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NSW season 7 2010
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Nick
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Sydney, NSW


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NSW season 7 2010

After a reasonably successful year, its time to plan some improvements for 2010. I hear the new floor is ready to be laid, although I'm not sure is we have the money to paint it. As mentioned at the last event, I have a giant 620 litre fridge/freezer to donate to the venue. Its not is good shape but if we only turn it on for the events, it will last another year or two. I still have that Bandsaw to donate; it just needs 2 or 3 people to help me load it in the van (ditto with the fridge).

There were some good ideas floating around at the last event; getting TAFE and Uni students involved sounds particularly promising. The last Uni interest resulted in them running an internal competition which was pretty lame - we need to get them into our comp with the idea that they will be pushing their skills harder.

There was also talk of a show n' tell at a local school. we would need 3 or 4 bots, some printed hand-outs and lots of video footage.

Finally, we need to start collecting some money. I can tactfully call this year a fee-free recession year, but without some cash, there is no expanding the facilities or attracting more members! Next year its back to $10 per bot per event, plus an annual membership. We had several levels of membership last time and I'm keen to extend that to make it easier for newbies and students.

Event Dates:

20th March

8th May

26th June

14th August

2nd October Battle Shed

4th December


Last edited by Nick on Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

Post Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:42 pm 
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andrew



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 3110
Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W


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main things i can think of are enforce payment to assist us in repairs of arena

look into shows like supernova which i still believe would be perfect to hold a public event, i emailed them with numerous pictures 2 years back and they showed mild interest but didnt persue it further due to other commitments and got lazy

ill be going flat out from mid this week to robowars fixing current robot and starting some new ones, am hopeing to have three done for robowars in feb

repairs to arena, maybe some form of non damaging hazards, was thinking if jeff still had that massive 10kg steel drum with shaft etc put some teeth on it and have it in a wall section and i have a geared motor which at 12 volts does 400rpm and 800 at 24, its a beast and doesnt stop ever (golf buggy motor its series wound) wouldnt do damage but would lift and flip maybe, i know this will get flamed but yeah just throwing it out there

maybe look into woodbotics class again or a sportsman class so we can build more creative designs without fear of being shredded first match by scissorhands

just some ideas off top of my head
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Post Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:20 pm 
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Valen
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Joined: 07 Jul 2004
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Location: Sydney


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I would like to get the battleputer installed somewhere around the arena in a more permanent way, carrying it around makes everybody dependant on me and its not fair on you guys. I did origionaly plan to leave the computer there but theres nowhere out of the rain.

People seem to like the additional fights they get from the system there are some concerns though, in some kind of order.


    Its taking too long to set up at the start of the day.
    Judges are copying each others scores.
    Its not very transparent
    People aren't getting feedback about how they are progressing throughout the day.
    We should run more rounds in a day.


Jaemus was talking about revamping the nswrfc site and I'm thinking we can integrate all this stuff together.

People register on the website before the event, with a photo (or use a stock one from their bots page.

Whoever is running the event downloads a file onto a USB key or something and takes it in. If we can get the computer online it should talk to the website directly.

I'll stick a camera on the computer and tie it in to the software to take care of late entries and perhaps to do a basic video.

Rounds run about the same as normal but judges will vote individually not all on the one screen.

When the round is done It'll display the results of that round and overall. As well as a clock with a countdown to the next round.

If we run an hour between rounds it'll run to 40 minutes and sound a buzzer of some kind. People then have 10 minutes to confirm they are in the next round otherwise they will be put in as skipping. With 10 minutes to the start of the round it'll do the draw automatically. If you are late, tough.

It should also handle the finals as a part of the system.

It should be simple enough that most people there can use it.

At the end of the day it'll spit out a file that we can put on a USB stick and upload to the website. That will then have all the fights listed in it. People can then upload media (videos,links, photos etc) and comments to the fights or to the event.

People can then browse fights by event, by score, by bot whatever.

Thats my thoughts anyway.

With regards getting new members and doing promo stuff we should see if we can get in now for uni's. I think they have finished spring semester but the staff should all still be around so we should be able to get something happening for next year. They won't be able to compete in our regular comps more than likely but I can see them making it to 3 events which should be enough for them to get a decent bot for 2011 and we may get one or two that are keen enough to come on through out the next year.
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Post Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:12 pm 
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Valen
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I don't think we need to change the event format to get new members, dylon seems to have managed. Plan-G is 4mm mild steel angle and it stands up to scissorhands well enough.

Now that Chris is using steel even his bots can stand up to the spinners.

I can see the MDF classes working if we wanted to get into younger school stuff but they would probably learn the most in the unrestricted classes.
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Post Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:17 pm 
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Nick
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Last chance if we want a battery / drinks fridge!

