RogueTwo Robots

[RogueTwoRobots]

I fancied setting up a build report on our machines a bit like what the Aussie guys have on their forum, plus I wanted to have something worthwhile to post for my 1000th post (woot!)

Team Terminal Damage

Team Terminal Damage basically consists of myself, my friend George Speirs from my schooldays, and my dad Michael who used to be purely taxi driver but Im now trying to get him into the actual robot combat more
Our first event was Rexs Robot Challenge 2004 and we now currently have three active robots.

Robots

Drumroll:- is the main robot, carrying a 3.2kg spinning drum on the front (I would add lethal to that description but needs a bit of work to reach that status ). The chassis used to belong to Hornet 1, but I bought it when Gary upgraded and after running at two events without a drum attached I decided I needed to get round to weaponising it. It was at this point that I realised my dimensions were slightly off and the Hornet chassis was just a touch too small. So I built a new chassis from 20mm nylon, which has now been through two events and is standing up well.

Critical Damage:- used to run under the name of Terminal Damage, that competed in Rexs Robot Challenge 2004 (our first event), a school-hosted RRC style event and the UK Robotic Games 2005 before being retired. George later chose to bring it out of retirement and change its look slightly. Its a bit of an oldy bot as it still uses windscreen wiper motors and SLA batteries, and seems to keep getting new amour for each event (previous coverings include very brittle perspex, and an upturned garden wheelbarrow!)

Bullseye:- currently only used in whiteboards as an introduction robot for my dad. The chassis is used to run under the name Mini Rover (a feather replica of Typhoon Rover) but now has a wedge to replace the football guides. Desptie running fine on the bench, its been sluggish in the arena and is in need of a few fish suppers to add some weight.

Upgrades

Drumroll has had its internals rearranged yet again. Due to its small size it will always have very compact insides and they were arranged thus for the FW champs:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build117.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build117.jpg
(it became a lot busier once it was fully wired up)

It was a bit too cramped at the champs when it came to maintenance and so Ive played around with different positionings to try and free everything up a bit.

The speed controllers have now been mounted to the sides of the internal bulkheads (two heatsink corners that protruded had to be cut and filed):
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build139.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build139.jpg

with the power and motor wires going into terminal block units mounted to the base panel:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build142.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build142.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build141.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build141.jpg

The weapon motors are being changed to Speed 900s, which although bigger, will fit in straight where the HTIs sat. One of the battery packs will sit under the motors (hidden in the picture by the white strip) while the other pack sits vertically between the first pack and the drill drives:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build144.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build144.jpg

The Victor 885 for weapon control now sits between the Electronizes at the rear of the bot, with the radio receiver mounted just behind that:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build148.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build148.jpg

The aerial now mounts to the internal bulkhead via an ali angle bracket as opposed to being previously attached to the top panel (meaning I couldnt remove the top panel completely without first unscrewing the wire from the RX to the aerial mount):
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ayrshirerobotics/Drumroll%20-%20Build/dr_build151.jpghttp://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...0-%20Build/dr_ build151.jpg

Drivewise its ready to run at its next event; the only work still to do is to buy and fit the weapon motors, and get a new drum made as the current one is a bit dodgy

Critical Damage will be getting new HDPE armour and a bit of chassis strengthening (and probably a simple weapon) but no work has started on that yet - will post an update when progress is made

Team Terminal Damage
http://www.ayrshirerobotics.vze.comwww.ayrshirerobotics.vze.com

[RogueTwoRobots]

Update

So we're all ready to go here at RogueTwo Towers. Sadly my plan of making an additional weapon for Carcinus worked up until the point where I weighed it and it was 1.3kg too heavy. Could have lost the weight if I had more time but I'll bring it along anyway and might attach it for a whiteboard test.

Spent the rest of the day with last minute preparations and the customary pre-champs strip down and service:



Forgot to check the weights before I shut up shop for the night but I think Drumroll is 12.7kg and Carcinus 10.3kg. Managed a wee photo session in the sun too, don't anybody be scratching my paint now! (ignore the already scratched bits)



We'll be leaving tomorrow lunchtime so will catch all you cool cats on Friday morning

[joey_picus]

Looks very very nice, best of luck at the championships!

Are we allowed to know what this extra weapon is/was, and does it spin? hehe...

[RogueTwoRobots]

Thanks Joey. I'd normally fancy my chances leading up to a championship, even if I thought my machine wasn't at its best, but it's going to be a tough year this year so I'll just need to see how it goes. Could be the last year for Drumroll II in its current spec. Might need a chassis/parts overhaul to keep up with things next year.

And of course you're allowed to know what the extra weapon is/was, but you'll just need to wait till after the champs

[RogueTwoRobots]

Post-Champs Event Report

So another championship has been and gone, and it was a fantastic affair all round. Not quite as successful on a personal level but much fun was had and that was the important thing. Here's a run-down of the fights.

