RogueTwo Robots

[RogueTwoRobots]

Update

Well it's been a bit quiet here since the last progress report. Been struggling to make significant headway over the past couple of weeks, and been lacking motivation. But one of my Technobots orders arrived at the weekend which solved my most important parts shortage - ring connectors! Used frequently to distribute power throughout the robot's systems, I only had two left, which were only good enough to connect the main power leads from the batteries. But with the arrival of more, I managed to get all the systems connected tonight and it's humming nicely - literally. Got a small PC cooling fan blowing air over the XL and, next to the LED, it's the best indicator of the robot being active, so that's all good.

The most major remaining part to sort out is of course the weapon. I was going to go for a pro-job custom one again, similar to before but shorter, but both Kenny and Grant couldn't fit it in at short notice, which is fair enough but actually also worked out quite well since I've spent more on robot bits than planned
So it's going to be a bit of a home-made jobby with simple bar teeth for now - like the first drum I made but, on a more inspirational note, also like Helios, Solaris, Sir Alos, and especially, Touro Feather. I'll then sort out getting my ideal drum made afterwards as an upgrade (along with A123s, hardox armour, hardox wedge, every other design feature I intended but which got put on the backburner..........)
In the meantime, the home-brew drum will hopefully benefit from some loving at Hornet Headquarters - or, err, Boner Bothold? - at the end of the week so that should allow a few days for testing/avoiding catastrophic self-inflicted failure and then it will be good to roll.

No pics at the moment as there's nothing much new worth photographing. I'm also rambling a bit so I'll leave it at that.




(You just lost the game)

[psychostorm]

Well, if it's any consolation - you're not the only one not entirely happy with the state of your machine for the competition.

I've focused mainly on upgrading the electrical/control side - tightening down the power connectors replacing all the relays with Fets etc.

Which slightly neglects the other upgrades I had planned - new armour, finishing the NiMH pack, hopefully change the actuator for something that is a bit beefier, a Speedo that fits properly, etc.

I mean its fightable but its really not the best representation of my efforts, y'know?

Ah I'm sure we'll be fine. See you in the final :wink:

[razerdave]

I am rather thankful that all mine needed was some glue to the connectors, a lick of paint and decoration and my lid milling out. I bought some 12mm Nylon 6, and found out its [i]too[i] light. I was trying to take 500g off the robot; the steel lid was 2.225kg, the nylon 6 one was 553g :P. That puts me roughly 1.6kg UNDERWEIGHT, but I wanted to be up to the limit, and I found out that, despite me asking for my lid to be 6mm steel, my fabricators made it 8mm. So its currently getting 2mm milled out of most of it to take 500g out of it and bring me back up to near the limit.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Don't worry Ceri, it'll all be fine on the day. Plenty of people will be willing to lend a hand I'm sure
When are you arriving/where are you staying?

At least you'll still have a pretty decent steel lid then Dave. What decorative work have you done to it? Or is it just an all-black paint-job?

[razerdave]

I'm currently drawing some logos for it and then setting some stickers done, the should last a little longer than those stupid paper cut-outs :P

[psychostorm]

Don't worry Ceri, it'll all be fine on the day. Plenty of people will be willing to lend a hand I'm sure
When are you arriving/where are you staying?

Yeah, it'll be fine. If possible, I would like to be at the campsite by Thursday night , to be fresh for Friday. Mind you, it might be worth mentioning this to Grant...

[RogueTwoRobots]

Update

Two-and-a-half days to go, but with us leaving on Thursday morning, I'm now down to my final build day tomorrow; still got quite a bit to do so a mild panic is now starting to set in!

Anyway, here's the progress so far. Visited Gary's workshop at the weekend with the intention of getting the drum completely done and mounted and getting the armour on. But these things always take longer than planned so only managed to get the drum done, but it's much better than it was going to be. For example, temporary HDPE endcaps were overthrown by some nice titanium ones that used to be bearing housings for Hornet 2's disc, and Gary kindly let me have them for the drum. This also meant that I could do away with some bolt-on bearing housings that I bought and let me just have ones integrated into the titanium endcaps:



Have also fashioned some bar teeth from the old drum so it's got some bite now:



This drum was originally going to be a temporary one for the competition but it's pretty sturdy and weighs in at 2.6kg so providing it holds up (which it should) it could be a keeper. I'm still going to go for a drum with ring teeth since Dave donated me a nice drum he had made but rather than that replacing this one once it's built, I'll probably have them as interchangeable drums.

So that's fitted in the robot now; it's a bit offset so I'll need to make some spacers for it to stop sideways movement. May actually bolt on one of the bearing units I've now got spare, it can act as a spacer but can also provide extra bearing-y goodness



Current state of the machine. Needed to move the shaft forward a bit as the drum was hitting the bulkhead when it rotated. At the bottom of its spin, it is a mere few millimetres off the ground so just as well the Robo Challenge floor is nice and flat
Gave the drum a few spin-ups today (no videos sorry) and it's taking a bit of work getting the setup reliable. A combination of the tensioner not being great, belts warping themselves from heat and general new-ness means that they haven't been the most successful of spin-ups but I'll hopefully get it fine-tuned in time for the comp. Doesn't help that the belt is a bit long and gets in the road of itself. I've ordered some shorter belts from RS but they wouldn't arrive in time therefore I'm picking them up at a trade counter on the way down on Thursday so will have to fall back on the good old 'work on the robot in the Travelodge the night before' practice - haven't done that in ages!

So tomorrow, I've got to:

- Cut and fit the outer armour (layers of HDPE) and fit a piece of steel box section at the back to stop it getting beached there.
- Fit the bolt-on bearing to one side of the drum and make a spacer for the remaining gap.
- Take the angle grinder to the teeth to remove some sharp edges that could catch and rip the belt
- Cut a clearance hole for the LED and mount it (may just hot glue it)
- Fit the receiver switch (may just hot glue it)
- Make a carry cradle (might not hot glue that)
- Paint!

Might not sound too much, but it's several little jobs that may end up taking longer than planned. Add to that getting the car washed, printing off directions, packing tools and clothes, charging batteries, getting the tent and accessories ready etc and it's going to be a busy day. Oh well, full steam ahead!

[Mouldy]

Looks really nice Jamie

[typhoon_driver]

Heres hoping that the new one gets to fight the old one eh?

[RogueTwoRobots]

I'm worried I might get my ass kicked by Boner judging by how it seems to perform with a lipo

Update

Well I had a list of things to get done today but got roped into doing other stuff like washing cars (because I was getting paid for it) so my whole to-do list didn't quite get completed. Not so much things not getting done, more so having to make compromises here and there to get as much as possible done in as little time as possible.

Long rambling short, here's how it's looking:



The teeth and top panel are off getting painted in this pic, but it's got layered HDPE armour now, a couple of spacers for the drum, and various bolts sticking out here and there to stop it getting stuck on its side or back. With all the bolt heads sticking out here and there, it reminds me of some kind of torture device that Jigsaw would use (as in the Saw movies, not the 150g creation from Mr. McConnell )

Still need to mount the LED and rx switch and drill a hole so we can actually see the LED, plug in the failsafe for the weapon and bodge together a cradle. After that, it'll just be a case of installing the new shorter belt once I get it from RS, and hoping that it doesn't present any issues. All of that will have to wait until we get to the Travelodge though.

Oh and Carcinus is good to go. Still sucks but hey

We're leaving at about 9.30am tomorrow so will see all you cool cats on Friday (if we don't pop down to the campsite tomorrow night)

Let the wars begin!