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Thread: Team Kaizen - The Honey Badger

  1. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Ocracoke View Post
    Ah, OK. Will give that a go to see if it comes back to life.
    All part of the Continuous Self improvement plan.... ( sorry couldn't resist, so few people reference Kaizen these days..)

    Good luck though

  2. #12
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    All part of the Continuous Self improvement plan.... ( sorry couldn't resist, so few people reference Kaizen these days..)
    It seemed appropriate to call the team that after Grantham. Can only get better from there!

  3. #13
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    Well a breakthrough tonight!

    I was thinking about how I could have possibly mucked up on the speed controller and then decided to give it a crack with the other unhacked speed controller.

    Flashed it with the bs.hex file from SimonK's repository, still nothing. I then found this thread (http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...er-aegis/page8) which talks about this and I found a new hex file (for the DX6i controller) and flashed that. Still nothing. Then I watched a video with it working and noticed that the wiring from the speed controller to the motor was different to mine.

    I assumed, if you look at a TZ85A top down, that the +/- output wires directly matched the +/- battery wires (I could not see any writing on the motor cables to say what they were). No, it is the one immediately opposite the + wire and the one in the middle. The wire opposite the - must be the sensor wire. Apologies if this sounds dumb, I've never messed with speed controllers before in this manner. :S

    Rewiried it and now at least one of the motors is finally turning over although the brake effect is fairly extreme, I wonder if it hex specific? I'll be checking/reflashing the other speed controller tomorrow but in short I've got this one working now. Thanks to all for the pointers.

    Now I can actually get on and build the thing.

    EDIT: The other speed controller now also works. As an aside, the tz85a_r40.hex file seems to work fine with my controller (a Carson Reflex Stick 2) - the one for the DX6i works but seems to not want to stop moving after the controller has been turned off.
    Last edited by Ocracoke; 19th July 2017 at 01:00.

  4. #14
    If you're talking about the three black wires that come out of one end of the ESC, it's because it's really meant to be an ESC for brushless motors. All three wires are used as the coils in brushless motors come in three groups. Since the TZ85 has a nice reprogrammable microcontroller, thankfully we can flash it to work for brushed motors, but obviously that means we have one orphaned wire on the output end. Congrats on getting them working though!

    When you say the motor keeps moving after you turn off the transmitter, it could be to do with the failsafes set on the receiver. But if it works just fine now, there's no reason to mess with it.

  5. #15
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    When you say the motor keeps moving after you turn off the transmitter, it could be to do with the failsafes set on the receiver. But if it works just fine now, there's no reason to mess with it.
    It probably is something to do with the failsafes in the controller, I had this problem at Grantham as well with a different set of speed controllers. Calibrating it should rectify it so I am not too worried at this stage and as you say, it appears to be working fine, I'll leave it alone for the time being.

  6. #16

  7. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by daveimi View Post
    Please could you put up some pictures of the inside of your robot? It's the most interesting thing I've seen in ages also...where did you get the big dome?
    could have some photos of the old dome as well Ocracoke as you promised them

  8. #18
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    Certainly did promise I'd get some pictures up, must have slipped my mind. I'll get them uploaded after work tonight.

  9. #19
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    And here we go...

    First one is a interior view of the robot. The wooden frame was reinforced with metal brackets and originally was a garden platform with castors on. The whole thing was a bit underpowered as the brand-less motors were more suited to Beetleweights and yes, those are SLAs (a pair of 1.2ah for the drive, a 2.1ah for the weapon motor).

    The second one is the shell before painting. The shell was originally a lampshade made out aluminium. I had planned to overlay it possibly with another one or perhaps a garden basket but I ran out of time before Grantham.

    The third one is just before it went into the arena at Grantham. I am pretty sure it was the smallest competitor in there when not spinning. (36cm x 36cm x 22cm).

    The fourth one is the carnage after the melee. Pretty self explanatory.

    The last one is what it looks like at the moment. 20 or so minutes with a hammer and it sort of came back into a dome like shape. The chassis damage was terminal though otherwise it would have entered the last melee on Sunday.

    DSCF4786.JPG DSCF5140.JPG DSCF5320.JPG DSCF5326.JPG DSCF5333.JPG

    As for new pictures, there isn't that much to see yet. I decided to forgo a dome/wok for now for a more conventional wedge shape (al a Knightmare) but that doesn't mean I won't try one again. The issue with domes is that because in this case all of it was rounded, it made drilling it a bit of a pain. However, with a wok, they typically have a flat bottom so you could use pillars to the chassis board to mount it centrally.

    The other thing with domes is that they not particularly spacious inside which made the internal arrangements tricky to say the least.

    Ultimately, I want to get the robot rebuilt in time for Insomnia (has anyone heard from them yet?) but if not, more time then before Robots Live! in Stevenage or any whiteboard matches in the meantime.
    Last edited by Ocracoke; 20th July 2017 at 09:57.

  10. #20

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