Good luck to all of you competeing at the weekend, have fun.
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Good luck to all of you competeing at the weekend, have fun.
bloody hell Graeme, there's more engineering your screen bracket then there is in the whole of mine! Had a quick test run on mine today, with just 2 engines (nobody else about, so didnt fancy risking it on 4) got to 31mph fairly quickly, and still had more to give, think it should easily hit 40mph within the 100m. One of the spark plugs is creating aload of EMF and causing the servos to not respond, so need to swap that out tommorrow. Don't want to test it too much as the belts are stretching and im running out of adjustment to take up the slack!
Still got loads to do on ours. With a bit of luck we'll be out testing tomorrow afternoon.
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...60408309_n.jpg
Damn 2 strokes.
We've also had issues with emf and servos. Now looking for somewhere we can pick up new spark plugs from
lookin' good, what are you using to control the servos?
Originally it was: potentiometer ->(analogue voltage) -> arduino ->(i2c) -> Servo control pic -> (pwm) -> servo. This works fine in the garage but when an engine is running it frequently cuts out. In some bench testing we found the pic was sensitive to noise (even the noise generated by servos was enough for it to lock up sometimes). Adding extra capacitance on the power lines appeared to cure that.
We're now going to try: potentiometer ->(analogue voltage) -> arduino -> (pwm) -> servo. to reduce the variables.
I think bolt lightning was using an Arduino to control there engines, so I think that should be tough enough to survive working near an engine. I'm not sure if they were using servos or something else though.
why do you need to use servos ?
John
Im using a standard off the shelf servo tester board (the one from Technobots). Im using servos as it was easier than trying to do it all with direct linkages/cables , i did that last year, but wasn't great, could be done but too much hassle.
i see, i thought maybe there was a rule or something !!
hmm, wish i had made a electric powered one now, as the van sticks of petrol! Not looking forward to the 170 mile trip with an 140mile detor along the way!
Alan, don't forget the detour to pick us up when we break down on the way :)
no problem, i'll keep an eye out for the distress flare (or a cloud of steam!)
? :uhoh:
How did it go guys?
Hi All, First I would like to thank the event organisers for putting on the event, namely Silverline, Robo Challenge and not forgetting the Fleet Air Arm Museum, our hosts.
The event started very well for us, getting through the first round only needing one run then the rains came. A big thanks to Alan Young for the use of his gazebo. A lot of machines only had slick tyres which was dangerous so all proceedings had to ne postponed.
When we started the second round we were the first machine on giving us time to charge our batteries if we needed to make a second run which fortunately again we didnt need to do, and managed to reach the next round after another four machines had been eliminated.
On the third round, 6 machines had to be eliminated most posting similar times to ours. We had to try something a little radical to get into the final four overloading just about every system we had, we managed a really good time of 7.85 which was better than the time that won last year. Our top speed over the 100 metres which seemed a long 100 metres was 43 mph. In achieving this time we blew two of our speed controllers although it got us into the last round. We knew with the times of the other machines we werent going to get any better than fourth but we were happy that we had beaten the time from last years winners which is all we set out to do. The three teams that beat us were quite heavily sponsored. In third place was Silverline, second place the Royal Marines and first place Robo Challenge.
4th Well done Team Big Nipper this shows you guys are the true local hero's :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Really wish i had gone electric, i'm aching all over and hands are covered in blisters!!! Well done to all the roboteers that took part, roboteers walked away with the Indoor and Outdoor 1st place throphies! Well done the to the Nipper guys for coming fourth and winning the 'Best Engineered' award. Thanks to them as well for their help with running mine.
Mine didn't run too badquickest run was about 8.9 seconds and made the to the top 10 shoot-out, think i finished arounf 6th or 7th place overall. Had a few issues, one of the engines is down on compression, and i managed to melt the front wheel and brakes on the last but one run, meaning the final run was done with a warped wheel and no brakes! Will change the gearing for next year and give the engines a full service.
A video of the final top 4 shoot-out runs (first clip is the Nippers first test run on low power)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c25qvyE5xw8
Some pics (more on our photobucket and my FB)
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0353.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSCF4211.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSCF4216.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSCF4218.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSCF4226.jpg
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...1/DSC_0357.jpg
Well done the Nippers and all other Roboteers.
There doesn't seem to be the same amount of spectators as last year though.
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who made a fantastic effort to create some truly unique and whacky racers. Alans dragster very very speedy and looked very scary to drive! Big nipper team as ever did a fantastic job creating an electric dragster thT was very competitive! Really nice design guys.
The event went really well and I would like to thank silverline for putting on the event. There was lots of interest from the crowd with bigger numbers this year. I can imagine next years ptdr is going to be very competitive with this years times being very close between the top 8. We may also look at creating different classes for private teams and pro teams (Glyn, with all your lipos I don't think you could be classed as a shed build team lol)
Thank you once again for your support, it's really appreciated and we hope to see you back next year!
I would like a shed based competition as I would actually be enthused to throw mine together. As it currently stands, there is no drive for me to throw something together as I know that it won't win.
On another topic, when's the next feather event James?
I'm with Gary on this one. Me and Dan would love to make something, but it would be very Bitza and so embarrassingly un-competitive so a class system (how very British!) would be great.
I think the first division should be between sponsored teams, and non-sponsored teams.
Yeh! When is the next FW event?!
I understand what you mean however fleets dragster was probably one of the cheapest there and it was in 2nd place until the finals. Robo Challenge spent about £250, the rest was very kindly sponsored which any team can do. Other than that its great british engineering!
We will be talking about a privateers class for next year to try and encourage everyone to get involved. Its a fantastic sport and great fun to be involved in.
regarding feather events we have 2 in the pipe line for spring next year so get building!
GSL again?
That was a great laugh.
potentially, we are currently working on that one. The second event will be just before the Gadget Show Live. Will keep you all posted.