After 12 years as a fan, can I get a robot into the arena?

[mark_m]

ok, it's now 16 years.... I've not giving up though.

I'm still working on the same basic beetle design. here's where I've got to:


(the bot weighs 900g as it is, the box weighs ~1.7kg)


I've now got access to a 3D printer, and occasional access to a mill and CNC router, so I'm prototyping with the printer, then will remake in polycarbonate/titanium. So far the 3D printed parts have fit together well and I think the basic design is sound, but there's a few things I need to fix:
*The belt drive for the lifter slips too much and is too stretchy. I need to change it to a reinforced belt, or a small timing belt or chain. Any suggestions?
* the press fit pulleys/wheel hubs keep slipping. I guess I need to add a grub screw or glue them
* the trims seem to drift with time. I couldn't get Elevon mixing on my DX6i to give me full speed forwards, so I'm now using an onboard mixer. With both setups though, the trims seem to move over time. I got the trims set up before the above video, but by the end it was creeping backwards when it should have been stationary. I've never seen this before. The receiver is an orange r400 and the ESCs are botbitz 10A.
* The only bit of the bot that gets hot is the ESCs. The motors are the ebay 1000rpm gearmotors with one 10A ESC per side. Do people use one ESC per motor or is one per side normally ok? I'm worried that arenas might be grippier than my kitchen floor, increasing the load on the motors and ESCs.

When's the next beetle event?
At this point I'm tempted to just put the 3D printed version in the arena, just to get experience and see what breaks!