Australian feathweights

hello,

back in december the abbl(australian bot builders league) had its first public featherweight competition.

it was a great success and some of the best action we have had took place there.

it would be interesting to see what the more experienced british roboteers think of our robots and the like so here is a highlights video:

http://www.robowars.org/video/Decemberhttp://www.robowars.org/video/December 2003 Highlights - High-Q.wmv

thats 30mb, only for the brave and the people with high speed connections!

http://www.robowars.org/video/Decemberhttp://www.robowars.org/video/December 2003 Highlights - Medium-Q.wmv

this ones only 15mb

http://www.robowars.org/video/Decemberhttp://www.robowars.org/video/December 2003 Highlights - Low-Q.wmv

thats 5mb, still of decent quality.

note, the 2003 Highlights - Low-Q.wmv etc part is part of the URL, with spaces and capitals included.

All comments appreciated good or bad, what do you think?

(btw look out for my robot, its the little box that catches fire!)

cheers, Glen Rose

Glen, are you links working as I just get page not found?

Paul

same

http://www.abbl.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5321&sid=b215fe92341a09f37bf0cb892 869259f#5321http://www.abbl.org/forum/viewtopic....37bf0cb8928692 59f#5321 sorry about that try going to this page and the links are about about half way down.

Very impressive footage there and a great sound track as well. How many of the bots were using the IBC?

No doubt someone will ask about your arming up / disarming procedure so I wont :)

Certainly looks like the standard is very high, its a shame we are on opposite sides of the world to have UK V Australia competition.

Paul
BTW, lo res version is fine to watch.

Wow, impressive robots you have there guys, keep up the good work!

regards
Dave moulds
Team Turbine/PLF

p.s. Paul mate...what sort of music you into? im a little woried to say the least!, hehe:)

Nice one guys,
Very impressive show! Some fine robots too!
As Paul said pity about the distance. But I think if some of us give it a little serious thought, surely it might be possible to put together some kind of Australia v UK comp. It would clearly be one hell of a good meeting. (and a chance for you guys to get your own back for that rugby match!!..Sorry!) :)
If any one has any serious suggestions on this one, please post it here and Im sure between us we may well be able to sort out something. It may not happen quickly, but if we dont try, it will never happen! I would be more than happy to see what I can do from this end.
As has already been said...Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Geoff,
teamscorpion@aol.com

Ill be in on a Australia vs Pommy comp. Just as soon as I get my EV Warrior installed into The Aggressor anyway. I think theres videos of The Aggressor in the Queensland/Metal Mayhem 2 thread on the ABBL site too, but only with a RS-775 driving the weapon.

yeah i would love to be in on a aussie vs pommy comp, shame about the distance..... (yes its been said).

@ paul, everyrobot there bar screwy (my box one which used servo switches) and annihilation (the spinning bar which uses homemade PWM controllers). to my knowledge the IBCs had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

well the disarming/arming procedure im glad to say was very safe. all robot had a power switch/link and power light. and no mishaps either.

hmmmm an international competition.... id like to break of a piece against vortex!!! lol

not vortex you wanna be affaid of its Cutlet FP or Flowrate. spinning bars arent worth a thing if there 8ft up

trust me
but saying that Id love to come over be good to see England beat the aussies again

nobody mention the rugby
whoops ah well these things happen sorry bout that no really I am
Must be hard to lose such a big game at home always next time thou :P

Well dont forget who wins the Ashes series :)

Once I get the rest of my bots put back together properly, Bring it on UK guys! The competition was great, we even have Channel Seven news come down and film a battle. As the 2nd place winner at Melbourne with T2M, I say the competition was great, it took a lot of work to get to were we ended.

We have a fair variety of robots in Aus, we have simple pushers like KO using 4 x 12v cordless drills on 24v with heell amounts to push, to spinners such as Annihilation (My robot that was flipped twice when it hit an opponent, featured in the Robowars video), we have undercutters like Inspector General, and even hammer bots like Ball Peen.

If some of you guys would like to find more about our aussie workings, swing over to http://www.abbl.orgwww.abbl.org

Id be interested in coming over next year actually.
If anyone can offer me bed and breakfast and transport I think it would be fantastic to meet a who new scene and introduce you to some of my machines.

Excellent footage that, makes me want to trvel half the glode to be part of.

Cheers

Thanks James...thats the first one!
I think the first thing to agree is...Are we coming to you or are you coming to us?
(I would even consider building a new machine for the event...I think Sweet Chariot may be a good name for it!!) :)

Oh dear :sad: LOL!!!
Now now, remember the golden rule,
Friendly Out side the Arena, nasty inside the arena.
Your not in the arena yet Geoff :) LOL!

Mr Stu
- England - England - England-

Stu,
Who?, me?, would I ever be anything less than friendly outside the arena? and when did you ever see me be nasty inside? :)

Oh,I forgot, can any of you guys from down-under tell me how I can register on The ABBL forum..It will not let me in without telling it what Aussie state Im from!! (Not easy from Pommy land!):)

Well if any of you UK guys want to come to Queensland, Ill get some places for you to crash, we have a Bed & Breakfast in Kilkivan called the Left Bank, its made where the old ANZ Bank was. It depend which event you guys want to compete in, Id advise a battle at Melbourne in Victoria since they have the good 6mm polycarb arena, but its 1800km from Queensland. :P So if you want to compete, get accommodation close to the event.

as a Welshman, not a pom, I think I can be impartial, and will take no racial satisfaction in giving/getting a good kicking to/from any nationality.

