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Thread: Team Health & Safety - First Time Builder

  1. #71
    Quote Originally Posted by Pinski1 View Post
    I'm glad you liked the hex drum. And I'm very pleased I didn't damage your gorgeous bot too much in our first round fight!
    Ha, thanks! Save for Bourbon's nibble, the big wedge is pretty much unmarked - I'll probably reuse it at some point.

  2. #72
    Aftermovie time! I compiled all photos and videos into one single montage, and here's the end result (thanks to John Denny and his son for allowing me to use the fight vids). Looking back I'm quite amazed I managed to finish it, fight it, and get it through the Euros still working at the end of it.



    Anyways, enjoy. You can expect the first installment of the new build in this thread in the coming weeks.

  3. #73
    Great video!

  4. #74
    Brilliant stuff Greg! Great to meet, hope to see you back next time, Looking forward to TINAD 2!

  5. #75
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy View Post
    Brilliant stuff Greg! Great to meet, hope to see you back next time, Looking forward to TINAD 2!
    Thanks Jimmy! I'm curious too to see whether I can fit all new improvements within the same dimensions (and weight, lol). Looking forward to the new Catalyst as well - are you going to post updates when the time comes?

  6. #76
    Quote Originally Posted by Zenith View Post
    Thanks Jimmy! I'm curious too to see whether I can fit all new improvements within the same dimensions (and weight, lol). Looking forward to the new Catalyst as well - are you going to post updates when the time comes?
    My Build diary on here is quite a way behind already , I really need to make time to update it just to reflect how Catalyst is currently, but yes I'll try to

  7. #77
    DSC00974.jpg

    With the crate back home from the Euros, it's time to see where This Is Not A Drill did well and where it could be improved.

    The Bad


    • Drive power. Dear god, it was horrible. The 16mm motors are enough to get it going, but once it experiences any resistance at all the motors can't be bothered


    • The servo is too fickle for my liking. I'd rather have a simple motor with an ESC powering the lifter rather than something which shits the bed if the going gets tricky


    DSC00992.jpg


    • From a construction point of view the wedge mounts were a big risk. Had the bolts holding the nutstrips in place been torn through the HDPE then the entire chassis would have to be rebuilt. The wedge prongs also prevented me from using other setups.


    The Good


    • Despite the lack of power, I liked how it drove. Because the wheels are quite far back, it could 'swing' the front around when driving backwards - something I really liked.



    • The electronics also held up quite well. I'd learnt soldering whilst building and it seemed all of the joints were in fine order - TINAD suffered major hits but kept going, something which thoroughly surprised me.



    • The front armor. Both the wedge and the wedgelets held up fine, even though the big wedge suffered the full might of Bourbon's drum.


    DSC00977.jpg

    The one thing I was most impressed by though was its overall ruggidness - compared to other HDPE bots it struck me how obscenely overkill the chassis seemed to be. The chassis proved during the build it was already crazy strong without any screws or fasteners in any kind, and during the tournament the pieces of 15mm interlocking HDPE didn't budge at all. Oh, and still TINAD miraculously managed to stay nearly 200g underweight.

    DSC00986.jpg

    Also the wheelguards did the trick. 5mm HDPE can take a direct hit and remain in place - good.

    For the new version, I'm upping the drive power and I'm switching to a similar lifting system to Catalyst, as I feel it's both more powerful and more reliable.

    I'm also changing the front, aiming for completely interchangeability. I want various setups to be possible apart from the typical wedge, and this means the chassis will have to change.

    The only area where sacrifices will have to be made is coincidentally also the chassis - with the new drive motors and lifter system the chassis will have to become higher, and the additional room (and weight) required will force me to slim down some areas. If anything though, I should be able to have the same width and length. I loved the dimensions of the first version, so for the next incarnation I'm going to try and keep it this way. Now let's hope I'm also within weight again, ha!

    To be continued with the first build segment of Mk2! Watch this space.
    Last edited by Zenith; 11th September 2017 at 21:09.

  8. #78

  9. #79
    Quote Originally Posted by daveimi View Post
    How did you bend the hdpe into wheel guards?
    The easiest way to do so is by using a heat gun and C-clamps. The trickiest thing is to get the dimensions right, as everything has to fit ofcourse. You always have to allow some space for the bend itself.

  10. #80
    Yeeeess we're back! Amidst all of this chaos I almost forgot to keep you update on what is what.

    Because well, apart from me being a nerd and caving in to the Facebook team page malarkey the build for the new This Is Not A Drill is truly well underway. Straight after the Euros I went to the drawing board and started penciling out the new version, aiming to improve on where it fell short.

    IMG_20170908_215934.jpg

    I personally enjoy doing blueprints myself a lot more than I do making models on a computer - analog all the way baby. Usually I make a 1:1 scale drawing of all chassis parts as well as a top view (visible on the above picture) so I can fit possible new components. The blueprints then handily translate to parts.

    Now, for Mk2 I was going to use different drive motors, different wheels, a different battery and a different lifter system... and all of this required the chassis to grow. The lifter motor alone would be exceeding the 30mm height of the original, so it was time to expand.

    I really enjoyed the ruggidness of the original chassis though, so I want to maintain the same philosophy. I knew in the back of my mind that all the new more powerful components were going to gobble up those 175 grams of spare weight I had left, so I knew I had to slim down some chassis parts if I was going to keep the weight level. In some places, thickness went from 15mm to 10mm.

    IMG_20170917_170734.jpg

    But I wasn't going to buy a whole new sheet for that monkey business ofcourse. Time to clamp a bit down a do some magic with the saw. Added bonus was the 2mm HDPE strip of waste - I'm sure I can find a use for that at some point.

    IMG_20170918_111502.jpg

    Here's new vs. old. Thickness is the same, but the new part is taller whilst still providing space for the other interlocking parts. The added height provided me some more possibilities to make the structure even stronger than before.

    IMG_20170918_115551.jpg

    Here's the two sides connected by the front chassis member. As you can see the front member 'drops' into the sides - this is to further absorb any impacts on the wedges which are attached to the side frame members.

    IMG_20170919_110342.jpg

    Then there was the matter of the sides. Thanks to the guys at Metal Skull Robotics I got my hands on some threaded inserts, so I thought to give them a go. First some pilot holes...

    IMG_20170919_110826.jpg

    ...and then put the little buggers in. Best way was to not use a hand drill, but to put a bolt in the insert and screw them in place with a long hex key. This minimizes the chance of screwing up the thread.

    IMG_20170919_111535.jpg

    Very nice.

    IMG_20170919_124156.jpg

    I also chose to give the plastic motor mounts another go. They worked well on Mk1 - with some minor adjustments they should hold up in the new version as well.

    There was going to be a major setback though, one that is pushing my hobby to the edge of an obsessive disorder...

    But more on that next time!

    Last edited by Zenith; 20th September 2017 at 20:02.

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