yup, its an annual thing :)
It happened last year too;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em0D59s9Qzk
Just thought id make it official this year :)
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yup, its an annual thing :)
It happened last year too;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em0D59s9Qzk
Just thought id make it official this year :)
I need to move to New Zealand so I can get in the ring and take that heavy trophy off your hands next year Dave ;)
Or just build a drum. Think we're going to have to segregate the beaters and let them duel it out among themselves. Drums are the original and best. We were just being kind letting Shiny in ;)
At least I can take pride in being the first ever drum-off winner last year, even if I didn't build myself a trophy for it :)
LOL, The only reason we have a 'Drum Off' is because having a 'Beat Off' or a 'Flip Off' isn't a politically correct thing to announce over the PA system.
We've had Boner announced over the PA for a few years, I'm sure our audiences are somewhat de-sensitised :lol:
Im not sure having a trophy with "beat off champion" on it is the kinda thing anyone would put on there mantle piece...
Well that's a relief, I was afraid my plans for a new flipper design named Giant Trouser Snake would cause offence.Quote:
Originally Posted by RogueTwoRobots
Update
Trying to keep a bit of momentum going with regards to the robots. Normally take a break after weeks of building and the high of an event (and the subsequent low of an event finishing) but having a robot that still works and just needs a few small mods gives you the necessary boost to get it all back up to full health quickly.
So, a bit of analysis of the damage. Most of the damage was done to the armour (doing its job then), with a little to the front aluminium and base. The welds broke on one side of the armour, but considering I was welding them with a dodgy welding mask and squinting through two pairs of sunglasses, I wasn't surprised that they suffered. Easy enough to fix:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psakaqxt0j.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psuuws7owf.jpg
The vapourised tooth of the drum. This was the one that suffered most in a contra-rotating impact between Drumroll and Galactus, but I think he came off worse ;)
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psvoasjonc.jpg
The teeth this year seemed to wear a lot more than the old ring drum, despite being a harder material. After having watched back some footage and looking at the old drum again, part of it is due to the force of the impacts nowadays and part of it is due to the shape of the teeth. The teeth that suffered the worst were the two that were involved in the biggest impacts (the other two are alright). The old drum teeth were also shaped in such a way that they had more material below the radius of the tooth, meaning that when they chipped or blunted, there was more material underneath the leading edge to cope with the impact and therefore more material remaining when I re-ground them. But with the current teeth, the material curves away from the leading edge meaning that when they blunt and suffer impacts, there's less remaining material as it gets less and less as it approaches the ring section and the edge taking the impact is more prone to compressing. Reading that back I have no idea if it makes sense, but I know what I mean :P
I've managed to ground all the teeth into rough tooth shapes again, even the one pictured to a reasonable degree so there's still a bit of life in the drum yet.
Or is there.....
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psndvhouyg.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psjihceg5q.jpg
The remains of one of the bearings in the drum. I already knew that it was partially knackered as I had to pick out five rollers at the event due to damage, but it's clearly got worse. It most likely explains the fuse blowing in the drum-off and Gladiator event; took a few big hits in the drum-off which probably exacerbated the damage, leading to a higher resistance in the weapon setup, resulting in the brushless motor pulling a higher continuous current and causing the fuse to blow. Didn't spot it between the drum-off and the Gladiator, so the problem was bound to re-occur.
I'll need to see if I can get the roller cage, or the complete bearing, out and replace it or whether this'll become an expensive paperweight. Either way I've got plans in mind with regards to a new drum that would deal better with blunting teeth.
The damage caused by Little Nipper. Missed all the components but varied the shape of the baseplate a bit:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psli1ae1pv.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps3h47ek30.jpg
Easy enough to bend back with a hammer, but might look into ti as an alternative.
