Looking good! That LED seems far too bright though. What colour is it, and what voltage are you running it at?
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Looking good! That LED seems far too bright though. What colour is it, and what voltage are you running it at?
there are some strong LED out there.
Myself i am looking at a 3W one from hobby king
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/super-br...-heatsink.html
Cheers! In reality the LED is fine - I'm running it at 7.4v and no real problems. It's a yellow LED.Quote:
Originally Posted by R9000
7.4V is waaaay too high for a yellow LED, unless you have a resistor in series, or multiple LEDs. I thought it looked a bit of an odd colour. Single yellow LEDs only go up to about 2.2V. You do run the risk of burning it out if you have got it set up with the full 7.4V over the LED.
Ofcourse there's a resistor in series. That's Page 1 in the Great Western-European Almanac of LED Soldering!Quote:
Originally Posted by R9000
I am probably going to add other LEDs in the actual robot, just for redundancy.
"7.4V is waaaay too high for a yellow LED"
First world problems lol
Ah, phew. Sorry, it's just I've had LEDs explode at lower voltages than that. :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Zenith
I might actually be coming to the point where it's starting to look like something.
You see, I seem to have picked up this rather frustrating habit of continuously improving the design during, or after, construction. This saw me do the usual Design > Cut > Assemble routine, but with an added "Gee that looks good... but it would be even better if - " which would lead to a repeat of said cycle.
So here's a timeline for you guys - I started off with this, the chassis from the last update:
Attachment 6804
"Oh Gee, those front prongs just seem a bit flimsy. Why not beef those up?
Attachment 6805
"That's better. Now the mounts for the wedge have twice as much plastic and twice as many screws. Approved."
Attachment 6806
The beauty of interlocking construction occurred to me again - this H profile isn't held together by any screws (the nutstrips are bolted to single pieces of plastic but do not to protrude into others), but just by slotting the plastic together in such a way that it's snug. Once again I threw this through the room, and it didn't budge.
But then there was the matter of the back-end. That was going to be simply screwed on, but now I had the hang of interlocking stuff, why not go all the way?
Attachment 6807
*sigh* allright then.
I made the side rails a bit longer, and cut out a slot big enough to accommodate both the back end and the wheel guards. This way, also the wheel guards would be locked in place.
Attachment 6808
And wouldn't you know it, it worked. Not a single bit of glue or metal, and yet room-throw proof. Solid as a rock.
With all this going on, I also got delivery of some of the innards, which led to some weighing. First, the chassis, bolted up and everything.
Attachment 6809
Oh ain't life grand. With wheels, motors, servo, ESCs, receiver and the like added the tally is 726g, which gives me about half of the weight limit left for, titanium top- and baseplate, wedge and lifter mechanism. Things are well and truly getting interesting now.
When it comes to the lifter though I'm still very much in doubt as to how it'll go about. I like being able to drive upside down, and if I were to join the Front Hinge Master Race that would be a more likely possibility than as a Rear-Hinged Peasant. Given the notorious amount of spinner evilness lurking around these lands I'd rather not open up my juicy innards to one of them every time I open it up.
Anyway, after some further deliberation I finally did a proper mock-up. using some paper cut outs as Titanium stand-ins.
Attachment 6810
Don't be mistaken though - the end result will not be as much as a blanc canvas (or tabula rasa if you're posh) as this. When it comes to the theme, I'm very much sticking to the one discussed at the start of this thread. I've sketched a bit over the past week, and the retarded cackling spawned by my maniacalities disturbed my SO and sibling to such an extend I hope you Brits are going to enjoy the end result in two and half months.
Crikey it's just two and a half months. Best get going then!
Hi everybody! Glad you joined us to celebrate in my radiant mediocrity! Yay!
Construction is slowly pacing along. First, I got the dimensions in for what is to become the primary line of defense: the 2mm grade 5 Titanium façades, here mocked up in cardboard.
Attachment 6815
To me it seems a good idea to alternate wedges - this would be more of a design to face other lifters or rambots...
Attachment 6816
...whereas this one has a more "WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST"-tone to it, inspired by Ziggy/Lucky. I'm aiming to have both setups available during the Euros, plus probably another 'ZOMG ZOMBIES'-wedge for a laugh.
Anyways, I seem to be fast approaching the point where I'm happy with the chassis, and the job is now to get the insides in proper shape. I mean, it's nice if I build a brick, but it'd be grand if it would move as well (and keep moving whilst we're at it).
This led to more soldering. The Euros require three main things when it comes to electronics - a power light (check!), a removable link (check!) and a fuse.
