Mute

Just thought I would let you know Mute has a new web address and weve finally got round to updating it.

New link is http://www.team-mute.co.ukwww.team-mute.co.uk

Theres some new pictures of Mute, Micro Mute and Micro Mute 2 and some videos of Mute doing what it does best.

Any feedback would be appreciated as were still working on it with some more updates

Regards
Adam

its only took you about 2yrs to update it! theres a video of the sheffield final on our site http://www.teammad.co.ukwww.teammad.co.uk if you wanna put a link to it. Also have a load of photos of mute at events if you want them.

Looking good there Adam :)

Sam
http://www.shredderteam.comhttp://www.shredderteam.com
http://www.robotcrusade.comhttp://www.robotcrusade.com

WOAH! , Mute has evolved so mutch over the last few years. for the better? :p

I am a big fan of Mute great bot and good web site guys

i think mute if it was near the wall will self right out the arena

nah but could selfright back in if it was flipped oota :)

Fan-flipping-tastic site, and that even includes the videos and the robot :proud:

Do you reckon they could use that tacic to get out of the pit?!

Could. I still reckon Mute needs a way of getting robots onto the flipper. Thats the one problem with it , me feels

Why dont they make the flipper shafts ever so slightly lighter, maybe drill a couple of holes here and there and add a lower flatter blade to the flipper.

Oops, just remembered that its a bottom hinged flipper! Doh! Ah well, does someone else what to slap me round the face or should I do it for myself.

Stephen, Matty,

The main reason we couldnt get robots up the flipper was because out tyres were totally worn out. We usually run with 6mm ground clearance but ended up at just over 1mm - no grip and no ground clearnace.

We do almost every live event there is and it takes its tole in wear and tear and unfortunately we didnt have time to fix/replace/straighten Mute ready for RW.

For flipper shafts, we cant really make them any lighter because they will bend. We blow our front flipper out in about 100th of a second so we need all of the strength we can get.

Come to a live event so you can see how different Mute is. Or even better stick a robot in with us and join in the fun :)

The only robot Ive ever built was a feather and it was old remote control car with a static scoop on the front and an old table leg with nails on sticking out of the back as a full body spinner. Oh, and it was armoured in an old bathtubs fibreglass!

Thats a point, if anyone wants some old fibre glass bathtub for their robot theyll know who to call!

Daniel, may I ask why you chose to build a bottom hinged flipper, as although it makes many robots better at wedging robots against things, it means that you will have more trouble disposin gof them and as Refbot seems to delight in removing robots from the side wall, surely you need something which can actually gat things OOTA. Now, weve seen Firestorm flip a few robots OOTA but more often than not it has to leave them on the side wall.

Aint too sure why we chose that configuration really. When I designed Mute a bottom hinged flipper allowed me to fit everything in much easier. The external armour and chassis is now four years old so way back when it was brand new it was really small. Most people assumed it was a 50Kg middle weight. Even today Mute is still small so I dont think I did too bad a job :) Also one factor in Mutes design was watching Cassius self right for the time :)

Have a look at the videos on our website to see the power of Mutes flipper. We can stack things on the arena wall from a couple of meters away or get a bit closer and try to blast them over. It doesnt make too much difference as we usually run at the Roaming Robots arena which stops all OOTAs.

Mute isnt a serious RW robot, its a toy. If we do well at RW & live events then great, otherwise no problem because its all a good laugh to us.

If I wanted a seriously competative bot Id mod our gas system and flipper to ping to robots out from the center of the arena, but as Mute stands I think its pretty damn good :)

You could always use the rear flipper to get an oota.

Mutes cool

i must agree with u, mute is a very formidable flipper all housed in a tiny chassis. It is so interesting to see how such a small robot is able to compete so well against the rest of the competitors. I dont think the way the flipper is hinged makes much difference to its performance. Well done daniel (and team) on making such a great machine

Thanks for answering my question. If, and when RW finishes will you think of redesigning the robot for the specifications of a live event arena, or are you happy, just to carry on with the same robot?

Matty

Mute isnt a toy

Its a wheelie stunt ramp for Storm II :) (those who were at Brighton Model World will understand)

For those who dont, imagine an upside Storm II and Mute at full closing speed at a slightly oblique angle ;)

Ed
http://www.stormrobot.comhttp://www.stormrobot.com

I was at Brighton Model World. I dont recall seeing Mute and storm 2 in the same fight...
Hmmmmm...

I did build a featherwieght once. It had a cardboard shell over an RC car and a sellotaped knife on the front. It wasnt very competative though. Shame, it had potentiol


Seriously, I hope to build a REAl featherwieght some day soon, maybe that Zeobot thing from technobots, sounds good.

