Team MAD Build diaries

Well i'd though i'd get myself a thread. Decided to build a feather a new feather, and see how quickly i can do it from bits i've had laying around.

Name: TBC
Weapon: LP Flipper (63mm bore giving ~300kg of thrust) - Old G3 Ram, when it was LP
Drive: Bosch 35s - Spares
Batteries: 1.2ah 14.4v NiCads - one of Alphas old ones
Speedos: Electronize - Spares from the P2D
Armour/Chassis: 10mm HDPE - Off cuts
RC: Futbaba Skysport 6 with FrSky 2.4 hack - Borrowed from our Dalek

New things going in it; Wheels, plastic/steel (although off-cuts), will have probably cost me £50 in bits to build it.

I dodn't have any particular design in mind, it was just a case of how it fitted together best, but its ended up as a FW Big Brother :?

Total time so far ~4hours, hopefully should have the bulk of it done by tomorrow, want to run it this weekend at manchester, so has to be finished by wednesday night.

looks good already! whats the dimentions of the bot?

think 31cm long by 43cm wide

nearly done, just got to sort out rear top panel of armour and sides armour. Currently weight 10.7kg, so can really beef up the armour if needed, but only built for whiteboarding etc so might just put a bigger buffer in. Got an issue with regulator pulling in liquid, and therefore trying to go full pressure, can get around it by only half filling, but i'll have a further look into it. Had to swap the valve as first didn't have enough flow. It just about self-rights, will tweak it abit to make that more reliable. Current build time ~ 9hours hopefully a couple more tomorrow and its ready. Drives very well and good speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnCBrYxVDU0

that looks awesome! kinda like a mini blazer

It's coming along impressively quickly!

Thats was part of the challenge to do it in a small amount of time, if not i'd never finish it, it would just keep getting put aside. Currently going for the name 'Ratchet', but not decided, also have to fit the bungees (running in the arena to push the arm back down might not be the best idea!).

Looking at the video, i really need to tidy the workshop!

But then it wouldn't be a workshop.....

What valve are you using?

Its a standard 3/2 1/4 valve, cant remember what make, had it knocking around for ages.

please, please make a robot called clank :proud:

How did u fill your co2 bottle up for testing

You need a doner bottle (liquid withdraw) and a dectaning pipe. We have several LK bottles that we have leftover from shows. Don't attempt unless you know what your doing, best thing is just to fill up your bottle at the end of an event, best to get somebody to fill your bottles until your confident yourself.

Ok thanks and the robot is looking great atm!

Finished it yesterday. Going to leave it without the side protection for now, until i decide on how to do it. Will run it as is for this weekend, self-rights well.

Fun bit of trivia, just as i was playing with it this morning, i saw its pneumatic ram on the tv, as the ram is one formally used in Lambsy (they had 2)!

That looks very impressive, especially for a three day build

Haha, so you saw the 'Minor Meltdown!' addition of Robot Wars too eh?

well it ran in 4 fights today, and was still running at the end of every one, a few dents in the Ali from little hitter, but other than that put up a good fight.

Looks great Alan. Wish I could churn out a fully working featherweight in just a few hours; that's usually how long it takes me each build day to have a can of Pepsi and decide what parts of the robot I'll be working on :lol:

Good work Alan!
That must be some sort of record for building a complete robot with weapon in 9 hrs.
After 9 hours i'm normally looking at a few parts placed on the table.

same here, i spend ages just looking at bits, but i wanted something to play with in the feathers last weekend and seeing as i didn't get the plastic until monday dinner, it forced me to get on with it. Pleased with how it went event beat little hitter and little flipper along the way! Only breakdown was a push-fit breaking when hitter hit it right at the end of a fight. Not to get on with building a new G3...

New cheese 3? Make sure it's got the authentic egg shaped wheels :P wouldn't be the same without lol

lol, will use the same drive i've got in this one, as it works well. New G3 will be a mini Iron Awe,seeing as thats where they nicked the design from anyway.. :P

Doing some upgardes (i hope!) to Kronics pneumatics.

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0236.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0235.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0234.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0018.jpg

cant really see what your upgrading alan, isn't kronic powerfull enough allready ?

Can always be more powerful, the pics are of the old setup, the aim is to try and keep the flips more consistant rather than dropping off after 5-6, so another 3litres of buffers going in, in exchange for one of the main bottles.

Quick update what we're up to. All 3 heavies suffered damage last weekend, Merlin has a broken motor (the magnet came loose) and a bent chassis bar, but thats alomost fixed (if the expoxy ever dries!), UFO suffered damage from Thor, new ram should be pruchased in about an hour (when the auction finishes on ebay!). The major damage was to Kronic, the whole chassis is basically written off, the back end got bent over, breaking all the brackets and mounts, and the front half has snapped, so the winter project is to build a new chassis for it. From the outside it should look roughly the same, but the internal layout will be different. This means that the plans for the new Knightmare have been put on hold for now, I was hoping to have that for Dublin, but have to sort Kronic first, maybe Knightmare will be ready for Barnsley/Whitwick, depends if another project happens or not.

Merlin bent bit!
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0394.jpg

Kronic Strip-Down
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0396.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0397.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0400.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...c/DSC_0403.jpg

Started Kronic rebuild today. All new chassis is needed. Will be the same size and shape (apart from angle cut out at back) and will go from 4wd to 2wd for mobility and weight. Chassis is being made from steel box section rather than the Ali, and its actually lighter.

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0415.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0416.jpg

All the blue painted metal is old stuff and being replaced, just put it there to try out.

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0417.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0419.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0420.jpg

Copy :P

actually i'm copying IA, seeing as they copied Merlin with their new bot :rofl:

Main chassis now complete and welded.

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0423.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0425.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0426.jpg

Chassis all welded up and ground down, ready to start mounting stuff. Mounting the axles will be the hard bit due to the location, but think i've figured it. Hope to have it driving for this weekend to test. As you can see the new frame is alot lighter, hopefully allow for abit more armour.

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0434.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0435.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0431.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0436.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0437.jpg

blimey thats a massive weight loss cant belive that, would have thought the old ally was lighter !
more gas and buffers on board now then ??

I figured it was going to be lighter, but was amazed by how much. Plan was to keep the pneumatics similar to how they were at Kidderminster as it seemed to work ok there, but seeing as i might have some extra weight to play with might slide another bottle in :) kept all the angles and geomatory of the flipper the same, all the other sizes are the same, only difference is the angle cut off on the back.

That angled cut-off at the back is clearly the source of the 7.7kg weight loss :lol:

no its the lack of blue paint :lol:

Drives done, next job is to art mounting the pneumatics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAHIi1fF9gU

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0439.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0449.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0450.jpg

Everything together, if i used the original armour
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0454.jpg

The new Kronic is looking vry tidy
Going to 2 wheel drive certainly seems to work

Back on page 1 (sorry :oops: ) the feather you built had car seat motors (well they look like the ones I have and no I didnt nick them from the wifes car :lol: ) but with some nice axles
Did you make those yourself or get them made up?

Alan i am sure every roboteer looking at that last picture smiled and thought they have done exactly the same thing. :)

Has to be done Swanny, it the roboteers version of Buckaroo, how much stuff can you pile on before you hit the 100kg :) Hopefully weight for better armour ontop.

Quote:

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Back on page 1 (sorry :oops: ) the feather you built had car seat motors (well they look like the ones I have and no I didnt nick them from the wifes car :lol: ) but with some nice axles
Did you make those yourself or get them made up?

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They're Bosch 35s used in Jags/Rovers for the car seats. Made the axles myself.