Now, I'll be squeezing in a 1300mAh 40C LiPo in there, so if my math is correct the fuse should be somewhere below 52A (f my math is not correct, feel free to comment, point, and laugh). I have two kinds at my disposal, but decided in the end to go with a 40A fuse.
Having a fuse is all fine and groovy, but it needs to get in there properly as well. I'm soldering novice at best, so cue my gallery of embarassment!
Attachment 6817
Fuse marries wire. Such novice, much noob. Wow.
Attachment 6820
After changing out the solder gun for a proper iron, I set out to work on those mythical XT60 plugs. I reckoned that if I were to learn soldering properly, wiring these up is going to improve my skills a lot better.
Attachment 6822
But every learning curve starts at zero. You can almost hear a faint 'Killl..... mee" coming from this shambolic attempt at a removable link (I'll have you know though that the wires were in there solid as a rock, but as Quasimodo will tell you that doesn't matter if you look disfigured)
Attachment 6823
The socket went a bit better. Redid the removable link, and there we are.
Attachment 6824
Did a socket for the battery, and added a fuse. Just like in a motorbike (or car) the fuse should be the first halt after the battery I reckon.
Attachment 6825
From right to left: power socket, fuse, removable link, and somewhere in the future I'll be adding an LED light to that.
If anything though I'm regarding this as a practice setup of sorts - apart from the fuse and the battery plug, everything is subject to change. Once I can finally mount a baseplate in the chassis I'll be mocking up the insides, and measuring up the wiring just so there won't be any waste of space. This is quite important as, even though the bot itself is quite wide, the inside is a tad cramped.
If anyone has a suggestion for placement of the removable link (as in, where to best put it on the bot) I'm all ears. I'm probably not going to use the XT60 as a link as the small BEC plugs are just more suitable to work with - the bulky XT60s just take up too much space.
If you've got anything else to share, suggest or ask I'm all ears too by the way, unless it's in defense of the Hunchback of the Notre Dame. Proper men watched The Lion King and Jungle Book as kids.
And Thunderbirds. Virgil was the man.
Choc blocs ftw
I finally got round to fiddling around with the lifter system.
You see, there was a bit of an issue. As is the case with every roboteer stalking the badlands these days I like my insides to be thoroughly protected. You know, just in case there's some evil robot pulling a rabbit out of a hat and you're left with a smoldering heap of what once was delicate, costly electronic circuitry.
Attachment 6840
First, there was the matter of harnessing the power of the servo. I fabricated a bracket out of HDPE, and moved right along.
Attachment 6841
I chose the first emulate the two-bar system that the Viper lifter uses, and this is how far I got. Now, the big piece at the top is merely taking the role of surrogate here as opposed to being an actual representative model (as it is, it has no lip to get underneath other bots - the actual lifter would have a bend at the end), and there were a number of issues.
To start off: fully extended it didn't really seem to have much reach. I mean, it had enough for my control-type of lifting, but for something like selfrighting this certainly left to be desired.
Attachment 6842
It certainly looked cool though, especially when folded down.
Attachment 6843
However, the biggest issue was with the lifter mechanism itself. When all is said and done I like my stuff beefy and simple and whereas the lifter itself was quite chunky...
Attachment 6844
...it's only as strong as its weakest link. I mean, if your lifter is held on with the tiniest screw imaginable then you shouldn't expect favorable results in the jungle that is robotic combat.
Attachment 6845
I therefore reckoned it best to flip the servo, put on a bigger arm and operate the lifter by letting the servo push the arm upwards with rubber bands pulling the lifter down, instead of connecting the arm directly to the servo. This is simpler approach, which not only makes the servo less prone to feel the hits, but also enables me to make the 'lifter slot' in the top armor less than half the size, meaning more protection for the juicy innards!
As far as the juicy innards are concerned, you can probably tell it's going to be a bit of a squeeze, but I reckon I can get everything to fit just fine.
The coming week will see titanium enter the construction phase, and hopefully I'll be able to do some first driving soon as well.
Plenty of fun to come then!
NO BRAKES ON THIS TRAIN!
What a day.
Today I paid a visit to the lovely home and workshop of Mario and Babeth in Belgium, for the first time in 15 (!) years. I reckoned my need to make some sparks fly was as good an excuse as any to revisit the place where the foundation was laid for my robotics bug all those years ago.
Attachment 6862
First, Mario showed me the ropes, and then we set to work as a team. I did the grinding, and Mario drilled the holes.
Attachment 6863
I must say that doing all of this, time flew by at an alarmingly fast rate...
Attachment 6864
...but the result was great. We tried bending the top lips of the small wedgelets upwards as well, but found that the titanium just sheared off. One of the sides also sheared as we bent it, but Mario welded that up in a jiffy.