My old fridge is waiting to go and all I need is a couple of helpers to get it in & out of the van. If I can't get that lined up by next weekend, the fridge has to go the the recyclers Crying or Very sad

Post Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:03 pm 
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dyrodium
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I'm in Perth otherwise i'd help. ! Crying or Very sad
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Post Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:02 pm 
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Valen
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I'll be citywards some time next week, let me know when you want to do stuff.
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Post Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:05 pm 
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Bort
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Location: Sydney, NSW


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What do you mean its not very transparent Jake?
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Post Mon Dec 07, 2009 9:07 pm 
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Valen
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Well at the moment I sit off to the side and make proclamations about whats going on, If I were a dodgy bastard I could rig it such that we only got matches we liked.

The process is detached from the people. I'd rather it was more "communal" if you will such that everybody can see the draws and the results as they happen. Get people a bit more involved.
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Post Mon Dec 07, 2009 9:18 pm 
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chrisjon65
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Joined: 15 Jun 2004
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Location: blaxland


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As for next season im not sure which way to go with things.
Heres how i feel about a few things
I have spent $350 on the arena floor,Russell has spent around $70 on paint and the the floor was painted many months ago and has been ready to install at least as long im sure it was stated on the forum somewhere.
Unfortunately due to me running a buisness etc i can only contribute in the form of materials etc it is mostly difficult for me to spend time at home little own installing things.If folks are waiting for me to organise it then you could be waiting a lot longer.
As for the fridge i wouldnt worry about it,it is just another piece of stuff in the pit area and another obstacle to be moved.
I think if numbers increase then maybe,but id dump it for now .
The NSWRFC website issue is something i dont have the ability or knowledge to even discuss,it is something someone would have to do free of charge and continue to maintain on his or own time if folks are willing to this then wonderful,if not its a complete waste of time and best be forgotten.
The battlputer idea is great and streaming of results immediately after the round would be great.

What we all have to decide on and im no different is if we want to have another year of 4-5 robots per round and just chillout on the day, have a sausage sanger 3 battles and go home then cool.
But i dont have time to be proactive in regard to the club and if thats the case or feeling of the 6 builders we do have then lets leave things as they are and just have 3 or 4 a year and dont stress.
But if the majority want more than that then its up to" them to do it" as ive said i can help with materials etc but thats my limit
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Post Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:59 pm 
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Nick
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OK, I got the impression that the floor was a "Chris 'n Russel show" and you didn't want any help. If that's wrong, we need to collectively work out how to get everything over to the arena and then get it laid. I can move full MDF sheets in my van, but its definitely not easy; perhaps we do it 3 or 4 sheets at a time?

I probably have all the installation tools. Is the plan to biscuit join them or glue them down to the existing floor? We also need to work out a quick way to patch the floor. Builder's bog was mentioned, as was a system for making MDF patches with a router and a jig.

The floor will need to be really flat before we lay the MDF or there will be raised edges; we probably have to attack it with angle grinders to knock off all the rough bits

Post Tue Dec 08, 2009 6:55 pm 
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chrisjon65
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After the last event i think the mdf floor would need to be replaced if it was already there. With all the spinners i think it would last no longer than a day.
Not to mention the full time maintainence crew between rounds.
If a massive divett is created in a battle it will need to be fixed there and then.
Something we need to look at before we install it.
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Post Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:34 am 
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Russell



Joined: 16 Aug 2004
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Location: Sydney


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Just wondering what happen for 2010
Events
competition
Arena
classes or leave of bots
membership
money
Have not heard the bottom line on any of these things?

Post Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:16 pm 
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Nick
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Here is a totally different idea for the new floor: concrete! The original garage floor was pretty uneven and we wouldn't want to damage it with spinners; if we make some simple form work, line it with building plastic, then lay down a 5 cm thick block, we could have a flat floor that should take quite a pounding. It would be repairable with more concrete and would be high traction. If we omitted steel reinforcing, we could break it up and take it away in a weekend.

The steel sheet floor was going to cost several thousand, this could be $500 or less if we get a good deal on the concrete. using an on line calculator, it looks like we would need only 1 cubic meter of concrete to make a 6 by 6 metre slab 5 cm thick. To make this we need: 1.5 tonnes of gravel, 0.75 tonne of sand, and 6 bags of cement. We will also need a small roll of building plastic and some wood for the form work. I suggest we use the floor tiles as part of the form work and simply leave them in place.

Some other advantages:

Lower than the current floor, so bots will be easier to load in and vertical spinners are less likely to break lights.

Water proof; we can even hose it down.

Flame proof Twisted Evil

If this gets enough support, I will kick in some cash to get things started!

Post Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:23 pm 
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Philip
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Location: Queensland near Brisbane


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You might want to consider getting in a concrete truck rather than mixing the individual ingredients. The volume looks like 1.8m^3 to me. That would be 4.3 ton. That is a lot by shovel.
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Post Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:12 am 
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