Richie: The £50, 3 week Featherweight

**blazerbotics** · 26th April 2014, 20:15

Was me driving and being nice!

**Flag Captured** · 26th April 2014, 20:36

That's the thing - Beauty 2 and 8 are both beatable (as much as any machine) but the weak points just aren't something you can get at when you're sailing through the air bound for the outside of the arena haha

4WD would go great on Richie though, tracks would be cool but I'm not too sure on how good they are, can always try it if you wanted! I'd personally go for 4WD on the 4 corners of your machine, as best you can. Another thing too, no matter how you think your machine will do, I'd fully recommend just going to it when the time comes - this recent championships was my very first event and I've learned loads just from that alone! The more events you can go to the better I'd say - you learn a lot more about your robot when you're going up against varied types of machines.

In this recent champs, I learned what my main weaknesses were (drums, flippers, anything with pushing power) and now I'm working on counteracting that - likewise I found out that my tires actually wear really fast so next year I'll need spares. Also that I'm a terrible driver.

Best of luck to you though, it's a very solid machine and I can see it going far!

**beast** · 26th April 2014, 20:40

I tried 4 wheel drive in B4 and 5 but came 2nd in 2010 back to the speed 900 drive now

**Flag Captured** · 26th April 2014, 20:45

Oh, is that all?

The speed 900s work really well, it just depends on your design though I think. Beauty just launches something so the centre of gravity won't be changed by holding another robot up in the air like Richie would on those forks - can definitely see it sort of parading machines around the arena atop those! Besides, the speed that the Beauties reach means it'll have something out of the arena in seconds, which is really what you want!

HardWired 1 2 and 3 will all be running 2WD for the foreseeable future, I don't think 4WD would work well on any of those! Besides, it's more weight and if it won't add much there's not too much point. H2 and 3 definitely so, considering they're going to be tiny and there's no space for an extra set of wheels! H1 could do but I'm too lazy to convert it any more than I already have/will be doing haha

**Rapidrory** · 26th April 2014, 22:56

Talking of parading robots around atop the forks, I managed to do just that in both my fights today at Burgess Hill

I ended up in the pit both times though as I was shunted in by someone else each time I tried to lower an impaled robot in.. Note to self; bad tactic for melees :L

Richie was much more reliable today; The bolts through the wheels helped loads, and I managed to get it up to 10mm of ground clearance so the drive was much better. Didn't have to do any work on it between fights either despite being launched around, and all I have to do before tomorrow is recharge it (I only have one working battery atm, but at 7Ah it lasts pretty well).

The wheels are already quite worn now as I expected, but I have a few spare 'tires', and I plan to swap those wheels for something better before the next event; I'm currently thinking of using driven wheels at the back, with a belt drive to a pair of wheels at the front, as that's light and should be relatively simple/ reliable. 4WD would be very useful in this case; at the moment I have to lift another robot almost vertical to get the weight back over my wheels so I can drive (looks cool at least

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The ESC still needs more work on the code, but I'll do that when I can face tackling assembler again

I'm planning to add a box filter on the signals from the Rx to give smoother control. It'll also act as ramping so the ESC shouldn't lock up as much.

**Flag Captured** · 27th April 2014, 00:58

It's a good tactic! Leaves them completely unable to do anything, at which point you have total control of the battle which is thebest situation you could be in! People will take advantage of that too though, always best being careful...

Leave the 7AH battery in there, and you'll probably not need to charge it till next year haha! Is it an SLA you're using?

4WD that way sounds good! I'd think about the upgrades you plan on, and work from there - 4WD with 4 motors is easily doable if you'd rather have that little bit more power, with a LiPo you'll never need to worry about not having the amp discharge for it either - the only thing you might have to do is review your speed controller's amp rating, make sure it'll handle it OK! If not, belt drive is still as good, just you might have that little bit less pushing power comparatively. Not too sure though, the theory would probably suggest so but I haven't a clue in practice - never used drills in battle!

Definitely a handy thing to have though with a design like that, the last thing you want is having to wait for the forks to go up all the way so you can drive about! Then you can look cool and keep your mobility

I'll be very disappointed if you don't put the Razer-style self-righters on there too as well, now that you've mentioned it. (I'm kidding but that's a good idea still)

Also, tyres, you'll definitely want something with plenty of grip, most people just use bike tread - mine are HDPE wheels with bike tread on them, but there are alternatives that do get expensive but can be better grip-wise. What I'd honestly suggest though if you go with 4WD, is that you have grippier compound on your front wheels, and less on the back so that you've got more grip over the front two - I believe both Razer and Hypno-Disc did this (and 360 too, I think), basically means that your machine will pivot around the front and therefore weapon, and could be quite handy - even more so if you end up using a pistol-grip-with-wheel-thing-for-steering style controller (I'm sure that has a proper name). It doesn't suit everyone, but it's an idea!

**Rapidrory** · 27th April 2014, 19:55

Was working fine again today until 'Pain in the ass' stabbed Richie right in the ass! Went straight through my armour and into my one good battery

That was the second to last fight, so I fitted my other very old "7Ah" SLA for the final fight, which has almost no capacity left. It managed half a fight before it ran out of power (as I kinda expected), and then got floor flippered across the arena... Richie was very dead after that

Not planning on doing any events until after July though, so have got plenty of do repairs and upgrades.

I would like to do 4WD with 4 motors, but I don't think I'd have the weight for it, especially having added a few extras. I have some 80mm diameter HDPE bar at home as it happens, so I'm planning to machine that for the rear wheels, then add some bike tread. For the front wheels I'm planning to use some 30mm diameter aluminium bar, which I can machine a groove in for a belt, then tap some holes in to add bike tread as well. I don't plan on the front wheels having a load of power, as they'll only really be needed when the other robot's wheels are off the ground, so they shouldn't be pushing against much most of the time. It will probably steer from the back because of that, but I'm just going for the simplest and cheapest options really.

I do plan on adding Razor style wings, as I worked out they'd take me maybe half an hour to build and fit, would only add another 200 grams or so, and is really the only way it could self right (Plus would look awesome!

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**mrsam** · 27th April 2014, 20:09

Sorry to hear about the battery but at least it means you have to upgrade, just stick a lipo in there, much lighter, extremely high power density and very affordable nowadays.