Anyways, the result looked better than I'd have hoped.
Attachment 6865
Especially the big wedge. After seeing the titanium shear with the small wedgelets, we chose to leave the top lips on the big wedge as they were.
Attachment 6866
Coupled with the lifter this will give you an idea of what the end result will look like. All titanium will be painted, but I'm waiting with that until all electronics are in place. I'm doing that deliberately because I tend to be quite... aesthetically inclined, so I want to save that as a reward for when the bot is actually finished.
I weighed the entire thing with all the nuts and bolts required, and without the electronics it weights around 950g. It seems to me that I will have some wiggle room for extras once everything is in place.
Speaking of which, now that I FINALLY have a base plate I can put the rest of it where it belongs, and start doing the insides.
More on that in the coming week. Whooo!
Looking good Greg. Can't wait to see it in action :D
Thanks, me too! I mean, we have to do something against all them spinners this September, right?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy
Any big changes to Catalyst?
Dear god how are you still following this thread?
Like an elephant charging towards nosy Americans that are getting too close, I seem to have hit my stride. Must be that the summer holidays have started - lots of spare time, yay!
With all of this free room to maneuver there's plenty of time....
Attachment 6890
...to make an absolute mess of the dining room table. Now, we're not going to have dinner. I'm not finished.
Attachment 6891
First thing on the agenda was testing the servo - I basically took the ready-made circuitry (including old battery) I used in the test chassis and hooked it up to the servo to see what was what. I could then also get a feel for how this new chassis handled.
So naturally, time for a lap through the living room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mrvptm0hL4
That seemed fine! Now, it was time to get busy with the actual circuitry to be used. Right on cue I took delivery of my XT30 plugs, so right away there was more soldering to be done!
Attachment 6892
I credit Rory from the Nuts team with putting the fuse atop the link like this - I adore how the two parts seem to be made for each other and everything. Whoever said romance was dead?
Attachment 6893
Then, time to fit it all inside, and see how the wiring would go. The two holes in the center of the baseplate are not a poor excuse for weight saving or anything - they're for the servo mounts.
Attachment 6894
Anyways, more soldering! Most of the circuitry is done here, save for the connection between the negative leads.
Attachment 6895
After some more cocking about (I first wired one of the ESCs to the LED pictured above, so one motor was lagging behind) this was the eventual result. XT60 plug for the battery, XT30 for the link with a 30A minifuse, then the ESCs and parallel there's the Power LED. Everything should fit, but it's going to be rather snug in places.
Upon completing all the wiring (and fixing my LED screw up) I took it out for another drive, new battery and all. The first drive will all of the actual insides in place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHMnjUb4oDw
Seemed quite nippy, although the real heavy stuff (like uh... the titanium wedge and top plate) is still missing from the chassis. The prognosis is that I'll be quite underweight though, so my devious brain is already concocting evil right on par with Black Adder's weasel fetish.
Question for you though: I'm a bit puzzled as to how to solidly connect the ESC wires to the motors. Up until now I just hooked them in since that's more than enough for a test drive, but I've read that soldering the lugs of the motor is risky (the heat can screw up the insides). I reckon that I could just hook the wires in, squeeze the wires to 'fold' them after which I shrink wrap the lead so it can't go anywhere. Does that sound sensible or am I distilling a Baldrick-esque vibe upon this thread?
Leave your message after the beep.
I have used the 4mm bullet connectors to attach the drive motors to the ESCs on Pressure Point. They were liberally wrapped in heat shrink and had a bit of strain relief on either side of the cables (cable ties!). Despite been thrown around, and out of, the arena they have never given me any trouble.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/4mm-gold...airs-20pc.html
I imagine these connect two wires together? I'm at the point where the motor does not have any wires at all, but only the lugs visible at the back of this motor (these are in fact the very same motors I'm using).Quote:
Originally Posted by Al_
Soldering these lugs seems risky to me, so it seems more sensible to hook the wires through, fold them backwards and then shrinkwrapping the folded wire around the lug.
Let me know what you think.
Soldering wires to those motors is fine as long as you use appropriately sized wire - NOT soldering them and just wrapping bare wires around the lugs will be far less reliable.
Soldering is better.
Solder the wires on and put heat shrink over to stop them bending too much. They will come off if you don't solder them and the resistance will be higher (probably doesn't matter much for these tiny motors though).
Alright, thanks for your help. This morning I hooked them through, soldered them up and shrinkwrapped them, with the end result looking like this:
Attachment 6896
Tested it as well, and the setup is indeed fine. Very nice!
