10mm
Why the!? Same way I mounted the gear on Trojan 2. Wasnt a great robot but never had a problem with that part. Just everything else :)
Printable View
10mm
Why the!? Same way I mounted the gear on Trojan 2. Wasnt a great robot but never had a problem with that part. Just everything else :)
Because most motor shafts are 3-6mm, and to put a 4mm bolt THROUGH that wouldn't leave much (if any) shaft left. But a 10mm shaft explains it all.
Looking good Marco, nice to see you back building. I could start calling the robot 'Dave' again but seeing as I have a house robot called Goliath, I'm just asking for trouble!
Cheers Alan, good to hear from you.
Dont know how Dave was handed over from Kenny to me but he can have it back :P
Saw the house robot. Quite monsterous! Does he do most of the unloading now at events?
Not the most productive weekend for robot building as I had to do lots of wedding tasks.
Thought there really isn't too much left to do till I make a few more decisions
Most of the week I have been creating the transmission. All the wheels are constructed with the attached gears and sprockets and I decided to test them out.
Job which had to be done was replace the motor mount. Currently its a weight reduced 6mm nylon plate which is bending horribly. So I replaced it with 14mm non weight reduced piece (because thats the way I roll)
Attachment 3826
Fine now and the first stage reduction is smooth and perfect.
Once placed in I realised that I was literally just 1 or 2 mm of from attaching the perfect length chain. I managed to get those in by drilling the bearing holes a bit closer together and the chain fit fine after.
While testing the wheels I am really happy with the transmission. However some of the wheels have some travel. Not up and down (which would mean that the robot bounces around when driving) but side to side (could rub against the chassis). Only by a couple of MM but perfectionist mode is active.
Not sure how this happened but probably in the process of creating and attaching them to sprockets. So I went about finalising a side. Managed to fix one wheel which had too much travel and put spacers in the wheels. Also cut down excess wheel shaft. Side runs very well and even though there is a tiny bit of travel. It would be hard to notice.
Attachment 3827
Few notes.
Condensed version; motor mount done, half of drive finalised, other half 85% finished just needs finalising, wheel spaces, cut shafts, ect.
Guildford is now out of the question. I can now focus on getting the robot running with an active weapon for newport.
Its heavier than expected. Had a quick weight check and its looking at 9.5kg minus weapon, armour, batteries and speedo. I think I can shave some weight off that. The 2 60tooth spur gears is a big chunk of steel which I can shave some weight from easy. Also a massive shaft on the unfinished side which I haven't cut down yet.
Checked how much weight I would save by replacing the shafts but thats about 100 grams.
Notes on future projects.
Was in my parents loft and gathering a list of items I have for a possible heavyweight
two bosch 400s
Wotty evo (or what ever the 36volt version is called)
Tons of nicad cells and one 28.8 3.3 amp pack made. What an odd size battery pack that I decided to make.
two hydraulic rams
Lots of transmission (4 20 tooth half inch sprockets, 4 8 tooth sprockets, 2 60tooth spur gears, 2 22 tooth spur gears) Miles of chain
Missing
2 bosch 400s which I think I gave away or handed to some one. Any one remember?
Hydraulic pump. Either at the parents in law house or left in my last house unaware (which would make me cry....)
Gaint piece of 5mm hardox (sure its at the parents house)
Checking my notes I state that I had some bosch 750s but I dont remember buying them so I was probably lying or the MIB have visited me.
So many parts. Would be a crime if I just let it sit in a box for another 4 years.
My dream heavyweight. Some kind of growler/draven hybrid
Attachment 3828
Really digging this featherweight!!! Build a heavy!!
Been really bad on a daily update basis so just going to combine it all into a single post
11-06-2013
Hey, I found trojan 2
Well the box containing all the parts for it anyway. I was mainly looking for useful things like, cradle, link, possibly armour panels.
Attachment 3847
You can see the changes of size between them both. Trojan 3 is longer but it comes back in like a U shape. Yep, Not too proud of these.
Attachment 3846
All the handy old bits. Cradle will definitely be used. Not sure about the rest.
