Thread: Team Death - New Heavyweight

Today was a bit of an odd day.

We have started by getting the skid setup ready. There was a spring handily around the workshop, which was cut in half, then a little more - and sprung around both of the bolts to give a little suspension effect to the skid, so it'll hopefully bounce about a bit and maintain a constant pressure on the floor and aid in the straight driving.

Whilst the other battery charged, we worked on a different encasing for the batteries, mostly using foam. We had to shave a little off one of the bolts for the castors, as we were a little short of space on one side. We're now in a position where the batteries will comfortably sit one at each side, as they were before. Just in a manner that is going to be a little less drastic for them in situation where the chassis is badly hit and shaken about.

This passed enough time that now both batteries were charged, so we went out for a test. Which very rapidly went doooown hill. Almost immediately, I was able to drive it straight after a try or two with it skidding off to one side. It didn't take me long to find the required direction on the controller, just ever so slightly to the right, to achieve a straight line. If we cannot get it to naturally drive true, then this is something that won't take long for either myself or Colin (driver is still to be determined!) to adjust to, as we are running out of time and there are a few other things to do, such as the weapon and remote control of it - so we may have to leave the driving as is, at least for its first battle and we can come back to it again later on if needs be.
Unfortunately, this is where the test abruptly ended, as we again came across a rather huge setback that was irrepairable out in the field. We had another weld failure, so we packed back up and headed back to the workshop.
It took us a while to find out exactly where the weld had failed. But sure enough, the smaller sprocket had become unattached to the main bar. A little animation is the best way to describe it;


This proved a little odd to fix. Colin welded the end of it together - this is the end that goes into the bearing, and also added a little delicately between the two sprockets, bearing in mind that once the chain is running, there really is very little space remaining to ensure smooth running of the chains.

Whilst Colin did the welds - as im clueless on that side! - I discharged the batteries using a spare motor, as we thought this'd be quicker than using the charger to discharge it. As it turns out, no. These motors seem to use really little current when they're not loaded! Batteries discharged by a whopping 0.125V each in the space of 5-10 minutes. Compared to what would have been going on for a full discharge in the actual machine and its two motors.
Here i am, fruitlessly trying to discharge the batteries.
IMG_20180603_151915.jpg

Next week, I am unavailable again, due to attending a tournament at Wembley Arena (not the big stadium!) for a game. But I believe Colin will be working to put the drive together again, and try to make sure we're going to be high and dry welding wise this time around, so we can go straight to the weapon onwards hopefully. Whilst the mechanics are all there, and we believe it to be functioning if untested with the full setup, it's currently got no control mechanism for it. So we need to wire that up, add a receiver to it, and wire up a seperate panel to the controller for whomever ends up controlling it seperate to the driver. Unfortunately, the robot is currently way too heavy for a single person to carry around, so i'm not sure how much testing Colin can reasonably do next week. However this evening, he was off to pickup a trolley he got on eBay cheaper than new, so that'll ease the task somewhat. There is also a further plan to try easing the driving issues, depending on if we can get the parts at a suitable price point - more on that next week, when we know the outcome!