This conveniently brings me to two further conundrums. The first one is regarding the link:
Attachment 6897
I'm thoroughly puzzled as to how to mount it in such a way the socket doesn't move upon the link being removed or put in. Currently it's just floating around, which needs to be addressed. But how? I tried screwing it in, but it kept moving about.
Conundrum number two is regarding placement of the receiver.
Attachment 6898
Current placement has it ~very~ snug between the right motor mount and the servo, but I fear this will make it rather susceptible to shock damage. It's mounted on velcro so some movement is possible from front to back, but sideways it can't go anywhere.
Attachment 6899
Alternatively, I also turned it around to give the antenna more room, and I also placed it on its side. This removes the problem of it having no space to move laterally, but then it leaves not that much space for the antenna.
So what is wise?
This is bordering on spam to such an extend I expect Monty Python to walk through the door and ask me what I'd like for breakfast.
Anyways, with the innards being pretty much complete at this point I sought to solve some niggles that popped up.
First item on the agenda was actually getting everything to fit in the rather crammed space. Now, I will admit that I didn't really design the thing around the parts I had available (as it is, I had to change my battery simply because the other one wouldn't have enough space)
After carefully nudging everything towards the little blobs of emptiness dotted around the chassis, this is what it looked like:
Attachment 6912
Okay, that's very good... but does the top plate also fit?
Attachment 6911
Why ofcourse! This immediately brought my attention to a new problem, mainly the lipo being a nosy little shit and peeking through the lifter slot like a toddler wondering where those strange noises are coming from.
Attachment 6914
There, that's better. Stay in your room Timmy, we'll explain when you're a teenager.
Second item on the agenda was the socket for the removable link. It was still floating around, which meant that when you took out the link part of the electronics would move with the link. Yes, I know we're all friends here guys, but sometimes it's time to let go.
Attachment 6915
A few tie rips did the trick. Best part is that the back end will be covered by the wheelguard anyway, so these things should be safe.
Now, time for a weigh-in!
Attachment 6910
Gosh, that's right on the money for some tasty upgrades I'd say. I have a few more ideas, but for now, here's This Is Not A Drill in its current form:
https://youtu.be/hgbWkWIuE8E
Today was the first day of actual testing, and there immediately was a problem.
Attachment 6920
Testing alongside Bob Saget (another of our Dutch Euro entries) the two 1000rpm motors seemed badly underpowered, with This Is Not A Drill only really able to move about slowly. With a little help though, I came to realize that yes, ofcourse 12V motors are going to have lackluster performance if you use a 2S LiPo. Borrowing the 3S LiPo from Bob Saget seemed to bring it to life, so hopefully this is the biggest hurdle to overcome in the final few weeks until the Euros.
I aim to redo some of the internals (some connections seem to have loosened up more than I like) as well as getting the lifter finally on there. I don't need to do much for that, but all in all it is also a job that can end up taking more time than anticipated.
In the mean time, I also set to work with external properties of my monstrosity.
Attachment 6919
Gotta love matte finish on metal - it almost looks like the wedge is also made of plastic.
As it is though, my goal here is simply to get it functional and entertain. I've already learned so much through building this thing that I can't wait to put my newly found knowledge to work in a possible next installment.
But first you will have to suffer through a bit more of my mediocrity ofcourse. Muaahahaha!
Oooooh good evening ladies and germs, have we got a show for you tonight!
I must admit that after testing yesterday, I felt rather dejected. The bot never seemed to struggle at all driving around at home, but once I tested it in the arena with the wedges on, it had quite a rough going. Ofcourse, the arena in question had a rough plywood floor scarred by feather, raptor and heavyweight fights, but compared to how other beetles drove around I felt it needed to fare much better than it did.
Lending a 3S battery seemed to solve much of the niggles, but still I felt uncomfortable. Part of me was already looking where it had gone wrong (as it turns out, I didn't go for the 25mm 1000rpm motors but for a smaller variety) and even contemplated a rebuild.
but today, I chose to grit my teeth and soldier on, determined to find out whether I could find out what was the matter.
The first issue was mixing. I want to drive with 1 stick, but presently, forward is North West and backwards is South East. As it is, the Spektrum DXe can only be programmed with a special cable which sets you back over 20 pounds. Ouch, but alright, that should be no biggy.
Second issue was the drive. When going forward the left seemed to lag behind, so I ran through the internals. As it turned out, one of the motor connections was loose, so I resoldered it and that was that.
Aside from the switch to MOAR POWAH I also learned another simply trick from other teams. You see, my link is rather far into the bot, which makes prying it out quite fiddly.
Attachment 6934
Easy enough - just attach a tie rip at the end. Job done. Check out my color coding too - a mindnumbing nerdgasm.
Attachment 6935
Much better.
