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Thread: Team Health & Safety - First Time Builder

  1. #91
    Here's the event compilation! Actually struggled getting most of it in there - had to cut some stuff sadly...


  2. #92

  3. #93
    Thanks! Since I seem to build something new for every event I think it's nice to see everything that transpired before getting there.

  4. #94
    Alas here we are agaaaaain!

    On Bright Day the first fight pretty much sealed the fate of This Is Not A Drill's second version, when G2 saw fit to completely remove part of the chassis. This meant that another rebuild was in order.

    Roll on Mk3!

    For this new version I wanted to change several things:
    • finally and definitively make the switch to 4S
    • revert back to Mk1's wedge mount design to make the chassis shorter and lighter
    • change the motor mounting system to facemounts, also to reduce weight
    • moving the lifter slightly forward
    • moving the lifter motor forward
    • slightly increase the width


    Quite a few changes then, and last week I started making the drawings for the new version. There were quite some similarities to Mk2, but I guess I'm tentatively approaching the stage of where the design is honed and perfected rather than COMPLETELY BINNED BECAUSE SCREW THIS.

    Now, I have not got any events planned in the near future, but building is sort of my jam so forgive me to roll on the bread and LAYOUT THE TABLE.

    IMG_20171207_113824.jpg

    Breakfast is served. Most of the parts visible will either find their way into Mk3 or a different bot. Drawings were done quite swiftly as well - as it is, the only thing inherently different in the new chassis is the way the wedges are mounted so I only really had to redo the side pieces.

    Well anyway, a day after I had done the drawings I suddenly found myself staring at this:

    IMG_20171210_152812.jpg

    Old vs. new, obviously. You might notice that from the old chassis the front cross member is missing - this is simply due to my obsession to be Terry Treehugger and recycle old parts.

    IMG_20171210_115613.jpg

    You see, looking at the front cross member from Mk2 (pictured here left) I noticed it could very well fit in the new chassis with some adjustments. To the right you can see a part which was actually meant for Mk2 but was put aside when I decided to slim down the Mk2 chassis. Now that I'm going to make the chassis wider again, I can use the part... let this be a lesson that you should never throw away parts you might still be able to use at a later stage.

    The Mk3 chassis goes back to the concept of securing the inner mounts through interlocking them.

    IMG_20171210_153023.jpg

    Here you can see the part in question...

    IMG_20171210_165531.jpg

    ...and this is how it looks assembled. Progress is quite quick actually, so I'll get the next installment out you ASAP. For sneak peeks there's ofcourse always the Facebook page, but if you don't care for this shameless attempt of self-promotion that's fine too.

    Cheers!

  5. #95
    Building is my jam, and I find myself most decidedly on a roll here. Who's hungry?

    After getting the outer chassis sorted, I wanted to focus on the inside. I could actually still use the old motor bracket from Mk2 but as I wanted to move the motor forward, I needed to make a new one.

    IMG_20171211_160526.jpg

    I decided to experiment. Instead of going to 10mm-block-of-HDPE-paintstakingly-carved-from-a-15mm-sheet route I chose to use two 5mm pieces and add some shockproofing inbetween. I'm curious if this will improve anything, but it seemed to fit quite snug.

    IMG_20171211_164817.jpg

    Further improvements are the 'G2-prongs' I added to the baseplate, to further secure the wedge mounts from being ripped off by a freak spinner accident. Yes, famous last words and all that, but you have to give it all your best shot AMIRITE?

    IMG_20171214_105120.jpg

    Next up, the top plate. It requires a slight bend because of the shape of the chassis, which requires me to first mark the holes, then bend it, and THEN drill the holes. If you drill the holes beforehand you run the chance of warping them when you heat the HDPE.

    IMG_20171214_113236.jpg

    Then time for some more Cardboard Aided Design to get the slot for the lifter cam lined up...

    IMG_20171214_114448.jpg

    ...and there we are. As you can see though, the lifter is still quite far from flush with the ground. This is due to the lifter cam still being unmodified from Mk2, and with the lifter motor going forward, the cam was now too big.

    IMG_20171214_120012.jpg

    Some grinding later, all was well again. The front can be raised 5mm and the lifter blade will still be flush - good stuff then.

