on top.
As anything makes its way out of the arena the light but strong material from a parachute would wrap around it and then slow its speed down till it had no energy to penetrate the parachute, the trick is in letting it fold onto the old roof material.

Spinner
The main thing to watch is tip speed this will more or less dictate how fast any bit will be flying off the robot. Also I would advise the disc is made with the teeth as one piece. This will eliminate any problems with hard tips breaking off when bolts shear. Case hardened mild steel would be good for this application.

Sacrificial Armour
HDPE would be very good for this as long as it was held on with a hopeless fixing, like Velcro as this would mean you could pick up the same armour parts after the fight and just stick them back on. A few Pyrotechnics and everyone is happy and no repair costs to worry about.

Hope this helps


Craig

[john_frizell]

Sort out the rules and let me know. I'll build a spinner.