Attachment 3848
After a bit of work on trojan I have decided that the travel on half of the wheels is just too bad and I will need to most likely remake them or even pick up some new wheels. Time isnt an issue
Good news
My wotty, pro peak and power supply still works. Not sure why it wouldn't but you never know. However my 24v 3700 nimh back has died. It can hold about half an amp after a few cycle charges. I have had experience with bad battery packs before and have forced amps through them ultimately destroying them.
12-06-2013
Only a few hours to spare but I knew I had to fix the travel on the wheels. One wheel on each side was fine so I transferred them onto one now finished side.
I dismantled the remaining wheels and worked on re drilling and fixing them and amazingly managed to completely fix one wheel.
The other was beyond repair and I had to use a spare bane bot wheel which I haven't used. Re drilled and reattached the spur gear and also completely fixed. Funny enough the new finished side is far better then the old finished side
Also I managed to get the ni-mh pack to charge properly after a few cycles.
Here is the test with a wotty and the 24 volt pack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJtI0eugUQ
Sadly all the youtube enhancments will take a few hours to process so excuse the shakey, bad colour and sideways video till it sorts it self out
So I received my new li-po packs and 85a bot bitz esc. I have spent most of the week planning the internals and weapon.
Attachment 3849
First I thought testing was well in order. Was sort of lucky as I tested it with a 20cell ni mh pack (when it says only 18cell)
But it runs fine and didnt even get warm. I recorded it incase of massive fireworks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZ1saUeXRQ
FInally settled on a drill fitted in the rear with a shaft going to the front driving a 20/1 worm gear.
I will construct a controller with limit switches to control the travel of the lifting prongs.
The weapon motor, esc’s and li-po packs are goign to be fitted quite close together. So challenge was to mount these away from each other as well as the robot armour. I also wanted the battery bay to be quickly accessible to charge batteries.
Attachment 3854
So week was spent designing and constructing this rear compartment.
Lipo pack fits well. Not snug so will need a bit of padding
ESC fit really well
The HDPE housing weights 200 grams which I am happy with.
Attachment 3850Attachment 3852Attachment 3851
weapon motor is not fitted yet but mainly due to still needing a 6mm shaft and built attachments.
Weighed it and currently at 11kg with everything but weapon prongs and shaft (wont be much weight) and armour panels
Attachment 3853
Its heavy but can shave some weight from the wheels as the 2 giant spur gears haven't had any weight reduction.
Armour looks to be about 3mm ali top and bottom and 3mm steel/hardox front and sides welded for extra strength
Its not indestructible but the chassie is very well braced. so I should consider that after my 3mm ali is 6mm nylon and some parts after that 8mm hdpe and if thats punctured, most of the components are 10-20 mm away from the armour
I plan to also make some additional spare panels to replace them as most of the robot snaps together.
Next jobs is to order the last bits.
Sheet steel.
worm gears
electronics for the weapon controller
Heavyweight may also start a lot sooner than planned which I don't mind :)
Plan to finish 2 personal projects after this feather then will work on an antweight.
I would suggest you drop a few cells. Although your 20 Cell pack is 24V nominal (which is fine) they can often peak at > 30V when coming off the charger. As the spec'd voltage of the FETs is 30V in the 85As I would strongly recommend you keep the voltage of any pack you connect to it < 25V.
Steve
Cheers Steve.
Forgot to say but I wont be using the 24 volt pack in this robot. I will be using two 3cell lipos which is recomended.
I am lucky as the 20 cell pack was freshly charged and isnt stable so was probably very close to 30 volts.
What motors is this running on?
300 watt scooter motors
Specifically the unite MY016
They used to be on technobots but are still availble from many retailers
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-S...-/171054508554
Okay, thanks.
What will be powering the lifter weapon?
Drill motor, not sure of the voltage
9.6 or 12 volt drill motor (with drill gearbox) into a 20/1 worm gear
What about the Argos ones? They're only £15 at the moment.
All ready have it mate. It probably is from argos but I bought it about 4 years ago so cant remember.
Managed to have thursday evening to my self to wire it up
Not terribly exciting news but surprisingly time consuming. And now I finally get to test drive it....yeeey
This is how it runs in a tight empty part of my front room with half a charged pack. I hope to at some point go to my local gym and really open up the throttle in a sports hall. Apologies as I got my half asleep fiance to film it before bed and the framing is a bit off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cHJSJ5nWcY&feature=youtu.be
Wiring isnt as tidy placement wise as I had hoped but no open terminals, no weak spots and thick gauged wire to supply the current to the beefy motors. Have three untouched cables (12volt out for weapon, 24volt LED and ground).