Cant wait to see Mute defend its title at Ironbridge in March. Good luck guys.

I got a remote control car covered with cardboard and armed with a steel wedge 0.2 mm off the ground. It weighs only 2kg though!!! Does that count?? No, but maybe one day when i have more time and when im not so busy ill get around to building a real robot.

Stephen, the Zeobot is intended to be in a Zeobot class of featherweights but I expect that even the standard version will be quite effective on the open circuit let alone a customised one!

Paul

Paul, can you give me a estimate when we can purchase these kits on-line?

Is there any way for Mute to self right without doing the somersault ? I personnally love watching it do it, but its buggered you out of a few things before

The funny thing is though, with all of the somersaults we do - we still aint run out of gas yet :)

The somersaults are a fault with Mutes gas system. Mute is designed to run on very high pressure CO2 gas so we bend the dip tubes up to the very top of the bottles. When we get turned over the dip tubes are no longer in the gas space, and are now fully submerged in CO2 liquid and the flipper becomes more explosive and energetic - hence the bunny effect! We could run on liquid all the time but with our current setup (using HP gas), on about 3Kg of CO2 we get around 50 flips.

There is a way of stopping Mute doing somersaults and its all more or less ready to be fitted... but to fit the modification we need to strip Mute back to an almost bare chassis and re-plumb the gas system.

We have loads of live events this year and dont have too much free time to get it fitted so Id say that the somersaults are here to stay for a few more months at least :proud:

Why dont you just turn the dip-tubes around? Youd get less flipps...but better ones...and you would shrimech alot better :)

Dave moulds
Team Turbine

wish you read the posts! When we get turned over the dip tubes are no longer in the gas space, and are now fully submerged in CO2 liquid and the flipper becomes more explosive and energetic - hence the bunny effect! We could run on liquid all the time but with our current setup (using HP gas), on about 3Kg of CO2 we get around 50 flips.

fool :P

yea I read that.....but still...

Dave moulds
Team Turbine

Dave,

One very good reason not to run Liquid CO2 - it bends the flipper...

As it is we can bend a laminate of 8mm Thk Grade 5 Titanium and 8mm Thk Stainless Steel - and that is excluding all of the T section bits we use for extra strength.

We ran liquid for one event about a year ago and Mute came back bent like a banana - the flipper was completely bent, the chassis was warped where the rams are attached and the hinges were shot to bits.

But doesnt that happen when you self right as well?

The bend is due to deceleration of the flipper - when it hits the end stops the flipper flexes and tries to carry on moving. When we are upside down this cant happen as the flipper isnt moving until the rams are fully extended. Only after the rams are fully extended will Mute self-right as we use the momentum of the rest of the robot to carry us over.... and over.... and over...

Being able flip fequently without worrying about exhausting the gas bottles is probably better, no?

wow, must have a fair bit of speed there to be able to bend it like a bannana...what bore rams you using? Ive heared you can fire the flipper in 0.01seconds or somthing crazy like that..

Dave moulds
Team Turbine

Um, on a similar note, how are the rams restrained? Do you have the end caps from hell, or is something else getting wrecked by this kind of force?

--
Fluppet

Mutes rams (four in total) are all 1.5/38mm bore and we fire them with a couple of home made valves. Under no load conditions the valve/pipework can pass enough gas (assuming pressure remains constant at around 40 bar) to completely fill our front rams in 0.01 seconds.

The rams are homemade and are nothing too special, although they are a bit chunky to cope with the duty. Cylinder wall is 6mm thk, front end cap is upto 10mm thk stainless steel, and the rear is upto 20mm thk stainless steel. We use tie rods to hold the whole thing together which are again stainless steel.

We do have to regularly inspect the rams, mounting brakets and chassis where the rams are attached to check for bending but this isnt really a problem.

How many high power flips do you have before the tank starts to run out?

Earlier in the conversation it was mentioned that Mute has about 50 flips, if they dont waste liquid CO2.

My calculator tells me that, if the stroke (can anyone tell me the correct stroke?) is 100 mm, 1 action uses 14L of gas(7l per ram). 3 kg is */-1500L. So, up to a 100 actions are possible.

I think the rear rams are about 90mm stroke and the front ones are about 190mm, but Dan and Adam will know more then me about it!

Alan your almost right, its 80mm on the rear and 215mm on the front or there abouts anyway.

50 flips is about right assuming we run on gas and dont start pulling liquid. 100 flips would be possible I guess if the temperature remained constant and there were no leaks but its hard to tell as we use the flippers randomly depending on which way were heading.

Also we can run with upto 4Kg on board if its a warm day but 3Kg is more the norm.