    IMG_20171214_120028.jpg

    And just to be safe, a check for lifter reach. This is the lovely thing about having a motor-actuated lifter - I just put the cam onto the motor mounted in its bracket and turn the cam as far as it can go. Voila, max reach.

    Seems alright to me.

    Check back soon for the next installment where I'm going crazy with wedges and stuff!

  6. #96
    After moving house, it's about time I give you lads an update on my insanity.

    You see, upon the purchase of our new abode I decreed upon my better half that the garage was not to be touched by an Ikean influence of matching drapes and hipster wall ornaments.

    Because it's a garage. Time to DIY my IKEA, and build myself a workshop! The previous owner had used the garage as storage for his contracting business, and before cleaning it out I asked him to leave an old door I'd spotted in the back behind - the way I saw it, the 4cm thick piece of solid wood could serve perfectly as a worksurface for a workbench.

    IMG_0335[1].jpg

    Upon learning of my plans, he was kind enough to also provide me with a shipping pallet for the substructure. Yesterday, I took it upon myself to take all this discarded wood and give it another life.

    IMG_0345[1].jpg

    Two afternoons later the door, the shipping pallet and wooden floor offcut caterpillars were transformed into the zombified butterfly that is my new workbench. Being the tall manly-man that I am I wanted this thing to be significantly less ergonomically challenged than my previous improvised workspace (which was a coffee table), so it ended up being quite massive - it's just over 2 metres wide, 83cm deep and just over a metre tall. Because of this I can now also do work standing up, which is a prospect that makes my spine rejoice.

    Only need to add a vice now along with a bottle opener... then, time to get building again!
    Last edited by Zenith; 29th April 2018 at 21:08.

  7. #97
    Dutch Robot Games European Championships - 29th & 30th of September 2018
    at FACTS Comic Con, Gent, Belgium

    This has been a crazy-busy couple of weeks.

    IMG_1517.jpg


    This Is Not A Drill was effectively finished over half a year ago - the chassis was all set prior to moving to a new house, and after moving I set to work on building WeeWoo for Bugglebots (a report on that will follow once that airs in December).

    Once Bugglebots was done This Is Not A Drill was entered for the FRA Euros at first, but the air fares started to add up to such an extend I couldn’t make the trip this time. Instead, I chose to seek the alternative closer to home, and have some fun at the DRG-FMB European Championships at the FACTS Comic Con in Belgium.

    This coincidentally would mean that all three versions of TINAD have fought in three different countries - Mk1 at the FRA Euros in Marlow UK, Mk2 at Bright Day in the Netherlands and now Mk3 at the Belgian event of FACTS. Jeroen (of Reality fame) had brought my crate to Bugglebots three weeks prior and would take my crate directly to FACTS as well. This led to my first problem: no tools in the run-up to the event. No fasteners. No soldering iron. Everything was in my crate, so I did the best I could with what remained in my workshop. I knew TINAD was functional, so didn’t worry all too much about getting it ready. I only did the decals - the rest would follow at the event.

    So on a VERY early Saturday morning I stashed TINAD in the top case of my motorbike, and drove the 140 km to the Flanders Expo in Gent, Belgium. Time to see whether the 4S upgrade to TINAD would actually pay off.

    IMG_1586.jpg

    Cosmin had brought along Wee as well, so WeeWoo was on display. We couldn’t share anything on how we did of course because NDA, but the twins got a lot of attention and positive feedback (which is good - it helps their dysfunctional sibling-relationship a bit).

    Soon enough, it was time for the first fight.

    IMG_1594.jpg


    Fight 1 Bequinox

    I used the forks for this to see how well they’d work against a drum, but all it did was expose part of the frame to Bequinox which he caught in the first hit. I landed on the arena wall and then found myself out of the arena.

    Yeah, it probably took longer to read this then the fight lasted.

    IMG_1597.jpg


    Fight 2 The O’Neill

    Now this is an ongoing grudge match of sorts; I’ve fought Cosmin’s brick The O’Neill four times over the years and never won, so I was hoping the new forks would make a difference.

    IMG_1584.jpg


    The only thing that seemed to be the case was that it made the front light, and I became a toy for Cosmin to play with. He nearly got me out a few times and even managed to turn me over at one point, which was when I finally could see whether the new horn would work in selfrighting… and it did, beautifully! This was the only thing I was satisfied with though, as the drive power was still lacking and the lifter, even though it got plenty of chances, didn’t manage to get anywhere close to lifting The O’Neill.