Attachment 3881
Weekend to do list:
- Fit weapon motor and shaft
- Fit prong shaft
- Fit worm gears
- Wire up motor controller
- Create mount for RX and motor controller
- Weight reduce everything as much as possible
- Check weight and calculate how much I have left for the armour
I also found my flickr account and my WIP of Trojan 1 and Trojan 1v2
Shame as It looked ok but I was so careless with the weight that as dave said I had to cut so many holes that the robot was essentially useless.
Attachment 3876Attachment 3877Attachment 3878Attachment 3879Attachment 3880
Looks like it drives very nicely!
Thanks man
Been too long since I got to drive a robot around. ;)
Bullet point edition
- Front weapon mechanism fitted and awaiting metal prongs and limiters
- Smaller armour pieces are being fine cut and fitted
- Very close to finishing, estimated 2 working days left
Right featherweight progress has been good and end is in sight.
I finished attaching the weapon mechanism with a worm gear setup. Was initially worried as the shaft was flailing wildly but after a bit of bracing its nice and centered and works well. Its a tad quicker than I would've hoped so limiters are well in order to stop me over traveling it in the heat of battle. I expect it to be able to lift 6kg at least
Attachment 3889Attachment 3890
Now its a very fiddly job of cutting the smaller armour pieces (some you would expect to see on an antweight)
Starting to regret my design but in future it will be handy to maintain. If a piece gets too damaged during an event I can simply cut a new part and fit it rather than giant bulkheads.
I have settled on 3mm steel front panal
3mm ali top panal
and another layer of 10mm hdpe for side armour
It may not sound like much but its very well braced under it with lots of nylon and hdpe
Realistically the armour in parts is outer armour, inner nylon chassis, inner HDPE bracing.
Before a spinner competition I will plan to upgrade the front panel to a hardox equivalent. And possibly replace the entire side panels with ali
I only really have 2 weeks before I have to do a massive flat cleanup for family flying over for Brazil
This weekend jobs
- Finish cutting and fitting smaller panals
- Weight reduce wheels
- Wire in limiters
Following weekend jobs
- Cut and fit top and bottom panals
- Cut weapon prongs from box section and weld on
- Cut and attach front armour panel
- If time permits weld on side and bottom lips for additional attachment.
That should put me well in time for Newport
Still haven't had the opportunity for a test drive. Would like something nice and flat to test its speed.
Decided to have another drive in my front room with fully charged batteries. My cat has been constantly curious about the robot so thought I would see how she reacts. Not remotely scared. Dont worry, I didn't come close to hitting her but do stay and watch till the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIhkBKE5cA
That thing is rapid!!
Cheers man. Cat is actually quite fat and slow but I will pass on the compliment to herQuote:
Originally Posted by Max
aha thats fast! and aha my cats the opposite, she got scared from a tiny walker I made, it was smaller than an ant weight :L. any way thats a nice looking robot!
Sorry for my lack of updates.
The 13th of July was my wedding so was quite a mad dash to do all the sly things like creating a seating plan and developing the perfect groom speech. But on the side getting Trojan ready for robot wars Newport.
Attachment 3929
I was hoping this build diary would be somewhat perfect but not all that much was missed
Undocumented was:
Cutting and attaching the prongs to the weapon shaft
Cutting and attaching the top and bottom armour
Cutting and attaching the front scoop
So not too much missed. I also failed in taking a picture before it was combat damaged but its not changed too much. Just a bit dirtier
Attachment 3928
Newport was a great stress test to see how the robot faired. Not going to go detailed on exactly how it went but bullet pointing it incase people would like to skip it
Newport day in summary
- Arrived with robot fully ready only needing a battery charge
- Weapon was jamming later to find the locking pin was still in (then to find out that electric lifters don't need one)
- Weapon still not running properly used only to lift up and down before a fight to show I had one better known as “Storm two’ing”
- First fight I was very nervous as my featherweights never last till the end of the fight usually going out to mechanical failure, so wanted to turn a new leaf
- Was running well till I got a flip from beauty right on the corner sending me into a billion degree spin.
