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Australian Nationals TODO list
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marto
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Australian Nationals TODO list

So I thought we should start looking at exactly what needs to be done for nationals as a club. I am working on getting the paperwork done and we should have a cash and agreement in place in the next week or two.

There is still a lot of physical stuff which needs to be sorted out and unfortunately I am unable to really help with this but will be trying to do what I can to get stuff organised in the next few weeks.

So TODO list. (These are in order of priority in my mind)

- Antweight arena.
- Arena Roof
- Arena floor
- Arena door
- Fire Blankets & Fire containment.
- Arena barriers
- MOU Signed
- Invoices
- Insurance
- Robowars2014 Site
- Featherweight Arena Timer
- Fliers
- Shirts

I am trying to get some of these sorted but it would be good to get started on as many of these as we can as soon as possible.

The biggest one in my mind is the Ant Arena. This needs to be done soon. We can afford to spend a bit on upgrading this but it needs to be done properly. The Lights and floor can probably be reused. And I think the size that we have is pretty good. But it needs to be able to be dissasembled slightly easier and made a lot more stable. We also need the pit to be triggered reliably and have a proper containment underneath.

The roof is a massive issue as well. Without Dad assisting with the assembly I think it will be bordering on impossible to do in the bump in time. This means we need to do a complete setup and and actually work out how the roof will be attatched. If we can pre-drill mounting holes, buy bolts for it and have all the panels numbered that would help as well TEK screwing the thing in last year didnt go particularly well.

I am pretty sure the current floor is trashed. I don't know what it's current state is but we can afford to get 16 new sheets of MDF we just need someone to pick them up, paint them and store them somewhere dry in the lead up to the event. We will need to buy paint as well, we had the discussion last year and decided that the grey that we use every year in the big fence paint bucket is good as it doesn't take away from the robots and is cheap. The panels need at least 2 coats (especially the top ones) and this takes a while so would be good to be done as a build day.

Arena door, the door was a pretty big issue last year. I think we fixed some things but it sagged and also had problems with the latches. The gallery has also raised issues with placement. My thoughts are we should do two things. 1 - Fix the current door. It doesn't need too much work. Another redo of the hinges. Some better latches and your away. 2 - Make another door. This should not be a corner peice. This means we can put it in any damn place we want. Also a spare door is not a bad thing in case of a fire. This should built from scratch and just be a spare panel not sure which way it should swing, which side it should be hinged from, etc but this is my thoughts.

Fire! has been a big issue in some of the international events. And while I sort of feel bad throwing sand on someones robot I would much prefer it to be put out ASAP so the arena doesn't get filled with smoke. We have also seen fire extinguishers make a complete mess of the arena and polycarb. So I think we should get some fire blankets and welding gloves. Basic prodecure would be, if lipo fire smother with sand, if possible to power down do this quickly, pin any active weapons!, then cover with fire blanket and get the hell out of the area as lipo smoke is painful. Actually we should prolly just buy some spare big quick action G-clamps to go with fire gear to clamp onto weapons. This should probably also be rehearsed on the setup day with the gallery briefed in.

Arena barriers are the lumps of steel which we fabricated in order to stop the panels bending out. This has worked pretty well and really stops the robots getting stuck under the arena walls. Unfortunately they still bend back over time just due to the force of robots hitting them. As the nationals is our premier competition we should probably see if we can limit this as much as possible. The only way I can think of really improving this more is to screw them to the MDF floor. I think if we were to put 8-12 screws in each one that would probably go a long way to stopping them moving. If there is time.... and someone feels like doing a heap of drilling they could have holes put in them to make this possible. Not high on the list of things to do but still worthwhile.

MOU is underway and I have a copy sent off. We should get it back in a week or so similarly the invoices for the event are underway as well so we should have cash for things. I am waiting on the invoice for the insurance so I can get that paid. And that is the bulk of the paperwork for the event sorted.

Once again I own the sites Robowars2014.com/.com.au but haven't at this time had a chance to create them. Is there any volunteers for this? I was just using wordpress. And will probably copy past the site from last year.

An arena time would be good too. I have all the parts here just no time. Once again volunteers?

Would we like fliers same as every year? The gallery usually gives a bunch of these out and they are good to have at any events.

Shirts? People want shirts again?

Wonder if anybody will actually read all this.

Steve
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:24 pm 
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marto
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What have I missed?
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:24 pm 
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Glen
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Considered getting a roll of industrial velcro for the roof? I have some 50mm wide stuff and i can hang off a 50mm square patch on the roof. Adhere one side to the flanges of the roof trusses, and the other to the polycarb then just drop it on.

Getting them lined up for screws looked a fair pain last year. Specially the middle ones Smile IDK might work.

Chop the door down in size and put some big flanges on there like a blast door so it cant jam up with sagging, thatll do for this year. Wouldn't be much work.

Fires and such are a big one! I dunno if running in as soon as one pops is a good idea specially if there's another robot spinning at top speed in there too. That and i believe the smoke can be super hot as well (a website claims up to 750farenheit, whether thats true or not..), maybe best not to get your hands near it. Sand is needed 100%. A shop vac to suck it all up out of the arena afterwards would be nice Smile More discussion needed on that subject me thinks.

In the least there should be some basic checking in tech inspections to verify nothing blatantly horrible is going on, aka 5c packs being used in a massive spinner or the wires arent going to get immediately chopped off + the pack is at least mounted etc.