    At one point I got a bit of luck though - The O’Neill lost drive on one side. I was a bit confused whether it was counted out or whether it was the end of the fight, but the win went to TINAD. Yay!

    Day 2

    I knew I was going to face either Orbit or Bequinox at this point, and lo and behold it was Bequinox again. I put on the plow this time and hoped it would last a bit longer than a fart in the wind.

    IMG_1601.jpg


    And it did! It got beaten up quite badly though - Bequinox took a bite out of the chassis, the top plate, both wheelguards and a wheel, but it took a big hit to the lifter/selfrighter for the link to come out and finally render TINAD motionless. I had noticed prior to the event the link went in waaay to smoothly - this was due to the wiring loom coming straight out of Mk2. The socket had worn a bit apparently, and now I paid the price for leaving it in.

    IMG_1608.jpg

    (here's more pictures of the damage)

    Back at the pit table, just putting the link back in brought This Is Not A Drill back to life without a problem.

    IMG_1612.jpg


    This did mean TINAD was out of the main tournament, taking the third place. That left a bit of a bittersweet taste in my mouth though, as I felt TINAD was still very far from the machine I want it to be and in my mind didn’t really do much for that 3rd place other than survive.

    Ideally I feel it should be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, having the aesthetic appeal purely for entertainment, but also bring a good fight to the arena. It’s the latter I want to improve on - it really should have more of a bite to it, and be able to influence the outcome of a fight better rather than being just a punching bag.

    One thing I am truly proud of though is that through all iterations, TINAD has never suffered any internal damage in the arena - it’s always been a tank, which, with my soldering skills, is something I always feared it wouldn’t be. Mk3, especially since it’s the first version to feature ESCs which I needed to solder up first, underlined that the basic essential quality for a good bot is there: it is able to take the hits and keep on going.

    Nevertheless, expect TINAD to be completely redesigned and rebuilt in the coming future. Different drive system, different weapon setup… Mk4 will be a totally new robot, using the lessons of the past to bring even more madness in the future.

    (next report will be Bugglebots, so uh, watch this space. And watch the show in December dammit)

    Last edited by Zenith; 8th October 2018 at 22:40.

  8. #98
    Last weekend me and Cosmin were at the UWE Bot Brawl, where Woo (as seen on Bugglebots) was to see its final outing before being rebuilt. Here's a report of how the little bugger came to be!

    WeeWoo - the clusterbot of Bugglebots Season 1

    Early in 2018 rumor had it there was going to be a webseries with beetleweights, and me and Cosmin Gorgovan (the evil genius behind X-301, X-303 and Daedalus) both had plans to apply with a clusterbot. We wanted to make it a proper one though - one that could take the worst the world of 1.5kg robottery could throw at it and ask for seconds. Armored to the teeth, brushless drive - two bricks of hell were going to come in as a gruesome twosome. Wee would be built by Cosmin, and Woo would be built by yours truly.

    This presented me with a challenge, because this robot would have to be half the weight of a normal beetle and yet be able to handle the same abuse.

    IMG_0632.jpg

    I started out with a similar interlocking chassis as TINAD had. Looking at it though, I reckoned I could do better than this. I wanted to make the siderails and rear crossmember out of one piece. Now, I often bent HDPE for wheelguards - why wouldn't I do so when it came to a chassis? Because the material is three times as thick?

    Ha! Challenge accepted.

    IMG_0935.jpg

    The way to bend HDPE (apart from using C-clamps and a heatgun) is to take your time, and do your research. I used a cut-off piece to see just how the bending process would influence the material, marking it every cm and then seeing just how much space was taken by the bend itself.

    IMG_0936.jpg

    Then, time to do this for real. The easy mistake to make is to cut off the exact dimensions you need. In terms of height that's of course fine, but DO. NOT. DO. THIS. FOR. LENGTH. The reason behind this is that the extra length gives you extra purchase, making the bending process a lot easier. You can always cut the bent piece to size later.