Okey dokey Aaron, melbourne it is.
Anyone got a spare bed near melbourne for a friendly non-pom?

Youll have to wait and find out when the next major Robowars event is, Im sure its not for another 6mths, which in that case I might have enough time to get my new bots finished to test out on some foreigners :P

Wait till closer to the date, Im sure Barry the owner of the Arena and Venue will be thrilled to hear that the UK roboteers are interested.

Come join the ABBL forums and youll find out a lot quicker :P just click the link: http://www.abbl.orgwww.abbl.org

And for those who dont know what state, just join up as a Queensland and since Im a moderator, Ill just shift your status over to international membership :)

Thanks for the info. Aaron, Signed up to ABBL..quite painless realy :)

Geoff youve been shifted and James youll be next.

Does anyone know if there is a UK supplyer for the IBC? I know i can get them from Australia and America but i was hoping to find a british source to save myself a few £. If there isnt does anyone else want one, we might be able to get a discount (and save on postage etc) if we put in a big order.

Joe Townsend

Joe, I may well be intrested in one if you can find a supplier / discount. But think about buying from the US because of the favourable £/$ rate at the moment.
Geoff.

that is what i was planning if there is no UK supplier, I got $1.77 to the pound a couple of weeks ago when I ordered from robotcombat.com. Is anyone else interested? more info can be found at http://www.robotcombat.com/marketplace_robowars.htmlhttp://www.robotcombat.com/marketplace_robowars.html

Joe Townsend

Technobots were going to sell them, but Technobots wanted a lower bulk price and unfortunately Robowars cannot supply them any cheaper as they are practically selling them for the cost to build them. They were originally made to help us aussies with no speed controllers so we had something to use that was safe.

The best place to get them probably would be RobotCombat, but if anyone is looking at becoming a supplier in the UK, contact Brett from Robowars.org, hes the man to talk to.

Yes, Technobots was going to retail these but terms could not be agreed but they do look a nice controller although priced quite high for the feather market.

Paul

I am going to have a go at making one with one of my computer/electronics friends. We are planning on taking out the functions we dont want (like the mixer) to make it even simpler, smaller and cheaper. If we are successful i will write a how to guide and see if i can get it on featherweights.org or something.

Joe Townsend

One feature in the IBC that I felt not absolutely necessary was the wide operating voltage range that required the use of some expensive circuitry.

Paul

We are going to be running it off 25.2V NiCads so we can cut down the max operating voltage (hopefully saving some money). I assumed that the reason it will run off 4v is so if you have a massive motor on a disc or something when you first turn it on (essentially stalled) and the battery voltage drops the processor chip doesnt die. But my electronics knowlege is pretty limited so i am probably wrong.

Joe Townsend

The IBC has such a wide range of voltage because its not just designed for featherweights, it can be used in lightweights and possibly some small middle weights. IT can also cater for those who wish to run the motors on higher voltage ie: ww motors on 36v

The main reason why the IBC is so dear is because it has MOSFET reverse instead of the cheap less reliable way of using relays like in the Electronise. Also, the failsafing in the IBC is very good, maybe too good, I was rather dissapointed when i saw that my mate had payed out AUD$250 for a 30amp electronise to see it have no real failsafing :sad:

Anyway, Ive got two IBCs and I love them, but I guess its each to his own. Also Joseph, most speed controllers that have mixing have it done in the microprocessor programming, not via circuitry

I agree that the IBC is a great controller, that is why we want one. The only reason we are going to change it is because we dont need, or want some of the functions, we were not trying to have a dig at it. Also do you know where we can get the code from, it says it is open source but i cant find it anywhere.

Joe Townsend

http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/15/1097.html#POST9716http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc....html#POST9716

The problem has spread!

http://www.robowars.org/docs/ibc-docs-v0.1.pdfhttp://www.robowars.org/docs/ibc-docs-v0.1.pdf

on the last page.

i have to agree with you on the failsafe aaron, it is very...... safe. i had no idea why my robot stopped in the arena one time, turned out to be the failsafe.

one particularly nice feature of the IBC is that it has so many outputs, like a constant 12v output, 100mah output (or something of that nature), aux high, low etc.

i threw up my choices between the victor 883, electronise 30amp and IBC. the IBC really is far better than any in terms of features, and the cost difference is really that big at all.

The code is from the OSMC group. Brett was looking at changing parts of the code, but said it was rather intricate and if you modif one section of code, youll generally affect another. The IBC can have its mixing turned off I believe, so you an use normal tank steering instead.

am i right in asuuming the IBC doesnt have current limiting?

yes Alan.

Mr Stu

Im going to get an IBC and give it current limiting, or at least reverse engineer the controller and build my own with current limiting- it would be the icing on the cake for an already superb controller. I also agree glen that Victors dont have a patch on the IBC. Just dont tell that to all the US chaps else theyll get unhappy about all the money they spent on inferior products ;-)

I plan to use an IBC is KR2.
And FeatherWeights.org are soon to stock them.

Mr Stu
http://www.FeatherWeights.org>

How soon? i was about to buy one from australia or america as ours will not be ready for a long time but if I am able to get them from you then I will do that instead.

Once various things have been agreed (largely odds n sods to do with customs) we should be stocking them. Give it a couple of weeks and whinge at Stu or I if you hear nothing. We will announce here when they are in stock.

Eddy
http://www.featherweights.org>