KERS - shocking! (mulitple merges)

[PVDA]

From what we were told in Melbourne a light comes on in the cockpit to indicate the car is safe.

All marshals who might have to touch a car was given three pairs of gloves at the weekend.

First you put on a pair of cotton gloves to reduce sweating,

then a pair of 1000v thick rubber electrical insulting gloves,

followed by a pair of leather "riggers" gloves which are designed to protect the 1000v gloves from damage.

It was also decided that if the vehicle didn't display the OK light a marshal was to signal by raising both arms in the air so it could be called into RC for further advice.

[Nighthawk]

So you have to get awfully close to the car to see into the cockpit for the status of the light.
Plus in confusion how many more nice coloured lights are gonna be showing in the cockpit.....

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by PVDA

From what we were told in Melbourne a light comes on in the cockpit to indicate the car is safe.

...or that there's a short circuit meaning the whole car is live resulting in the light coming on.

[bludvl_x19]

Originally Posted by PVDA

From what we were told in Melbourne a light comes on in the cockpit to indicate the car is safe.

All marshals who might have to touch a car was given three pairs of gloves at the weekend.

First you put on a pair of cotton gloves to reduce sweating,

then a pair of 1000v thick rubber electrical insulting gloves,

followed by a pair of leather "riggers" gloves which are designed to protect the 1000v gloves from damage.

It was also decided that if the vehicle didn't display the OK light a marshal was to signal by raising both arms in the air so it could be called into RC for further advice.

Just to make PVDA's post a little clearer, here are some photos that I took on the weekend.

Here is one with the three layers of protection


And Firemarshall Ian wearing the cotton gloves

And then the Latex glove with leather outer

[Col_Rugby]

Looks like he's a vet in training & some poor cow is just about to get 1 hell of a suprise.

[alimcb]

I do hope these photos are another April fool joke...

But after a quick net search it seems they're not. I am a member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, and I think it's time I wrote to their monthly magazine to raise this issue within the profession.

[morwenna]

Thanks for the info from Melbourne. There's an article about KERS in this weeks New Scientist, which is quite interesting: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...what-risk.html

[Chris Hobson]

The new edition of the marshal is due out anytime now and includes a lengthy article on KERS and alternative fuels by John Symes from the MSA.

I hope it answers many of the questions you all must have - but if there are any outstanding ones, please let John or myself know so they can be followed up.

[alimcb]

I just got my copy of The Marshal yesterday, and for me it has answered the missing link in this debate. There will be 2 shutdown handles, either one discharges the system, and an indication light which will come on when the system is inert. The gloves will provide protection against high voltages that might be present around the shutdown handle, after a big accident for example.

In response to Woolley's comment: the KERS "OK" light is very unlikely to come on without being deliberately driven on by the KERS control system. A short circuit occurs when current bypasses the electrical load it is meant to be driving. Any kind of short circuit will either bypass the KERS status light (i.e. it stays off) or pop a fuse somewhere (again, the light stays off).

This works the opposite way round to, say, the airbag warning light on your car, which is permanently on unless it's being held off by the airbag control unit. So in this case, a broken wire always brings the light on, telling you something is wrong. The warning light shares its power supply and ground with everything else in the instrument cluster, so it can't fail "off" on its own, all or a substantial portion of the cluster's other warnings and gauges will go down at the same time.

They seem to have kept things nice and simple with the KERS regulations and I now can't see why it's inherently any more dangerous than what we're used to dealing with.

Anyway, on a lighter note, it's 2CV racing at Silverstone tomorrow, and one KERS system has the power output of more than two 2CV engines!

[Startline Ed]

Watching F1 qually build up we saw Kimi Raikkonen's battery melt. Whilst the mechanics were recovering the battery they were wearing respirators. Would these be necessary for marshals or just for mechanics whilst getting the battery out? I suppose it depends where the batteries are, etc.

[Burnsie]

Ed, the mechanics were wearing the masks because Raikkonen's fire extinguisher had gone off, and they didn't want to breathe in the halon gas which F1 cars are still allowed to use. Unfortunately Raikkonen wasn't so lucky!

[Startline Ed]

Thanks burnsie. I thought they stopped using halon after the benetton pit fire.

[Burnsie]

I had thought that halon extinguishers were only found inside aeroplanes these days, but David Croft said that it was halon during the live FP1 commentary...

[bludvl_x19]

Originally Posted by Col_Rugby

Looks like he's a vet in training & some poor cow is just about to get 1 hell of a suprise.

Like this guy is about to??

[daviesfever]

nice to see the spanish marshals putting on marigolds at the gp,suppose this will become the norm and we will be handed our washing up gloves at silverstone