    IMG_0937.jpg

    Here's that same piece, now bent. I usually clamp it down on the edge of my work table, heat the part sticking out both top and bottom (take care not to focus on one spot too long, as the material will char eventually) until at least the edges are translucent. Then bend to desired angle, quickly unclamp and, holding it in the appropriate angle, immediately quench under cold running water. This locks the bend in place and prevents it bending back upon cooling down which would screw up your angle.

    IMG_0939.jpg

    Then, time for the nightmare part of doing the holes! Why is it a nightmare you ask? Well the reason is simple: if you screw up one hole, you have to redo the entire part from scratch.

    IMG_0948.jpg

    A lot of threaded inserts and cold sweat-wake ups later, this was the result. You might notice the motor clamps are built-in this time, as to save further weight.

    IMG_1167.jpg

    You might notice the front part still has slots - this is because Woo is modular. There was the plow setup, and using the same bending technique, I also made a forked setup.

    IMG_1170.jpg

    At this point Woo amazingly had some weight to spare, so the front got some extra bracing in the form of an additional 1.2mm Titanium crossbrace.

    IMG_1229.jpg

    But why stop at bending HDPE? I wanted to make a low plow, and reckoned it might look cool to bend the edges of that as well. But Titanium does not like cold bending, so instead of bending it in 1 place at a big angle, I just bent it a little in many places... and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

    (getting the thing flush with the ground was a downright pain in the backside though, as the plow needed to be mounted for me to gauge whether it was flush or not... and it takes 8 bolts to mount the damn thing properly)

    IMG_1237.jpg

    Woo's glamour shot before crating up. The little livery on the plow was added shortly after this picture was taken.

    As to how we did on the show, well just have a look why don'tcha!



    We have by the way applied to the next season with the new WeeWoo as well, so be sure to stick around

  9. #99
    McMullet
    Guest
    Awesome work, and thanks for sharing your tips on HPDE bending! *sounds of furious scribbling*

    Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with for BuggleBots 2. Really enjoyed your fights the first time round.

  10. #100
    Good to hear! We hope they'll let us have another crack at it as well

    SPEAKING OF WHICH

    WeeWoo at Bugglebots Season 1
    8th and 9th of September 2018, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    IMG_1435.jpg

    Apart from the name we’d kept WeeWoo a secret in the months prior to filming, so the twins immediately got some inquisitive looks. We were curious ourselves about who we’d face first, as we ideally wanted to have some time to get Wee and Woo dialed in a bit. We got through tech-check without a hitch but unfortunately, we couldn’t get a test drive in before we got into the ring for our first match, so we just ran with it and hoped for the best.

    Our first fight was up against Dr Thwackenstein. Sophie had made some alterations since the Euros last year, namely that instead of sporting a nice hammer the robot now had a pointy axe. This left us a tad worried for a possible armor piercing event, but either way we agreed it would be fun to see the show’s biggest bot up against the smallest ones.


    The fight started, and it became clear that it was quite difficult to control the Doctor to where we wanted it to go. Also, eventually Woo started doing pirouettes around its front right wheel, as if the drive on that side was jammed, but after a few seconds it was fine again. In the mean time the Doctor had its drive die on one side and was counted out - this meant we’d just won our first fight!

    When Greg opened up Woo it was immediately clear Woo’s right hand drive motor had loosened itself and had started to eat its wiring loom - it had already worked its way through a zip tie, stopping just before the wire itself. Some Loctite and extra shockproofing was added to keep the motor in place better so the drive would be a bit more dependable in the next round.

    IMG_1451.jpg

    As it turned out we’d need all the dependability we could get because our next fight would be against Maximum Ogredrive; an overhead saw, and with its dustpan design a perfect counter to our clusterbots. The saw also left us worried for our top armor, but since we apparently had quite some weight to spare we both doubled up on our top plates with washers inbetween to create an additional airgap, eventually giving both Wee and Woo 4mm of top armor. Greg also swapped the plow on Woo for the bent one, which is lower to the ground and would give Ogredrive less purchase to get under with its side forks.

    The fight was a nailbiter. By this point we were still getting used to the drivepower of WeeWoo, but we did our best to give Sam and his sawbot a run for his money. He’d said beforehand he was going to focus on one of us, and it became apparent that even though Wee and Woo were running around like sugar-rushed toddlers playing tag with their kindergarten teacher Woo was to suffer the brunt of Ms Ogredrive’s attacks. On two occasions Sam got close to the removable link, but still the fight went the full 3 minutes, with us trying to get him into the pit to the best of our ability. Ogredrive proved too slippery though, and we understandably lost the resulting judges’ decision as we didn’t damage Ogredrive, but everyone we spoke with afterwards told us this fight was by far the best one of the first day.