Attachment 6937
Now, when it comes to the insides I'm pretty much done at this point. Ofcourse, there's going to be a bigger battery in there (which I already fitted and well... it fits) and the servo prong will be longer and made from aluminium.
Attachment 6936
This did mean though that after a year of tinkering and save for a few minor alterations (and a BANGING PAINTJOB OFCOURSE), This Is Not A Drill was done.
Attachment 6938
The inside of the lifter, and everything seems to fit just so. Let's have a hurray for Cardboard Assisted Design! I'm still contemplating on running an extra arm between the servo and lifter arm for more power, but this really hinges on how the aluminium prongs will do. I'd rather not physically attach the lifter to the servo if I can help it, simply to avoid shock damage finding its way inside.
Attachment 6939
There's weight enough for it though - it's 1200g in its lightest setup (with a few bolts missing, so 1250g to be safe).
However, there was still one thing eating away at my brain. How would it drive with all the titanium in place, as heavy as it will probably have to be in September? I chose a smooth floor, and hoped for the best.
You be the judge. Bear in mind that this still is with 2S.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKbV4p2f2u0
I need to still do some work on the other anti-spinner setup (that requires a shorter lifter blade) and I'm probably going to engineer some kind of a belly-pan to make sure all of you drum spinners don't eat the screws that are protruding underneath.
And I can go crazy with the paint too! Wheeeeeee!
So what's this silence then? I was on vacation, of course.
When it concerned the bot itself there were a few hurdles still to overcome. First, there was the slowness. Easy fix - just a bigger battery and all was well. Here, have a look at the difference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVGOR7k0bTk
Another issue was that it wouldn't selfright properly as well - so time to get creative!
Testing indicated that if the robot lied on its lifter, it couldn't get enough force in there to lift itself. However, when I held the chassis perfectly horizontal and the lifter had some space to extend itself a bit it worked just fine. So I had to fashion something to keep the chassis horizontal.
After having a look the solution was quite simple - at either side of the chassis the bot has two screws that hold the mount for the top plate in place. If I made two little ears of HDPE and mounted them in the same place, the bot would automatically roll onto it's back and enable it to selfright.
https://youtu.be/FzznP06lZvc
And by the gods, it worked. No clue whether it still works with some titanium on the front, but I'm approaching this with a thorough 'Just Here To Boogie' attitude.
Attachment 7030
After dotting the t's, crossing the i's, submitting a dyslexia exam and adding a mascot I can now finally say This Is Not A Drill, weighing at a modest 1325g, is now ready to be packed for the Euro Champs in three weeks. Hopefully it'll put up a good show and it'll still work once I put it in the arena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufeRSC0Yxdk
Looking forward to seeing you all there!
i love it! :D
Thanks! I'm just hoping it'll still work upon arrival and if it does, that it'll put up a good show. Either way we'll have a laugh probably.
European Beetleweight Championships
hosted by Kinematic Events in Marlow,UK the 2nd of September 2017
Attachment 7177
I must say that prior to departure I felt both giddy and apprehensive in evenly measure. Even though I've experienced countless events over the years as both crew and teammember (including two TV filmings at the start of the millennium) Ihad never actually built something myself.
So despite lots of familiarity, this was still going to be an entirely new experience for me. I approached the ordeal with a firm 'Just-Here-To-Boogie'-mindset; I didn't expect to win anything, I was simply going to be there to have a good time and maybe learn a thing or two.
This is also the entire philosophy behind building This Is Not A Drill. I like machines that don't really care about having the fastest, biggest baddest weaponry, but simply entertain.
Nevertheless I was also apprehensive,as I dreaded the tech check and feared whether my soldering would withstand the violence within the arena. On top of that there was also the matter of the lipo being visible from the front of the robot– if any horizontal spinner would get a hit in the right place, the entire robot would go up in flames. Still, I also like my stuff to be reliable, and with a chassis built from 15mm interlocking HDPE it seemed I'd at least done my best to ensure it wouldn't lose any internals during its first outing.
Attachment 7185
But anyway, 'Just here to boogie' and all that. The day before me and fellow participant Niels (Bob Saget) flew to Bristol where we were met by Sarah, who would provide us aplace to stay during the weekend.
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...1&d=1504544855
In the early morning of the day after,we set off in the direction of Marlow, and I felt myself getting morenervous the closer we got to our end destination. Above all though, I couldn't wait to open my crate (compatriots Dennis and Stef from MSR brought it over a week prior) and start getting TINAD ready for its first fight. Nothing much needed to be done – just top up the lipos and bolt it all up.
