NST

No worries Jamie, I liked the posts :)

Progress has been slow, but alot closer now to completing the Dewalt motor upgrade V2.

The brushes weren't supported to well in the original version causing their edges to chip slightly when the robot took impacts. Alot more effort this time to design something which secure the brushes properly. Its been a lot more challenging than I first expected. Was toying with using the stock brush holders for ages then decided to bite the bullet and machine my own in aluminium.

What will this do to the power of the bar? You were running the Dewalt last year so is this simply to make it even more reliable and eeek that little bit more from the motor without actually changing it?

That exactly it. Just refining the current setup. In theory it should be more reliable and preserve 'new' motor performance for longer.

I have taken the decision not to make the bar more powerful this year as it'll near enough guarantee that the machine will launch itself out of the arena during the champs.

If I wanted to up the power of the bar, this could easily be done by going 8 cell on the dewalt, or putting the brushless system back in and refining it.

Don't worry, the new machine, 'Shard' will be more powerful :)

Will you reveal any details about it? Horizontal, Vertical, Brushless? Its not hard to image something more dangerous than NST but something that will stay in the arena...?

motor mods look really nice sam! I cant see a machine that would really beat NST so i think you have a good chance at defending the title. Good luck... except if you have to fight Predator lol

Thanks James, keep meaning to post on your build of Predator, that's looking awesome.
I think the main thing that NST has going for it is proven reliability (now I've said that it'll fail!), but I think there are a fair few robots out there which could beat it. Anyway very much looking forward to the champs now to see what it can do this year!

Alex, I'm keeping Shard top secret at least for the time being, I've had the design for it for well over a year but still haven't started the build yet. With any luck I'll get started after the champs and finish it in a years time.

sam, how did you drive the dewalt motor (any fet part numbers?). I'm also going to use 2 of these motors so I would be grateful if you could advise me on how to drive such a powerful motor (the only thing I have found that may work is an industrial mosfet module intended for use on forklifts). thanks

Dragging up an old thread here... Does anyone know the name of the plastic Sam used on the back of his Dewalt? I have gone through this thread and I can't find a name. Apparently something NASA grade if I recall.

Peek?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEEK

That could be it, thanks Tim :)