Did Tornado cheat in the Series 6 final?
Absolutely not. We wouldn't knowingly enter a battle if we knew we were breaking the rules, and if we won a fight by breaking the rules in the fight, we wouldn't willingly accept victory. Our Anti Crusher Weapon had been cleared by Mentorn's technical crew, as had the other weapons we used in Series 6, as they all had to be declared at the start of the filming. The Anti Crusher Weapon totally complies with the Robot Wars rules - we would not have been allowed to use it if it did not!
The rules allow "interchangable weapons and body panels" (8.1.1), and a 100kg maximum weight limit (9.1.1). They state that "If interchangeable panels and/or weapons are used, the weight is measured with the heaviest set-up in place." (9.1.4), and "Overall length must not exceed 2 metres. Overall width must not exceed 1.4 metres." (9.2.1). We have always submitted
Tornado with its heaviest setup in place, and made sure that all the weapons configurations come in below 100kg. The Anti Crusher weapon is 1.35m wide, and about 1.6m long. It just happens that whoever designed the pit made it about 1m x 1m... (Rules are quoted from the 2002 Robot Wars contract, section numbers may differ in other copies of the rules, but the rules themselves are the same!) We should know the rules well, we have been doing this for a little while now! All we have done is to take advantage of a particular area of the rules, in a similar way to Gemini did with the clusterbot rule, or Anarchy with it's massive weight advantage as a walker.
Also, let me quote from a couple of posts on the Robot Wars Forum by (then) Razer team member Vinny Blood, from the thread "WHAT A FINAL!!!!! (BEWARE-SUPER SPOILERS!!!)"):
It was a great final, and as Tornado could drive off the pit after the fight had stopped they deserved the win. We have no problem with the cage/disc device either, good to see them use a proper, aggressive weapon rather than a passive wedge which was supposedly outlawed back in Series 3. Well done to Andrew, Brian and Dave (snip...editor) We were happy with the result (snip...editor) Goes to show you can't win them all - just most of them! (Saturday, October 5, 2002 - 12:22 am)
I've had a lot of fan mail on the subject of Tornado's anti-Razer device - most of which brands them as cheats. I'd just like to point out that their interchangeable weaponry was all declared at the weigh in. It was OK'd by the technical crew and so they can't be 'cheats'. (snip...editor) (Friday, October 11, 2002 - 09:52 am)
We do however agree that Interchangeable Weapons are a contentious area. What exactly makes for an interchangeable weapon or body panel is not perfectly clear, although we do now know that purely defensive additions are not allowed - our Anti Spinner and Anti Axe Weapons were disallowed at the filming by Mentorn's technical crew, for (in their view) being purely defensive.
If you still disagree, build yourself a robot, and take us on in the arena!
How do you use a computer power supply to charge SLA batteries?
Connecting computer power supplies together in the required fashion requires quite a bit of modification to the supplies themselves. If this is done incorrectly it can make the supplies dangerous from a shock hazard point of view. You will also need to add further electronics to prevent the power supplies cutting out, batteries being overcharged etc. If you need to ask how its done then its probably not safe for you to have a go!
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