Tormenta 2 - Build Diary

Made some good progress whilst waiting for the Botbitz to turn up. The top plate has been mostly made, it will need some slotting at the front yet. We also have made up the chocks on which the side armour will be mounted. These way just 200grams together, due to drilling 38mm holes in them. :lol:

We did that because we realised how close we are on weight. We're going to continue building with weight semi-on-the-mind until completion, and if we end up overweight (think we will) then we'll replace the top lifter bars with ali ones, as the current weigh 3/4kg!

Oh and the HDPE pipe has been attached to the back.

Coming along very nicely. It's doing what Tormenta did, looked the same for months and suddenly in the last two weeks its look changes wildly.

On photobucket you can see some of our PRECISION engineering, including a coat hanger clamped to the workbench which hangs over the already made hole in the machine, the technique being to slide the top plate into position and voil¡! Instant hole alignment. :proud:

Oh and also you can see how we drilled the top plate mounting holes into the bulkheads, by putting the robot on a sheet of HDPE and a briefcase, then putting the pillar drill on an old painting.

We're totally at the forefront of precision robot combat. :lol: - that said, the pic of our bulkheads is pretty cool. Each hole has a purpose!

http://s1088.photobucket.com/albums/i32 ... menta 2/

It looks excellent, well done!

Neat idea with the coat hanger! I'll have to nick that.

Side armour is now on! Thing is really sturdy, and I am warming to the shape. It isn't very flattering from the side but from above it looks pretty cool, if I may say so!

http://s1088.photobucket.com/albums/i32 ... menta 2/

Not much else to report, just some blurry pictures.

We sat it next to what remains of Tormenta for the sake of it. It's strange, when we built Tormenta it felt like were were at the limit of our tools and to an extent, skills. With a bit more experience (same tools, mind), Tormenta 2 at least looks a world away. This far in and we still don't know how reliable it all is, though. Structurally, we think so. Electronically, couldn't tell ya. The ESCheap85s still haven't shown themselves.

Right, 1:25am, bed I think!

its a boat! its a tank! its, its... pretty awesome man :)

I like the side on shot, makes it look like a tank or one of those beach landing craft with the front door down. What's the weight at the moment? Will you get it all in?

As it is in the pictures + batteries, it's about 1.5lbs under. Still needs some scoopy-business at the front, 3 ESCs and a load of wiring.

Going to be tight. We're pretty much set on changing the top bars to angle ali, which should free up a few hundred grams.

Thanks for the responses.

Edit: dad just came back from the post office with the speedos! Hoorah!

They're tiny. :o

lbs? what is this strange collection of letters? :lol:

I would make spare Ali beams as they will be much more easily bent than the steel ones in combat

Its going to be difficult to fight, from our perspective anyway, as there isn't an easy way to disable the machine with a disc (unless its OOTAs) as you can get up from any angle, and your wheels are reasonably well defended

Haha, lbs = pounds. Don't know why I went American on you there but seems I did. :?

We have tested the Botbits ESCs and both appear to be working as they should. The BEC is fine with the mixer and they failsafe. No bodge-wire-test-drive fun tonight though, perhaps tomorrow night. We have more or less settled on positions for the speedos, not what I had intended/expected, but should work.

Unless we buy 2m of ali we won't have enough for spares. Each arm is 40cm long. They should be fine for these two events, 90% of the stresses on them aren't side to side (bend-ways). We may not even have to go that route. The weight may be okay.

Only time will tell!

Got a 1:15am test drive, and yep, it's cool. The control is (as others have reported) not great down low but in the mid ranges it's very good. The ability to react is much better now, without the relays, too. Need to get some in-fury driving in to get a real feel but the signs are it's pretty beastly. At some 13kg it still wheel spins a lot!

The wiring has come along very nicely. All that is left is to figure out our link, and fit an LED. All three ESCs can be disconnected with deans, so it should be simple to repair if any wiring goes funky.

It isn't really an issue when driving (I don't think anyway, the in-fury tests will show), but the joystick fully into a corner somehow results in no movement at all. Anyone know what is causing that, and if it's easily resolved?

Hopefully get a vid up tomorrow! Thanks. :)