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It's not just a simple case of "Lets just add some more armour and another battery". For Jolt, to add another battery means rebuild the whole thing...

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We should not rush to prejudge the FRA's position on this issue. This is a quote from the RFL forum.

Dave,

On first sight this looks quite interesting. From a UK perspective the only significant change is 12Kg featherweights going to 15Kg. I'm sure this would be very welcome from the teams point of view, but I'm not sure how the event organisers will react. I'll bounce it around the FRA governing body and see what the reaction is and no doubt Andy Kane will be in contact with you about it before too long.

Geoff Smith

FRA Chairman.

I just wish that the possible weight change was put forward before I decided to spend $850 on a new ram.
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So even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems

im afraid i would be with angus on that one. if this country changes to 15kg i wont be building any more.

i just cant invest this much money on something thats going to go obsolete so fast (like a computer imho.. lol). i havent even had cobra for a year and it looks like its going to be out dated soon. raiden are hyzer are probably already out dated now people can design to a full 15kg and they arent even finished yet.
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

I can't even see why they chose 15kg in the first place... 13 or 14 if you want to make it rounded but 15?
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YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

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) ?
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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people

My thoughts exactly... and upgrading to a bigger esc, bigger batteries (2400's are expensive enough) and motors is simply out of my league... i'm only in year 11, and robots are my fun pastime distraction... I simply wouldn't be able to compete.
I don't have any problem with 13.6kg anyway, who ever thinks decimals are bad should get a life and be introduced to imaginary numbers
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I think I sused it, its just a bluff, an opening bid. They are hoping the Poms will reject it split the difference and finish up back at 13.6 Hooray

If enough people decide that featherweights are too expensive, then the hobbyweight class becomes attractive. You can use drill motors in them at a lower voltage without ever breaking them.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

quote:

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If enough people decide that featherweights are too expensive, then the hobbyweight class becomes attractive. You can use drill motors in them at a lower voltage without ever breaking them.

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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.
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Its OK, I wasnt suggesting destruction and bankruptcy for 15Kg feather builders.. Just that they are some practical reasons NOT to go with a change. Its only 10% after all, I dont think everything will fall apart because of that.

But if the only reason FOR it is integer weight numbers, and there are 10% higher loading in all areas, well the nays outweigh the yea's IMO.
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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people

agree

how about an "I will if you will" on the poll ;->
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

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!

Yes we haven’t forgotten how Speedbump was Lightweight champ at Robowars.
Mouse won the first Robowars as a legal hobyweight Beating all the
Feathers.

I forgot about that!

Speedbump did badly against the feathers where it was only half the weight but well against the lightweights where it was one quarter of the weight!

see, to win, we should all be building 3.5kg robots, they will be too small and low for the feathers to do anything too, then with some luck you will win!