Update time – First up the front wedge, shown in the last post, was fitted and bolted on. I was a bit worried that if I had any alignment problems, it wouldn’t meet up with all 6 chassis / side pieces, but thankfully it was fine. With the being the last main piece of the body (except the top), it meant I could now do the wiring, which is mainly what has happened since the last update. The first wiring job was to flash the TZ85As for brushed operation and then make and solder on some splitters, since each one will drive 2 motors.

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The ESCs will tuck down between the front wedge and front motors, supported with some foam. It’s a bit tight, but they do squeeze in. They connect to the 125A main fuse via ring terminals, along with 2 feeds for power lights. The bolts holding them on will be cut down flush to the nuts and covered in 2 layers of adhesive lined heat shrink to stop them coming undone, the same as I used on Pressure Point. The cables are on the long side, but fit into the space ok.

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Next job was to figure out a way to hold the link, which goes in at the back. In the end I decided on a 10mm plate of HDPE with a chamfered hole cut in it for a connector. It is offset to the side slightly to allow the link cable to be tucked away safely inside the robot but still be easy to remove at the end of the fight.

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To hold the connector in place I have melted some plastic and moulded it on and around both halves of the connector. This holds it securely in place but as a secondary safety measure I have then bolted the 2 plastic mouldings through the HDPE plate. This has also had the side effect of acting as a guide for the mating half of the connector that forms the link to make it a bit easier to plug in. For some reason I don’t have a picture of this yet, so I’ll grab one for the next update.

After a quick test to make sure everything was functioning, the final wiring job was the power LEDs. One feed runs 2 LEDs at the back, one either side of the link. The second feed runs the 2 side LEDs, one in the left, one in the right. The LEDs are fixed into holes from the inside of the robot with a step at the bottom so the LED can’t go all the way through and stays recessed about 13mm from the outside of the robot for protection.

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That’s it for now, next will be neatening the wiring and making the side/rear tippers and the top.