Cicatrix Build Diary

I've put it in the diary, no stupid disco/ceilidh interruptions :lol:

If Drumroll can't get traction on that carpark at my house there's no way Eric Jr will manage it! :lol: Definitely need something a bit flatter and more open. At the moment, the plan for Eric Jr is that the outer layer will be all HDPE with the metal underneath at the corners of the polycarb, just don't hit the flipper and we'll be fine for shrapnel :D

Won't give too much away on the Robocoat„ at the moment, more of a trial to see if I can do what i'm planning first then i'll get some photos up. First things first though, i'll get the internal bits done as at the moment it is phenomenally slow...

Shame you can't make it to the Champs. Never actually got to see your robots run last year.

Most people didn't get to see them run PJ, in 2 fights it moved about 3 feet but got 2 points in each and in the last fight where it was actually working it was flipped out after about 20 seconds. So you didn't miss much :lol: .

Can't remember Daiske's fights very well, but one of them was against me and he drove straight in the pit (claimed it wasn't to run away from Buzzbar), and the only robot he beat was Boner, and I don't think he had a hand in the actual defeat at all.

Right, got started on the list I posted earlier, have removed the drill and Blue ESC's and Ewan tells me that the Gimson motors should arrive tomorrow :) . Also awaiting a set of Robochallenge wheels as I was fairly sure the Gimsons were too big when I tried them on the drill motors, but I still have a set so will be giving both of them a try at some point before reassembling it all again.

Few photos so far:

Rear view with polycarb backplate off:
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...2-28200324.jpg


Detached from most of the rest of the robot and baseplate to make it easier to get the motors out:
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...2-28204334.jpg

Offending articles removed:
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...2-28213625.jpg

Looks neat. Nice to see some polycarb again for a change, everything is black or white HDPE nowadays almost :P
I myself am building a black HDPE armored robot but thats not relevant! ;)

Thanks Danny, if I manage to get it the way I want it for Edinburgh all of the polycarb will be hidden by HDPE :lol: But, I will have a vinyl wrap on the HDPE to make it look more like Eric.

Long time since my last update but not much has happened. Waiting for new wheels for Eric Jr so I can mount the Gimsons appropriately so as to keep the ground clearance fairly low. The mount of them is much smaller than the mounts from the old drill motors so will need a bit of a booster seat to be mounted on, but will need the wheels to determine that.

In other news, a number of our robots have changed hands. Minitrix has left the building and is USA bound, after seeing that the competition this year was 8hrs away I though I would try selling it to someone who has attending that. It didn't. However it has found a new home where i'm sure it'll be used so thats the main thing. Also, our 2 Antweight robots have left us for another person who will actually use them, so its all good.

Essentially, from the cash I made from that it was a straight swap for Chimera, the Heavyweight that has been up for sale over the past few weeks on the forum. Met up with Colin at the weekend and came up with a few ideas on where the future of the robot lies. Plan at the moment is to throw a set of 750's I have in the workshop in there and convert it from friction to chain drive. Should be pretty quick as the wheel are huge compared to most robots out there, 13inch rims plus tyres, not sure exactly what that makes em overall. This also makes the robot absolutely huge, and barely fit in the back of the car.

Took a photo to illustrate the size of Chimera compared to Scar:
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...3-18122924.jpg


This is a photo I took for a friend of mine's kid who wanted to see the robots, but it can go on here now that it has been totally slated on FB for my laziness, someone on here will no doubt also notice what I mean....

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...3-20133923.jpg

Been doing a bit of tidying up on Chimera today, took the wheels off and sanded one of them down to the metal and resprayed it with a black anti rust primer as you can see from the photo that it was looking a bit orange with rust so now it looks a bit tidier. Also gave the hubs a coat of the same primer, just to keep it tidy as they were heavily rusted. Won't bother with photos as its one of those small jobs that takes a long time. Also had a look at how the blade is wired up and tried to work out how to get it all going, seems simple enough.

COMPETITION TIME

On to real news though, considering running a competition between here and the schools to see if anyone can come up with a new name/colour scheme for Chimera, but the original may well still stay, and likewise I may only change one of those things. Only rules would be that the robot has to stay as it is, nothing major can be added or taken away structurally, for example, a flashing light/horn can be added, a flipper cannot.

Not really much of a prize for the winner, will seem like more to the kids in school than you guys :lol: . I'll write the name of the designer on the robot and of course decorate it as their design states. I'll also try to do something like get one of those autograph books signed by the people/robots at RL Edinburgh, which will be the robots first event and add a few photos of the robot to the book. I'll also maybe see if Weston will mention them in his event report for that event when looking at the robot to get them on youtube if he doesn't mind :)

Essentially it'll be judged by all of us, with the winners being decided by myself, Colin (if he wants to be involved in the process that is) and the rest of the team. I'll post the school drawings on here as and when they're done.

Long update to say very little I know, if anyone wants to enter, just post a description/name idea on here or a drawing of the design.

Hope this works well :)

One of the wheels was plain black, so repainted to look similar, will probably have to do the other one too. Don't like my freehand painting much mind you.

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...3-22132234.jpg

In keeping with my usual flitting between projects, I have been working at getting Eric Jr and Cicatrix going again. Sadly, it has been a bad 24hrs for the robots.

Eric Jr has 1 Gimson mounted and the other ready to be mounted, but I heard from Dave that my CO2 bottle isn't filling up, so i'll need to have a look at that and see whats going on. In light of this, I wired up Cicatrix again, taking out one of the ESC's and going back 1 XXL for the whole system. All seemed to be going well, had everything but the BEC wired up, so soldered in the BEC and connected it to the receiver.

Then, BOOM! SMOKE! FIRE!

No idea what causes is as the link isn't in and the BEC supposedly has reverse protection even if it was wired up wrongly (which it wasn't) so pretty stumped. Anyway, BEC wires are really burnt and were roasting hot, as for the unit itself, it looks ok but not sure yet. Will get everything else on it done then go from there...

You're really not having much luck with the electronics in Cicatrix :(
Does this mean I've got a good chance of winning the Scottish mini-champs on Monday then? :lol:

If you want, I'd be happy to bring Cicatrix back here at some point, strip the wiring right back, double-check all the connectors and re-do everything, see if that eliminates whatever mystery wiring-virus which is manifesting itself in the robot. I could clip all the wires up as well, might make it easier to keep track of what's what. I think it's still within its 1yr manufacturer warranty :wink: