Proposals from the RFL

[kronic]

Proposals from the RFL

I say yes to the 13.6kg change. That would make Weed within weight! Seriously, just beacuse weve got an extra 1.6kg to play with doesnt mean everyones going to go out and produce mega spinners. You can also get some pretty good flippers made within the higher weight limit, and there arent many of them around at the moment.

[grant_ploughbot]

Proposals from the RFL

Well i guess we wait and see the outcome

[craig_anto]

Proposals from the RFL

how heavy is an etek? can i get 2 in a feather? no thatd be silly Craig but 2 Lems? that i could do, i could build a feather with 18hp of drive 13.6kg please

[geoff]

Proposals from the RFL

Look, you just behave yourself Craig!!
Oh, and by the way, yes you could in theory...but you wont have any weight left for batteries

[jeremy_cuss]

Proposals from the RFL

There seems to be broad acceptance of the desirability of unifying the weight limits and an acceptance by many of 13.6kg for feathers. The governing body need to think about how long the consultation process should take and when a change might take effect. It sounds from many of the above emails that my earlier suggestion of the UK championships 2007 may be too far away? What do others think?

[john_frizell]

Proposals from the RFL

I support David Calkins proposal to unify the weight classes world wide, as set out in his most recent posting. Not only will this be good for our sport internationally but I suspect it will be good for it in the UK as well. A 13.6 kg feather is easier to build than a 12 kg feather. The small classes (6kg and down) are much more popular in the US than here; we can hope that an international standard of 6 kg (which we already use) will lead to some of them competing here and growth of that class.

[craig_anto]

Proposals from the RFL

hey Geoff how bout i borrow the motors from Scorpion
battereies? who needs batteries itll be powered by my ego thats as good as slapping a nuclear power plant on her

[geoff]

Proposals from the RFL

These proposed changes to the weight limits may be only the first step in the unifacation process. Ultimatly we hope that there will also be a universal set of build rules for all weight classes too. This however is going to a long process, having to incorparate the statutory health & safety legislation from the UK/Europe, the US and Australia alone will be a total nightmare (if indeed it can be done at all!) let alone the more down to earth problems of things like maximun voltages, removable links V power switches etc. etc.
So if we can agree the weights we will be at least part of the way there.
As to a time scale, first the FRA/DRG/GRA will need to formaly discuss and vote on the changes. Once this has happened our constitution requires that any changes to the specifactions will not take effect for a further 3 months to allow teams to make any changes to their machines.
So Im fairly certain that there will be no changes before early 2007.

[grant_ploughbot]

Proposals from the RFL

That sounds ok.

Will the weight change rule(if it happens) be adopted before the other rules? I personally would prefer a whole new change when ALL the rules are set in stone and then all thrown at us at once. Atleast we can carry on for a while until its all sorted asd normal. These may be your plans, just curiouse

[leorcc]

Proposals from the RFL

i agree with Grant that it is better to implement all rule changes at once so we can start building accordingly.

[lex]

Proposals from the RFL

Good point. Its not just a matter of agreeing the weight change or not, its also debatable whether its to be agreed as an actual change to the building rules, or agreed in principle but not acted on until all rules are harmonised.
Given the lead-in time for actual rule changes to come into force, perhaps its worth broadening the discussion now to thrash out everything that needs to be changed. Not necessarily to reach a final concensus- although that would be good- but at least to get a feel for the scope of the problem and likely sticking points. There doesnt seem to be too much problem with 13.6kg as a feather limit from a UK point of view, but how will US builders respond to the prospect of conforming to our lower limits on gas pressure for example?
So, at the moment we have a couple of issues to consider, do we want the higher weight limit for feathers and if we do, do we want it implemented now or agreed in principle as part of an ongoing process to create an international rule set? And to really get the harmonisation ball rolling perhaps David Calkin can summarise all the current differences in the various rule sets, so that we can see the real shape of the problem?

[grant_ploughbot]

Proposals from the RFL

My personal opinion is that its going to take a VERY long time to be able to get all the rules agreed and set to go, and until thats done there wont be many people traveling to world to fight.
In that case, there is no need to up the weight limit until people are fighting abroad more often I.E when all the rules are set.

We also have atleast 2/3 new robots that are/about to be built but are not sure whether to build to 13.6kg or 12kg as it will take a while to get them finished.

[wazio]

Proposals from the RFL

Hm... Well, being of the few US builders who reads and actually posts in here I think I will pipe in and say my 2 cents on this from a view point that is over the pond...

I personally think the change is a good idea. All of our bots will stay the same while you get to add a little weight. We will be able to come over to fight with you and you can come over here to fight with us. I dont understand how this is a bad thing.

- I saw a post about money... I am a 21year old guy that has 2 jobs, I just got my own place, I have payments up the wazoo and very little free time. But I build cuz it is something that I love to do. As I think is the one big reason we all do it! We are not in it for the money because lord knows we spend WAY more than we put into it, so at the end of the day we all do it because we like it and it is fun! I cant think of anything more fun (well I can, but not bot related) than going to a different country and fighting with different bots and meeting new people. That to me would be amazing! I would like very much to make a out of country botn trip this next year. Sure I will save all year and make it a vacation/bot trip, but I would love to do it!!

- is 1.6kg really THAT much? Like I posted in my forum when they were talking about the 33lb change. Whats the big deal (3lb to us is not much)? Keep the same robot but change it a little. Add another batt, a 2nd air tank, make some attachments for whatever robot you fight, or hell... Keep the robot the same. 1.6kg to me, doesnt seem very much. And heck, when your current robot gets killed then just build to the full weight limit.

- I support this idea for the simple fact that I would like to see you all come over here and I would like to come to some of your events. I wana see the cool flippers and the neat things you all build. And im sure you all would like to take a peek at some of our famous bots. With a set of rules, at least weight rules it makes it that much more easy. . .

I dont mean to offend or anything. A few of you know me and talk to me, so they can vouch that I am a chill guy. I am just really believe that this is a good thing. 15kb might have been alot to change, but the 13.6 is totally do-able. Hope you all agree! And I hope to see you all in 2008!!!!!!!

~Chad

[leorcc]

Proposals from the RFL

- is 1.6kg really THAT much?

Yes it is. it is more than a 13% increase in weight, which is not something to sneeze at.

The weight is not really the issue though (at least not anymore for the most of us), it is the time-frame and all the other regulations that need to be synchronised.

[jamesb]

Proposals from the RFL

just wanted to point out.... this has happened before.
robots were built to 80kg, then the limit raised to 100kg for various reasons. Razer and Chaos2 never took the full weight allowance but did exceed 80kg with some tweeks.

I attened the last event against 12kg bots with 6 robots, 2 of them 12kg, 1 of them 10.8kg, 1 other was 9kg, another 6.6kg and my last one 5kg. sure, its a disadvantage to have less weight, as proven by the multiple beatings taken by the lighter robots, but if we went to 13.6kg, there is no reason not to enter 12kg machines, or 5kg even! (no hobbyweight class at that event)

all im saying is, look back at when robot wars went up to 100kg. was it a good move? i think so.

I support this change, even though I know it will mean even higher cost to me as ill be even sillier now. The increase cannot happen soon enough, and to be honest, if event organizers agreed to run 13.6kg now on an individual event basis, the rules could catch up later. plus, can we clarify, 13.6kg empty of gas? limit on gas amount stays 600g? or goes up too?

Plus it would mean some robots out there would actually be legal for the first time ever, and chubby machines incapable of getting under 12kg for the last few years could fight for real, if they had the bottle for it.