Team Vulcan Build Diary

Hi all,


Having been hovering around the forums for a while, I’m slowly getting my first Featherweight build together. I haven’t yet decided on a name so this will be added at a later date.

Design:

The test-bed was initially a pair of 607x610mm square pieces of 9mm MDF. Having built the electrics to see if the robot would move (initially without the LED), I found that the TX and RX combo I have didn’t have a failsafe (although it may be attributed to the ESC sending the power to the throttle, which I plan to get a small external unit to work around this, as the build rules state that the failsafe can be built-in to the Receiver or can be an external unit). Once the test-bed was completed, I realised that the size of the robot (being 607x610mm) was too big to fit in the car, so I decided to take the test-bed apart to scale the robot down.

Currently the design is a trapezium built around an A3 rectangle which all the electrics are positioned. At present the robot weighs 7.8kg (giving me roughly 5.8kg until it goes over the weight limit). I'm currently in the process of adding a MDF panel underneath at the back where the Link will be positoned. The LED will positioned in a similar area, where it will be fixed to the armor.

Parts I currently have utilised:

• 2x B&Q Value 12v Cordless Drills + Batteries
  
• 1x Sabertooth 2x12 ESC (to be changed at a later date)
  
• 1x Maplin 12v Chrome Bezel Yellow LED
  
• 2x 178mm Homebase wheels
  
• 9mm MDF shaped into a Trapezium
  
• 2x4 timber
  
  
• Spektrum DX4C w/SR410 Rx (to be changed, currently used for testing)
  
• Terminal blocks (which will be updated to fully soldered connections)
  
• 1x B&Q Two pin 10a plug and socket
  
• 2x 18kg load caster wheels (for enhanced manoeuvrability, and stability)
  
• 4x 100mm Angle Brackets
  

Theoretically I should have the robot fully built and ready for its first ever fight at the Chatham event in September.

Sounds good, will look forward to seeing it built :)

Looks OK to me though a couple of things I might note:

• The pin and plug from B&Q, I assume this is going to be your removable link? What I found, when I was building The Honey Badger 1.0 was that it didn't hold together particularly well and so the robot was prone to turning itself off (though that could have had something to do with where it was located). Yours might be a different design though.
• 9mm MDF, in my opinion, isn't going to be robust on its own without another layer/edging I think. That being said, I have seen plywood robots in EXR Maidstone 2017 and they held up OK.
• Terminal connectors are fine where you want to be able to easily detach parts (so I have a pair before and after the speed controllers but where you think that you won't need to disassemble it, I'd solder it now if only to get it out of the way.
  
  During EXR Manchester 2018, The Honey Badger 2.2 ran full on into a wall and the main battery terminal connector came loose and shut down. The wiring loom I made for The Honey Badger 3.0 (which I posted a photo of) should prevent that happening again.

What weaponry is going to be on this one?