Team Pasty Build Diary: Nasty Pasty (Battle Rat)

I haven't come across any Roaming Robots Battle Ratz on the forum as of yet and I know people having been asking John about them so I thought I'd do a post build diary of the upgrades I've made to mine.

I bought the Rat from Will Thomas of Team Shock in 2011. I'm not sure what upgrades he had made to it apart from putting in a servo to fire the flipper.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps65382f2b.jpg

First of all I upgraded the battery from 6V Lead to 2x 7.2 V 3300 mAh NiMH batteries for increased power and speed.

I added some castor balls to the front to make it slide a little easier.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps430a28b4.jpg

I mounted the servo and microswitch.

I managed to snap the shaft off of the flipper motor so had to replace that.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...psba3e56ba.jpg

I also snapped the poly carb flipper motor mounts and so replaced them with 3D printed ones courtesy of Trevor Wright.

I managed to bust the original Sabretooth 2x 10 A dual speed controller, sent it off to Dimension Engineering in the States and they replaced with the 12 A version :D

I replaced the Spektrum AR500 receiver as it didn't fail safe with an Orange 6Ch RX.

I moved and replaced the fuse removable link from the front of the robot to the back with an Schumacher AS1-K12 Armsafe Arming Kit (fancy name for a female deans connector in a mount)

Had to replace the flipper arm as it had worn (thanks to John Findlay)
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6ec71ffb.jpg

I replaced the polycarb armour (which didn't quite fit and had split because of this) with 2mm aluminium and painted it yellow, with the Cornish flag of St Piran on the flipper :D

The eyes are stickers.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps20d0178a.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2a5e63d1.jpg

I had great fun playing against the pay to drive Battle Ratz at Gloucester last year but was having problems with the worn flipper arm so the flipper wouldn't close completely and thus couldn't get under anyone to flip them easily (although I did manage a couple of flips!)

And now battle scarred:
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps16326665.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5dbfef25.jpg

Here's what the insides look like now:
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...psbae136c4.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...pscde0a2ca.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/...ps43dd49ac.jpg


And he's looking forward to coming out to play in Portsmouth :D

Nice one Chris....great to see that people are still using them and not stuck in the back of a cupboard.

Like the Schumacher link kit - might get one for Ironconkers....Does the link light up when plugged in?

Unfortunately not, although that is a cool idea.

Here's where I got it:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Schumacher-AS ... 53ee894dfc

Price is a bit steep for what it is maybe but I couldn't find anything similar and it does work pretty well.

This is a stupid question but how is the flipping arm powered? Can you still buy these? I really want one lol.

It's spring powered and has a motor to wind it back down after it has fired.

John and Trevor are the ones to ask, but as far as I'm aware they have prototypes of new ones which I'm guessing will be available in the not too distant future?