Should we change the weight class for feathers |
No, 13.6Kg is good, lets stay with it |
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53% |
[ 8 ] |
Yes, 15Kg sounds better, There are good reasons to change |
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46% |
[ 7 ] |
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Total Votes : 15 |
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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Its because 15Kg works out to exactly 33lb. They're trying to make the weight classes integer numbers rather than fractionals (13.6Kg).
Personally I think changing it just for that reason makes about as much sense as Jakes Binary weight classes.. Who thinks 33lb sounds any more sensible than 30lb, and who cares if featherweights have a fraction in their weight spec ?
Since the Americans still havent been able to ditch their base 12 measurement units, I really wonder if this has any good justification or whether its just someone trying to "make their mark" by "rationalising" and "bringing in new standards".
If it was to bring everyone into the same weight class to standardise international competition (which is why we changed to 13.6Kg), fair enough.. but given that 2/3 of the world is now on 13.6Kg, why not just stay there and wait for the holdouts to catch up instead of making everyone move ?
Perhaps its a psychological ploy to bring the holdouts into line. "Look, we're not forcing *you* to comply with *us* - we're *all* changing, us too !"
Being in favour of the weight change just because your first bot is overweight is stupid too. Everyones first bot is overweight. get used to it, and make sure the next one isnt.
And I still think its going to add at least 10% to the cost of a featherweight bot whether you believe it not. All things being equal, It takes more energy to move 15Kg around than it does 13.6Kg. Motors, ESC's Batteries and drivetrains will all need to be 10%+ stronger.
So, what were the good reasons for doing it (except to be in line if everyone else does it) ? _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Thu Jul 20, 2006 6:58 pm |
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Valen
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
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i think the people making grandiose statements about 13.6 = drill motors fine, 15 kg = instant total destruction for drill motors might be making somewhat baseless statements.
i've seen plenty of 1-2kg overweight bots not have any more signifigant problems than other bots(jeff-f), And i've seen underweight bots blow motors like they are going out of fashon (glen).
most people don't buy gear to fit in the weight, they buy gear to fit in the budget.
most people are probbly going to run 2x Xu-1's and 2x drill packs.
that has remained the same from 12kg > 13.6.
The rational argument to me is, what does it gain us?
is it just change for the sake of change?
if the whole world wants to move to 12kg thats fine
if they want 15 thats fine too
if they want 13.6 well that suits me.
if they want 12.2386545 thats ok provided everybody wants it.
If on the other hand the people who arent in the majority wish to remain outisde that majority then theres no point the majority changing.
Personally the binary system makes sense to me, each class is 2x the previous class. Its as good as any other one i've seen ;-P
People who build to the limit will have to pay a little more, a few extra cells here, a slightly bigger motor there (perhaps a bigger ESC but i doubt it).You aren't looking at a linear scale increase, most of the cost of RW is in the tooling. Radios, Chargers, Mill, Lathe, Grinder. Plan-B had about $300 worth of materials in it. $200 worth of batteries, $20 worth of disk, $20 worth of Al.
the equipment to make it and charge it and drive it would have been closer to $3-4k
My vote is with globalisation, if everybody decides to move to the 1 weight then i am all for it. If only 1 group wants to change then thats just silly. _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
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Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:26 pm |
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prong
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 19 Jun 2004
Posts: 839
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I am not for or against it, but you dont *have* to build heavier....
Its all about an effective design, if someone else builds 1.4kg heavier it does not suddenly make your 13.6kg robot useless....
A few of my robots have been around the 6kg weight, and one of them, Speedbump, did pretty well and it was half the weight of most robots.
Or Roadkill, was what, 7kg? It did some pretty severe ownage too!
Concentrate on your robot design, 1.4kg is not suddenly going to make your robot win or lose!
or build yourself a beetle weight, and horay! you have yourself a cluster bot!
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Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:06 pm |
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