Attachment 7184
The venue was a grammar school and in the theatre of the building the people from Kinematic were busy setting up everything. All of us Dutchmen were put together (also because of our different power leads) so naturally, our pit room came to look like this:
Attachment 7182
Soon enough, the draw for the firstround was made and This Is Not A Drill was paired up in Heat E with:
Attachment 7181
Bourbon, a drumspinner with a very cool looking hexagonal drum design which I've always admired, and...
Attachment 7179
...Wideboi, which has a similar HDPE construction paired with magnets underneath topush other machines down the pit.
Meanwhile, TINAD went through techcheck without any issues, and the waiting for popping my combatcherry was on.
Attachment 7180
Now, heats were put into the arena alphabetically, so I figured I had some time to snoop around, take some pictures and spy a thing or two from the opposing teams... but when I was in the other pitroom and they started calling out for Heat E, I quickly ran back to our Dutch enclave to retrieve TINAD and report to the arena floor.
Firing up TINAD was by itself also quite fiddly, as the link is in a bit too deep so it takes a moment for the link to find the right hole (that never happens to me elsewhere, honestly). Soon enough though, I was ready. I noticed that TINAD was struggling to find grip on the steel floor, so apart from it already being quite sluggish it was definitely not going to win any pushing matches. I just figured I'd drive around a bit, get a feel for the arena and maybe I could last longer than 10 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWYqSzNk2TI
And it did, amazingly. Swerving around the ring I figured I'd also open the pit eventually, but soon after Bourbon thought to put the 2mm Titanium on the front to the test and sent me flying across the arena. TINAD ended up on its roof and I tried to self right, but after a failed first attempt the servo showed for the first time why it won't be in the next machine.
You see, the servo in question has the nasty habit of overloading the system if the prong on it is restricted in its movement, which renders the entire machine unresponsive. So when I moved the lifter further than the possible range, TINAD killed itself and laid turtle as it was counted out...which reminded me that I'd forgotten to put a clever text on the underside.
Attachment 7178
On a positive note however, mascot Tina had survived her first fight unscathed. The rest of the bot seemed fine too - I feared beforehand whether the mounts of the wedge could be ripped out by a vertical spinner (effectively rendering the entire chassis useless) but all was well.
Attachment 7192
This was the sum damage from round 1. Not bad.
(continued in part 2..)
(Thanks for the Denny family for shooting the fights!)
The European Championships 2017 Report - Part 2
Attachment 7186
Originally, I'd planned to use as many setups as possible to see what worked and what didn't – as it was, I was treating this tournament also as a means of research for the next incarnation. So for the next fight, I swapped the big wedge for the two wedgelets and put on the Titanium lifter.
Afterwards, I watched some of the other fights and talked to the various other builders. It reminded me of the general sense of community amongst roboteers – tools are borrowed, people help each other with parts and/or repairs... it was awesome to experience it for myself. I also struck up a conversation with James Pearson who, with his machine Catalyst, was one of the few other lifters in the Euros. Seeing evolution after evolution online I love the thing for its simplicity, and little by little it has inspired me to evolve my own lifter as well.
Attachment 7193
But for now, TINAD still had to do a loser's melee. I was pitted against 8-Bit Warrior (a 2WD brick) and The O'Neill (a 4WD brick). Originally Anvil 3 was also in the melee, but it was substituted with the K-Nex bot which was torn up during the first round. So no spinners? Alright then.
But that's when the Gremlins popped up. You see, right after the first round I ran TINAD through the motions to see if anything had stopped working... but it was fine. Both the weaponry and the drive were working so I only had to change the setup and charge the batteries.
So along comes the time to activate the bot in the arena, and the left side of the drive is dead. TINAD is moving in circles. I'm urged to take it to the pits and try and fix it in two minutes, so I run back, unbolt the top, and halfway through undoing the bolts I decide to give it another try.... and the drive works just fine.
With some screws still sticking out halfway I run back, put it in the ring under a stern 'Just in time' from the arena marshall and awaited the countdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gukYhHB9CO8
The fight itself seemed to go okay and all, until the K-Nex machine engulfed TINAD and the lifter got stuck inside it. I was able to move my passenger to the edge of the pit,but with part of him resting on the top of my wheels I couldn't move.So basically, I lost because a K-Nex robot sat on my face.
I bet you've never read a sentence like that before. Whoo, a story of firsts!
TINAD was out of the main tournament, but I didn't mind it that much actually – it meant that I could just enjoy the day a bit more. I took the time to completely disassemble TINAD's drive, taking off the wedges, wheelguards and wheels to see what was what.
Attachment 7187
After removing quite some hair from the axles I tested the drive again, and it seemed perfectly fine. I figured that maybe the receiver contact for the left drive just got squished a bit, which would explain why it worked again when I partially unscrewed the top.