    However, this loss also meant we were out of the main tournament, which was a shame - we were getting into the groove with WeeWoo now, and we really wanted to have more fights.

    After the fight against Ogredrive we realized we were out of the main tournament, but as we were hitting our stride with controlling WeeWoo a bit better we really wanted to have more fights. Bugglebots was filmed in two days with both of our heat fights on Day 1, so the next day, we just wanted to get the twins ready to go and hoped for some kind of whiteboard.

    Upon arrival Greg put the magnets of Woo a bit further down to increase traction, and we did a test run. It seemed to drive a lot better than before, though at certain intervals Woo became momentarily unresponsive - this surely required further investigation.

    Greg opened up Woo, and couldn’t really find anything wrong, but still decided to bring the magnets a bit higher to go easier on the motors and ESCs. The following bench test proved disastrous, as the right hand side ESC in Woo released its magic smoke. With space inside as limited as it is, it nearly took out another ESC and also the lipo (!), but in the end the damage was limited to just the right-hand side ESC.

    IMG_1461.jpg

    This left us with the question of setting to work and replace the ESC, or throwing in the towel. We decided to bite the bullet and went to work on Woo, first removing the burnt ESC, then swapping out the entire motor for a new motor-ESC set Cosmin had already prepared before the event, then the new ESC proved to have a short in it which Cosmin resoldered, then the new ESC proved not to have the appropriate braking settings applied and so we swapped the new ESC + new motor out for the spare ESC we wanted to solder in in the first place. Woo then finally came back to life.

    Because of all these complications this entire ordeal took up most of the morning, at the end of which by a stroke of cosmic theatricality the fire alarm went off. We had already been told there were going to be international fights, where bots from the UK would fight entries from the rest of the world. We’d be representing the Netherlands and fight the drum spinner Bourbon next, which meant Woo had to also be rebuilt into its vertical spinner config. Greg had just started taking off Woo’s plow setup when a loud WEEWOOWEEWOO noise forced everyone out of the building. The gods were not without a sense of humour, so it appeared. Apparently the on-site toasty stand had triggered a smoke-detector setting off the fire alarm, which enabled a crowd of roboteers to enjoy the sunshine outside for once. Group picture time!

    Once the all-clear had been given, we quickly resumed work and pretty much the moment we’d tightened the final nut we were expected at the arena for the interviews. It had been a mad scramble to get there in time, but we had made it.

    Upon loading in Bourbon though, Robert noticed one of his drive gearboxes had ceased up and was forced to pull-out of the fight. Luckily for us, another UK drumbot competitor was on standby - we were now going to fight ‘The Berg’ - a competitor whose team are just great fun competitors. Either way this was going to be a laugh. Charlie is a very funny guy and no, he really isn't as bad a guy as he seems

    At the beginning of the fight, Wee tried to feed its Hardox forks into The Berg's weapon, to see if the drum spinner might break itself on a hard hit. However, Wee ended up flung across the arena and we spent the rest of the fight trying to steer clear of the drum and instead pushing The Berg from the 3 other sides. As opposed to our fight with Ogredrive with decided not to go full-Yeti on the drive to increase overall control, which seemed to work better. Still, The Berg managed to hit both of us, but eventually it lost drive on one side, which made him an easy victim for us.

    After the fight, Greg immediately had to clean up and catch his airplane back to the Netherlands, ending WeeWoo’s run at Bugglebots with 2 victories and 1 loss. Our main goal was proving clusters and wedges aren’t boring whilst bringing some entertainment to the show as well, and we hope that we managed to do so. From our side, it was a blast being there, and we couldn’t have dreamt of WeeWoo being so well-received by everyone both at the event and during broadcast. We can say without a doubt that this was a tremendously fun and well-run show to participate in, which was made easier by all of the awesome people involved.


    As far’s we’re concerned, WeeWoo will surely be back for a possible next season.

    “WHEN I SAY WEE…”

    #weewoowantseason2

    Last edited by Zenith; 3rd March 2019 at 09:31.

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