MagLev C

[chalker]

Do you guys know how long it takes for an official clarifcation from the NSO site? I sent one in for maglev over a month ago an I've gotten no response....

Hmmm... PM me what the question was. I thought all the maglev ones had been answered to date.

[chalker]

FYI, we posted a new clarification for MagLev today: http://soinc.org/official_rules_clarif

[iwonder]

I'm curious as to why the in front term remained, I understand that if some object is in front it makes it almost impossible to give the vehicle a push, but for vehicles like ours, it's significantly more dangerous to have something in front as compared to a pencil across some other part of the vehicle, while it's still not possible to push the vehicle from the position. It's probably to late to matter, but with all due respect to the difficulties in wording te rules, maybe it would be safer to allow teams to place an object in front of any point on the vehicle and allow to ES to determine if teams were adding forward momentum to the vehicle.

To clarify, our vehicle has propellers on the front that reach down to the top level of the track, and the pencil and your hand holding it get very close to the prop with this method, luckily no ones been hurt yet(one prop did come within inches of an ES's eye when it flew across the room), but a dowel did get hit by a propeller before and the plastic prop cut a large chunk of the dowel off. I'd hate to see what it does to a finger.

I don't mean to disrespect the rules or the time you and all the others here put into it, those are just my thoughts.

[Schrodingerscat]

I'm curious as to why the in front term remained, I understand that if some object is in front it makes it almost impossible to give the vehicle a push, but for vehicles like ours, it's significantly more dangerous to have something in front as compared to a pencil across some other part of the vehicle, while it's still not possible to push the vehicle from the position. It's probably to late to matter, but with all due respect to the difficulties in wording te rules, maybe it would be safer to allow teams to place an object in front of any point on the vehicle and allow to ES to determine if teams were adding forward momentum to the vehicle.

To clarify, our vehicle has propellers on the front that reach down to the top level of the track, and the pencil and your hand holding it get very close to the prop with this method, luckily no ones been hurt yet(one prop did come within inches of an ES's eye when it flew across the room), but a dowel did get hit by a propeller before and the plastic prop cut a large chunk of the dowel off. I'd hate to see what it does to a finger.

I don't mean to disrespect the rules or the time you and all the others here put into it, those are just my thoughts.

However the new clarification does say that one could use a different object, such as something which bends at a right angle and keeps one's hands completely clear of the propeller at all times. (Although, the propeller could still collide with the tool and send blades flying).

[OtherWhiteMeat]

To clarify, our vehicle has propellers on the front that reach down to the top level of the track, and the pencil and your hand holding it get very close to the prop with this method, luckily no ones been hurt yet(one prop did come within inches of an ES's eye when it flew across the room), but a dowel did get hit by a propeller before and the plastic prop cut a large chunk of the dowel off. I'd hate to see what it does to a finger.

Would this violate General Rule 5? "Students must not bring unsafe items to a tournament. "

[iwonder]

It's not to the point of being 'unsafe' (we've fixed the flying prop issue) it's just a very harrowing experience and I thought I'd point that out. The same thing really goes for any vehicle with large front mounted props.

[wlsguy]

Obviously no one wants to contact a moving propeller but, I would suggest all teams wear gloves (just a simple work glove) when they switch everything on and off. This is what we do and if contact is made (always a possibility) it prevents prop damage or minor hand injury.
Maybe gloves should be one of the required safety requirements for all participants and event supervisors (hint, hint).

[chalker]

I'm curious as to why the in front term remained, I understand that if some object is in front it makes it almost impossible to give the vehicle a push, but for vehicles like ours, it's significantly more dangerous to have something in front as compared to a pencil across some other part of the vehicle, while it's still not possible to push the vehicle from the position. It's probably to late to matter, but with all due respect to the difficulties in wording te rules, maybe it would be safer to allow teams to place an object in front of any point on the vehicle and allow to ES to determine if teams were adding forward momentum to the vehicle.

To clarify, our vehicle has propellers on the front that reach down to the top level of the track, and the pencil and your hand holding it get very close to the prop with this method, luckily no ones been hurt yet(one prop did come within inches of an ES's eye when it flew across the room), but a dowel did get hit by a propeller before and the plastic prop cut a large chunk of the dowel off. I'd hate to see what it does to a finger.

I don't mean to disrespect the rules or the time you and all the others here put into it, those are just my thoughts.

Interesting. I don't think we even considered the possibility of trying to hold the vehicle back any other way. The pencil in front idea was just an easy way to ensure it was lined up with the starting line and would be easy to implement by everyone.

[JTMess]

We are experiencing a problem where our motors slowly go from full thrust to not working at all in a period of ~15 seconds. They are connected to 40C batteries, which may be melting or breaking components in the motor... does anyone know why this problem may be occurring or how to remedy it?

[blakinator8]

We are experiencing a problem where our motors slowly go from full thrust to not working at all in a period of ~15 seconds. They are connected to 40C batteries, which may be melting or breaking components in the motor... does anyone know why this problem may be occurring or how to remedy it?

We had a problem where the propeller would not stay on the shaft of the motor. Does it make a high pitch whining noise or just shut off completely?