- Landed with the power light off thinking my link had been dislodged. Very upset
- Find out that actually a power cable inside had been undone. Proceed to duct tape every single connector I could find
- Second fight robot ran really well. Power slammed many robots. Not flipped. Enourmole causing me some grief
- Think I took out about 3 other featherweights
- Lasted till the end very happy went back to the hotel buzzing
- Next day turned up late. Robot was ready to roll so didn't feel the need to turn up early
- First fight of Sunday. Robot felt a bit sluggish. Blamed it on maybe flat batteries
- Still a good fight. Lasted till the end. Body slammed many robots.
- Decide to use the break to go over the robot. Tighten up all screws and bolts
- Find I am missing two bearings on both rear wheels. No wonder it felt a bit sluggish
- Pop in new bearings and fix them in a way so its impossible to come out.
- Last fight robot felt very good but arena was a bit in decay and had big holes and uneven surfaces.
- Got stuck several times (like other robots) but still power slammed a few robots and lasted till the end
- Said my goodbyes very pleased with lots of todo’s in my head
With that being yesterday the robot bug has officially taken root again and have many plans
- New featherweight for the wife
TROJAN III - to do
from top down (highest priority to lowest)
- Weapon functioning properly - wasn't working well at newport
- Front scoop braced - was buckling towards the end of the event
- shave 400 grams - bit overweight
- wheels replaced - 50a banebots wheels shearings could last one more event
- more visual stimuli - Robot got lost occasionally in the chaos of 20 feathers so LEDs?
ROBOT TEAM - to do
from top down (highest priority to lowest)
- Rename to Team Berserker
- Shirts made
- Website made
All this by next event which looks to be October. This is probably how I burned out last time so I am going to be careful I don't try and do thousands of things at once then end up doing none.
This week going to sketch up the new featherweight for Liz and vital planning for Trojans changes.
Any video links? Would quite like to see it in action!
Also congrats on your marriage!
Only one sadly and its one of the bad ones as I was stuck on the arena floor for periods of time and didnt slam many people and got flipped a bit
Been checking youtube hourly but nothing
When I get home I will upload the only video I have
Was nice to meet you at Newport Marco. From what I saw Trojan performed very well. You did make a habit of pushing from one end of the arena to the wall on the opposite side at high speed :P
I have some point of view videos from inside the robot which hopefully I'll get uploaded tonight.
Pleasure to meet you too Chriss. Loved the comedy with Loki and the sheep :)
Found some videos, woo
Great video uploaded from Harry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsM70es7sW8
contains all the fights and the intro alone is well worth a watch.
Particular proud FW fight is around the 44 minute mark
Really hard to see Trojan III at times and this is why making trojan more visualy distinctive is quite a priority.
Been looking at a few cool options today
Trojan 3.1 completion
Righty as you can see, build diary out the window. But for good reasons. I wanted to keep some new features confidential!
From the bullet point list of changes:
Better visually.
Trojan III is no longer a ramp with 4 wheels. Well it still kinda is but I have cut up and welded the front scoop so its a bit more dynamic. This should fix the buckling issue as its very well braced.
512 rgb led pixel matrix
The back panel has been replaced with polycarb and now holds a rgb panel! This is fully controlled via bluetooth to a smartphone and can play animations and graphics on the fly.
I had to construct some new internals for it all to fit together and it should survive the stresses of robot combat fingers crossed
I am very excited about this mainly because it so far looks awesome but also adds so much visually to the arena
Weapon downgrade
The drill controlled prongs has been swapped with a servo controlled prongs. Actually the prongs just run across the floor and a servo pushes against a copper rod to lift up the prongs to the right height to avoid getting stuck.
I had to get the weight for the other upgrades somewhere and the drill motor shaved a substantial amount of weight. I have found a cheap supply for 20kg torque servo motors. I have ordered a couple and I may see how high torque servos cope for prongs in the future.
Pictures and videos:
Attachment 4109Attachment 4110
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgVbVjdVR8&feature=c4-overview&list=UU8wdYybWk4a32cGdtUiPYgQ
wip pictures
Attachment 4104Attachment 4105Attachment 4107Attachment 4108Attachment 4106Future upgrades for Trojan 3.2
High torque powered prongs
dynamic rgb lighting strips which can change colour according to robot velocity
Ti body panels
Maidstone here we go
That is soooo cool 8)
Awesome work Marco, would have thought the forks would lift higher though..