But was I going to go without any more fights? Ha, ofcourse not.
You see, by this point Catalyst had been knocked out as well (epic fight with Tempus that was, by the way), so I figured it was as good an opportunity as any to square off with James. Together we put ourselves down for a whiteboard, being told we could immediately jump in with the two bots already in the arena – Kamikaze (I think it was at least – I haven't seen the fight back yet) and Disharmonic Motion. Seeing these were both spinners I almost felt guilty for dragging James into this, but we went with it anyway. I did up the final few bolts (I had added some groundscraping prongs atop the wedgelets for the Gladiator) and went on to experience which, for me, was the absolutely highlight of the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNmCIu-qbSA
The fight started with me nudging DHM's belt off the weaponry, so that was already one spinner disabled. But then there was the beater of Kamikaze remaining... and soon enough, both me and James ended up upside down. What followed looked like two drunk people trying to get up from the ground, as both James's and my positions were awkward enough to hinder proper selfrighting... but after a few attempts and under a loud cheer, both Catalyst and TINAD eventually got right way up. Kamikaze was then disabled, so now it was down to me and James. Now, I knew I had NOTHING to threaten James with other then foul language, so I just started driving around and coax him into making a mistake.
The superiority of his machine clearly shone through though – he lifted me cleanly off the ground a few times, but wasn't able to get the wide bodied TINAD (no fatshaming here honestly) over. Eventually though he finally caught me in his trap, and with me riding atop his wedge he plunged himself into the pit. Great stuff.
Attachment 7188
Lifterbros!
Then, there was the Gladiator - the glorious chaotic slugfest where everyone who is willing enters the arena, and the fight goes on until there's only one working robot remaining. I was amazed that after three fights, not only the bot was working without a hitch, but also mascot Tina was miraculously unharmed. Dammit, I brought that mascot so it could be splattered into a million pieces!
Attachment 7189
Drastic measures followed.
The fight itself for me was all about survival. I knew that the ridiculously OP lipo aboard TINAD paired with the small drive motors would enable it to drive waaaaaay longer than just 3 minutes, so I was curious how long it could keep going.
https://youtu.be/TcTwikhI6Ks
As it turns out, quite long. Despite getting some proper hits it managed to get to the final four, when the fight was halted and restarted... but when it restarted, TINAD didn't respond. Once again, that cursed servo was rendering the robot motionless. I reckoned I was out at first, but then decided to try and disarm the lifter on the transmitter, and then turn the transmitter off and back on. Lo and behold, TINAD suddenly coughed back into life.
I was however up against The O'Neill, the very tough pushybot which had pushed me around during the loser's melee as well. I managed to escape its clutches for a while but before long, he had me where he wanted and suspended me over the pit.
Attachment 7190
Second place out of 19 ain't that bad!
All in all, I absolutely adored my first experience as a builder on an event. Huge thanks go out to Kinematic for doing an amazing event, and all the teams present. Great people all around (too many to mention individually), and overall just a great laugh.
Me personally, I thoroughly enjoyed just taking the bot apart and doing it up again, with the fights being a bonus. I went to bring some entertainment to the event and I hope I managed to deliver – as far's I'm concerned, This Is Not A Drill will be back again next year, with possibly a second entry as well if time permits.
Rest assured that the new build will be fully logged in this very same thread. Peace!
Attachment 7191
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_DJ085_L-A
(Once again credits to John Denny's son for taping the fights!)
I'm glad you liked the hex drum. And I'm very pleased I didn't damage your gorgeous bot too much in our first round fight!
Ha, thanks! Save for Bourbon's nibble, the big wedge is pretty much unmarked - I'll probably reuse it at some point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinski1
Aftermovie time! I compiled all photos and videos into one single montage, and here's the end result (thanks to John Denny and his son for allowing me to use the fight vids). Looking back I'm quite amazed I managed to finish it, fight it, and get it through the Euros still working at the end of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_DJ085_L-A
Anyways, enjoy. You can expect the first installment of the new build in this thread in the coming weeks.
Great video!
Brilliant stuff Greg! Great to meet, hope to see you back next time, Looking forward to TINAD 2! :)
Thanks Jimmy! I'm curious too to see whether I can fit all new improvements within the same dimensions (and weight, lol). Looking forward to the new Catalyst as well - are you going to post updates when the time comes?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy
My Build diary on here is quite a way behind already :rofl:, I really need to make time to update it just to reflect how Catalyst is currently, but yes I'll try to ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenith
Attachment 7215
With the crate back home from the Euros, it's time to see where This Is Not A Drill did well and where it could be improved.