Drumroll II v IronConkers v Massacre
Drumroll II started off terribly. Ten seconds into the fight it just died completely. IronConkers then started smoking and the fight was halted with the victory going to Massacre. The failure was traced to a connection on the fuse which I had soldered over a year ago with a semi-duff soldering iron. I meant to re-do it when I got a new iron recently but completely forgot and it had been working fine in several events over the past year and got through the tech-check on the day without any problems. (1 point)

Drumroll II v No Toy
Up and running again, and after a couple of bog-standard impacts I managed to immobilise No Toy. Adam very sportingly agreed to carry on and I planned to just toss it about without causing too much damage. Instead the teeth caught a corner and ripped it apart, with components flying out. Felt pretty bad but thankfully Adam managed to get it back together soon enough. Apparently my reaction when it happened was pretty comical. (4 point KO)

Drumroll II v Conker 2 v Night Fury
Needed another KO to stand a chance of progressing and managed it quite nicely. Attacked Conker 2's backside first, spraying bits of MDF (where was that hiding?!) all over the arena before ramming it against the wall upside-down and out. Then tussled with Night Fury, getting a few hits here and there, before catching a corner and thumping it. They lost their power but I managed to bend the drum shaft and suffered sheared pins in the left-hand drive in the process. (4 point KO)

Drumroll II v Galactus - Knockout stages
Was quietly confident of making it through this; instead Drumroll got well and truly duffed up. Galactus got the first big hit that bent my wedge and turned me upside down, and in the process of self-righting and trying to get back on the attack, Galactus kept coming at me, eventually bending my wedge against the drum to jam it and knocking the power out (blown fuse). Excellent showing from Galactus.

Losers' meleé
Up against six other robots with the last one standing going through. Well it wasn't me, knocked out first in about 10 seconds again (another blown fuse, don't know why though), leaving Drumroll finishing 16th. The rest of the fight was intense though, with Satanix suffering the best/worst exit when it was thrown sky-high by 720 and crashed back down onto Binky's spinning disc, which launched it out of the arena. 720 went on to qualify.


As usual there isn't a lot to report on Carcinus's battles, being hit repeatedly and pitted by LH3, having its claws smashed to bits by LS4 and getting flipped out by Explosion. Managed six points though which is an improvement on last year, and the new claws look smexy

Looking forward; gonna have a few weeks off from robots as it's being all-consuming since February through the Glasgow Science Centre event and this, then I'll work out the best steps to take. Carcinus will probably just be repaired and kept going as is. It looks good and although it's not hugely effective, it's fun and gives my dad something to drive.

Drumroll II is looking a bit worse for wear after a few whiteboard battles (including against LS4). I've had to replace the left-hand drive gearbox about four or five times over the last couple of week due to pins failing in the gearbox, and the electrical faults it suffered at the weekend were uncharacteristic, so I'll have to address both those issues. I reckon 125mm wheels on drills/Gimsons is pushing it load-wise so I'm going to look into adding an intermediate drive stage (1:1 either chains or belts), or switch to 24:1 gearboxes and drop down to 100mm wheels (which would require chassis mods). As much as I liked the wedge, I can't have a repeat of the Galactus fight so it's gone. Sticking with the same brushless setup which has worked faultlessly, but will be going back to the ring-tooth design. Probably warrants a whole new build so the current Drumroll II might be renamed/downgraded and kept for whiteboards. Haven't yet stripped it down so all that might change depending on how it looks.

[RogueTwoRobots]

And for those who were curious as to what Carcinus's extra weapon was going to be - had it not been overweight - here you go:



Inspired by Alex's (Bodge Job) axe attachment for Bruiser, I threw this together in a few hours over Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday morning. Powered by an 18V 550 motor through a standard 36:1 drill gearbox, then on to a 5:1 chain and sprocket reduction. Had a Bosch 400 sitting for years to put in an axe but never did due to the design complexity, then got a 300W scooter motor to try in the hope that it might be more straightforward. But when I saw how effective the one in Bruiser is with a GR02, I figured I may as well keep it simple. So the 300W motor might be twinned with another and fitted into Scar.



A picture of the mechanism. Quite pleased with the quality of the construction, considering a) I'd never worked with chains and sprockets before and b) I built it.
Have only tested it on a semi-charged 12 battery so not yet sure of how hard it hits. Won't be adding it on to Carcinus now the champs are over, but will build a robot around it to use at Scot-Bots/Robot Wars/Robots Live shows when I can't run Drumroll's weapon.

[joey_picus]

My gods, it appears as though Splinter has melted and been exposed to some rather bizarre mutagens!

That looks absolutely excellent, the construction quality is top notch and I can see that putting a few dents and even holes in things - I'd love to see it in action. Shame about the championships, but you did do well in the great scheme of things and I'm looking forward to Drumroll 3!

(incidentally, the bits at the back of Carcinus remind me of the two counterotating discs that I'm sure at least one robot had in series 5/6/7 - can't remember what though!)

[daveimi]

That hammer is awesome! By the by, what kind of battery is that big boxy thing on the stripped down picture of drumroll above? Is it a huge amp-hour rating?

[RogueTwoRobots]

Thanks Dave, yet to test it properly to see how effective it actually is.

Had a look back at the picture you mentioned and can't see the part you're talking about. The battery is a small 5-cell lipo pack that is behind the left-hand drill motor and under the receiver, but it's not particularly noticeable in the picture (I mistook it for part of the base plate).

Working from left to right, the stuff on the workbench in front of the transmitter is the bulk of the electrical/electronics assembly, then on the robot itself there are the two drill motors, the aforementioned battery and the brushless motor and speed controller for the weapon (the speed controller being the black box in front of the right-hand drill motor, not sure if it was that you were referring to).

​Hope that helps!

[Louise]

are you classing that as a hammer or axe?
xx