That is an awesome looking machine.
And the forks could be fairly effective. You don't have to lift someone very high to get the wheels off the ground, it would have similar control properties to Ploughbot.
But I take it that its non-spinner given its construction and materials?
Thank you very much :)Quote:
Originally Posted by RogueTwoRobots
Cheers Dave. Those prongs are literly only designed to lift up to avoid getting stuck on the floor. Its a bit of a test but they wont be lifting anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by razerdave
Thanks mate. Yeah theory of the forks is to hook people without a solid base under the robot or cause some damage while ramming. Point of the robot is its drive and torque and I need a weapon to aid that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eventorizon
I have been going back and forth on wether I can take on spinners. Its definetly not spinner proof (aka bomb proof box) but I think it can take a few nocks on the front scoop and even if it gets through that there is a 16mm HDPE bulkhead before the motors.
If I do go to a spinner competition I will heavily modify it and take loads of spares but I would be very very worried and expect to be destroyed.
That looks awesome marco, very tornado like...
If you keep the front end onto the spinners they'd be lucky to damage it.
How did you make that front scoop in your apartment/workshop?
Those angles would have to be done on a brake, or welded on as individual pieces?
Sorry PJ, I did respond to this on my phone but clearly nothing is here! I have a handy little balcony which my wife has assigned me to do metalworking and did none of it in my tiny apartment.
I cut and tac welded the front scoop together then final welded it.
Also got loads of interest on the LED matrix at the back of Trojan and as promised here is a link to the company that developed the kit.
http://ledpixelart.com/
Yep, I did pay quite a bit and was going to enquire if they could do an even more bare bones kit with just the board but I suppose that kit also includes costs of developing the code for the hardware and the app.
There is much cheaper options with just a board to cycle through gifs
Welding on the balcony? Your neighbours must love you!
Haha, well the only neighbors it affects are the ones above us. They have a 2 year old and a 3 year old. So we seem to have an unspoken contract of we'll put up with kids screaming and chasing each other at 6am and I can use my power tools
Haha, sounds like a deal!
Righty roundup of last event as it was a bit more eventfull. In bullet point form as its easier to read!
Pop a mixer in Trojan as I was having trouble going forward!
Day before RW maidstone decided to test drive trojan in the local park
Get loads of attention and let many youngsters drive it around, robots batteries gets a bit flat
Take Trojan home and spent a long while making new graphics for the rear LED panel forgot about batteries.
Get to maidstone only needing to charge the batteries.
Battery error
Panic and get some advice to check battery voltage
Its very low and have two bricked batteries less than 2 hours before the show starts.
Panic some more
Call up a local model shop only a mile away and they have 3 amp 3cell lipos!
Drive there to find shop has moved 10 miles away
Panic some more
Some how drive there with no sat nav and pick up the batteries
Get back to the event less than an hour before show starts
change connectors and charge the batteries as much as I can before the first FW fight
It goes well, lots of people love the LED panel
Charge and fight in second fight
Goes very well. Last two robots (Cerefin and myself)
Managed to kind of get Explosion OOTA with a combination of him attempting to self right and me attempting to wall slam him
Sleep, return, charge, third featherweight fight
Arena is looking hazardous with another pit created by Ripper a fight earlier. Plus lots of areas to get stuck.
Doesnt stop me being bold and attempting to ram a featherweight flipper early on (sorry dont know name)
Didnt notice pit was down. Featherweight flips (aka jumps) over the pit, I drive straight in
Face palm
Gets stuck under arena pit and crushed when it was attempted to be raised
Crying smiley suits robot
fourth fight
Bit better then last but upside down for most and not very eventful
Stuck on top of small cheese for a while
Last 30 seconds left drive gets reduced to about 10% speed
Open up, see no obvious faults
Starts working fine again a bit later
Strange
Maidstone was great fun. Wasn't as much of a success robot performance wise as Newport but robot upgrades did the job. Much more visable, added a lot of character.
Jobs before next event ‘Gloucester’
Isolate reason for left side drive failure
Put in improved lifting prongs
Possibly try and get more ground clearance
Main job
Start planning out heavy and even start on a bit of construction!