The Bad
- Drive power. Dear god, it was horrible. The 16mm motors are enough to get it going, but once it experiences any resistance at all the motors can't be bothered
- The servo is too fickle for my liking. I'd rather have a simple motor with an ESC powering the lifter rather than something which shits the bed if the going gets tricky
Attachment 7218
- From a construction point of view the wedge mounts were a big risk. Had the bolts holding the nutstrips in place been torn through the HDPE then the entire chassis would have to be rebuilt. The wedge prongs also prevented me from using other setups.
The Good
- Despite the lack of power, I liked how it drove. Because the wheels are quite far back, it could 'swing' the front around when driving backwards - something I really liked.
- The electronics also held up quite well. I'd learnt soldering whilst building and it seemed all of the joints were in fine order - TINAD suffered major hits but kept going, something which thoroughly surprised me.
- The front armor. Both the wedge and the wedgelets held up fine, even though the big wedge suffered the full might of Bourbon's drum.
Attachment 7216
The one thing I was most impressed by though was its overall ruggidness - compared to other HDPE bots it struck me how obscenely overkill the chassis seemed to be. The chassis proved during the build it was already crazy strong without any screws or fasteners in any kind, and during the tournament the pieces of 15mm interlocking HDPE didn't budge at all. Oh, and still TINAD miraculously managed to stay nearly 200g underweight.
Attachment 7217
Also the wheelguards did the trick. 5mm HDPE can take a direct hit and remain in place - good.
For the new version, I'm upping the drive power and I'm switching to a similar lifting system to Catalyst, as I feel it's both more powerful and more reliable.
I'm also changing the front, aiming for completely interchangeability. I want various setups to be possible apart from the typical wedge, and this means the chassis will have to change.
The only area where sacrifices will have to be made is coincidentally also the chassis - with the new drive motors and lifter system the chassis will have to become higher, and the additional room (and weight) required will force me to slim down some areas. If anything though, I should be able to have the same width and length. I loved the dimensions of the first version, so for the next incarnation I'm going to try and keep it this way. Now let's hope I'm also within weight again, ha!
To be continued with the first build segment of Mk2! Watch this space.
How did you bend the hdpe into wheel guards?
The easiest way to do so is by using a heat gun and C-clamps. The trickiest thing is to get the dimensions right, as everything has to fit ofcourse. You always have to allow some space for the bend itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by daveimi
Yeeeess we're back! Amidst all of this chaos I almost forgot to keep you update on what is what.
Because well, apart from me being a nerd and caving in to the Facebook team page malarkey the build for the new This Is Not A Drill is truly well underway. Straight after the Euros I went to the drawing board and started penciling out the new version, aiming to improve on where it fell short.
Attachment 7232
I personally enjoy doing blueprints myself a lot more than I do making models on a computer - analog all the way baby. Usually I make a 1:1 scale drawing of all chassis parts as well as a top view (visible on the above picture) so I can fit possible new components. The blueprints then handily translate to parts.
Now, for Mk2 I was going to use different drive motors, different wheels, a different battery and a different lifter system... and all of this required the chassis to grow. The lifter motor alone would be exceeding the 30mm height of the original, so it was time to expand.
I really enjoyed the ruggidness of the original chassis though, so I want to maintain the same philosophy. I knew in the back of my mind that all the new more powerful components were going to gobble up those 175 grams of spare weight I had left, so I knew I had to slim down some chassis parts if I was going to keep the weight level. In some places, thickness went from 15mm to 10mm.
Attachment 7233
But I wasn't going to buy a whole new sheet for that monkey business ofcourse. Time to clamp a bit down a do some magic with the saw. Added bonus was the 2mm HDPE strip of waste - I'm sure I can find a use for that at some point.
Attachment 7234
Here's new vs. old. Thickness is the same, but the new part is taller whilst still providing space for the other interlocking parts. The added height provided me some more possibilities to make the structure even stronger than before.
Attachment 7235
Here's the two sides connected by the front chassis member. As you can see the front member 'drops' into the sides - this is to further absorb any impacts on the wedges which are attached to the side frame members.
Attachment 7236
Then there was the matter of the sides. Thanks to the guys at Metal Skull Robotics I got my hands on some threaded inserts, so I thought to give them a go. First some pilot holes...
Attachment 7239
...and then put the little buggers in. Best way was to not use a hand drill, but to put a bolt in the insert and screw them in place with a long hex key. This minimizes the chance of screwing up the thread.
Attachment 7237
Very nice.
Attachment 7238
I also chose to give the plastic motor mounts another go. They worked well on Mk1 - with some minor adjustments they should hold up in the new version as well.
There was going to be a major setback though, one that is pushing my hobby to the edge of an obsessive disorder...
But more on that next time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZYa_KfLTtM