Seems like most things are covered Smile , i guess we need to get stuff tested and tagged as well?
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:57 pm 
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marto
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Industrial Velcro on underside would probably work. However we do need to actually get it down too lol.

Yeh door has heaps of clearance in most spots just top and bottom I think was issue.

As for fire yeh obviously need some common sense. But fire is bad.
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 4:40 pm 
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marto
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Also remotes never inside the arena. They stay turned off and in judges hands until the arena is locked.

Steve
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 4:41 pm 
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miles&Jules
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so we better organise full setup day?
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 5:42 pm 
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Valen
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WRT fire, I think you need to really work out what the problem you are trying to solve is. Fire in and of itself isn't really that bad, its the lipo smoke you don't want stinking up the place and getting amongst the civilians, and yeah, setting fire to an art gallery is probably a bad thing, but that will take a while so there is no reason to panic, when one lights off.

Given the self sustaining reaction that goes on inside them, sand or anything else isn't going to stop the smoke, (or the fire really), all we can try doing is to contain the smoke and stop the fire from spreading.
Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X-AJj1Znek, they try a few different things to put out a lipo fire, nothing actually stopped the combustion (even sand).

I wonder if we make a "containment box" out of poly, something we can bring in, drop over the smoking bot without needing to actually touch it. Then hook it up to an extractor fan with some ductwork and run it outside.
If we can disable the power to the bot and/or cut the battery wires then thats step 1.
Poly so we can see what's going on inside ;->

Leave a port on the box so you can put an extinguisher in through it, If we can get (perhaps hire?) a CO2 extinguisher rather than dry powder it'll be much less messy and we'll be able to use it multiple times. (dry powder extinguishers are single use devices)

+1 for gloves, include some safety glasses (a visor may be better), a set of wire cutters, and a low temp voc chemical respirator (cheapy bunnings one would be fine), that'll let somebody go in there with some confidence and work on the bot.


Perhaps something like
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150MM-6-Inch-In-line-Inline-Duct-Booster-Exhaust-Fan-Extraction-Ventilation-/331102761796?pt=AU_Seed_Starting_Hydroponics&hash=item4d17433344&_uhb=1
and
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4-6-8-10-12-Non-Insulated-Aluminium-Air-Duct-Hose-10-Meters-Hydroponics-/231182972018?pt=AU_Building_Materials&var&hash=item35d3943472&_uhb=1

The duct packs up pretty small, you might want to go up to 8 or 10" duct if you really want to move a bunch of air. (having an extractor fan running may not be a terrible idea anyway, just venting the arena heat between matches is all I was thinking, fan must be off and pref capped if its venting to inside the gallery)

Carrying a smoking lipo out through the public is probably something best avoided.
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Post Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:13 pm 
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Daniel
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Re: Australian Nationals TODO list

quote:
Originally posted by marto:
The biggest one in my mind is the Ant Arena. This needs to be done soon. We can afford to spend a bit on upgrading this but it needs to be done properly. The Lights and floor can probably be reused. And I think the size that we have is pretty good. But it needs to be able to be dissasembled slightly easier and made a lot more stable. We also need the pit to be triggered reliably and have a proper containment underneath.



Diagonal braces on the legs would make it stable. Can be made from flat bar.

File down the plastic connector pegs to make them looser and then drill a hole through them and the ali for a bolt to hold them.

Weld a few threaded studs under the floor so a bucket/tray can be bolted under the pit

I also want to change the door so it isn't part of the roof. That'll make transporting it easier.

It could do with some more paint too.

If I could borrow some money I can sort it all out.

Post Tue Jun 10, 2014 2:26 pm 
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marto
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@ Daniel sounds like a good set of ideas.

We need to make a way to remove the robots from the pit. Trigger it in a less awkward manner and not need fiddling with the get the levels exactly right.

Could we re-use most of the lights as well? And cover up the corner holes?

I have signed MOU and first invoice is done. Still need to sort out insurance.

Steve
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Post Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:56 pm 
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marto
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I just paid for the insurance and that should be sorted soon.

I have other stuff I need to work on for now but should be able to get a few more things sorted in the next few weeks. Then you guys are gunna be largely on your own.

Still waiting on first payment from gallery to come through but in the mean time we do have the cash to fix stuff up.

@Daniel if you can give me a figure and bit of a run down of costs and will get you cash.

I think your brother is the only one with access to send you the cash. But we have enough there to do the antweight arena.
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Post Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:13 pm 
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marto
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Well guys I am pretty much out of time for now to help. If anyone wants login details for robowars2014 let me know.

I will still be available but am very busy with work so won't really have the time to help out with anything.

Best of luck with event and I hope it streams.

Steve
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Post Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:43 pm 
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Knightrous
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M&J, where are we at with regards to the event?
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Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:43 pm 
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miles&Jules
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We got another meeting with Pauline at the Gallery on monday 28th. All systems go as far as I know. We really just need to get that door moved. What else should we ask em? Have they paid us the first chunk?
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Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 5:12 pm 
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Knightrous
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quote:
Originally posted by miles&Jules:
Have they paid us the first chunk?


Andrew, Daniel or Steve will need to confirm that since they are the only three with bank access to the club account.
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Post Fri Jul 18, 2014 6:14 pm 
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marto
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Yes we have first chunk.
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Post Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:24 am 
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