The maintenance required for Banebots wheels is getting a bit silly as well (WD-40 or white spirit with a dishwashing sponge in between fights) and combined with the lack of replacement Banebots nowadays, I wanted to go back to bike tyre. Thought about getting aluminium plates cut with a 3/4" hex in it to go over the motor hub that HDPE wheels could bolt onto, to which I could then screw some bike tyre to. Then had the brainwave of just using the existing Banebots wheels, so had to strip the tyre material off of those:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psylkuzyw2.jpg
And then screw some bike tyre tread onto them. Job done, simples:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psmf0jg3ty.jpg
Can't decide if I'm 100% happy with them yet though as it increases the ground clearance a bit more (the treads are thicker than the Banebots material was), might still go for HDPE/ali versions if it means I can get them closer to the 3-7/8" Banebots size. But either way, they'll be a lot less maintenance intensive.
Also picked up the claw from Reaver and thought, 'I wonder how strong the welds are on this' and tried to pull it apart. It broke easily :P
But as I don't see too much future in the current Reaver (bang on the weight limit, no srimech etc) I figured that I may as well go from one feeble crusher back to another. May be time to give this little critter a rebuild and run-out again:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pswrrptfq3.jpg
Post champs Jamie = win.
Also I see you random hardox disc in the background, you sneaky sausage.
I have some 4" hdpe round sitting doing nothing so if you want stuff from that give us a shout
Haha, there are a lot of things in the background that I have plans for which will probably never materialise. I've had that disc for a while though, contemplated fitting it into Onyx's chassis as it was a perfect fit, but there are too many verticals now so I might go for something different with it. If I ever get round to it....
And will do, thanks. Would probably need it turned down to, like, 85mm but I know someone with a lathe ;)
Did you ever do anything with the overhead saw attachment on Carcinus? Because if that's still about you should definitely put that on it. Channel its inner Dead Metal haha!
I do like the look of the bike tread on Drumroll as well, looks pretty good. Imagine it would be pretty grippy too from the looks of it...
Yeah still got the saw attachment, it's actually just hiding behind one of Scar's drive motors in the Carcinus pic. Never got the business end of it sorted out so it'd need a bit of work, but I'll draw some inspiration from Gloomy and try to get it working :)
Used the same bike tyre on Banebots hubs on Reaver at the champs and it seemed to work fine. No maintenance required, although DB10 did dissect one of them quite nicely.
Damn you for getting that posted before me! Im getting ellis to make some tormenta 3 style wheels for 722 for next year for weight and traction reasons lol... seems you really do benifit from an aggressive tread pattern on the metal floor
Chunky tread like that seems to work nicely and is pretty robust. Only problems I've had have been either not using enough screws to hold it in or a spinner damaging the tread. I've had the same tread on all my robots for years! :D
Is that true Dave? Was going to grab some Colson wheels for next year instead of my custom made bike tire ones. I would of figured that would be better grip on metal rather than tread?
I thought tread would be better on mdf flooring to disperse the dust in the tread.
Have Banebots wheels on Spur with bike tread screwed on
Hard wearing and good grip - remember choosing it in Halfords and the assistant asking if he could help.... it was oh so tempting
Ha! I knew if I got my wheels sorted early then for once I couldn't be accused of copying you Dave (if you want to ask Ellis to make a couple extra though, that'd be great ;) )
I've used bike tyre on virtually every robot I've ever made, but started using less and less as Banebots became available through Technobots and Robo Challenge Blue wheels faded out. But it's just so easy and effective, kinda happy to be going back to it. Never used enough screws in the past but sorted that this time round. Although if screwing into Banebots hubs I think there can be such a thing as too many, as they may lead to weakening the hub (the wheel on Reaver that DB10 hit may not have failed as much if I hadn't peppered it with screws)
Colsons are popular but look blooming heavy
Still hunting for an easy supply of wheels. I could make my own but consider them a commodity so dont want to be spending alot of time turning them out (literally)
I bought some toolstation castors - look promising and really cheap. Central hub though is a bit thin for my liking
http://imgur.com/a/H0pE3
I still need to see if my tiny lathe can handle the radius tool I made in nylon. I haven't yet, for the same reason the robot stuff is exactly where I plonked it when I stumbled in the door after the champs... I will get round to it soon. :D
They are mostly polypropylene and weigh about the same as any other plastic wheel of the same size. I make simple plastic hubs and the wheels really don't take up much of the weight budget. The smaller wheels are easy to turn or drill for extra weight loss but the real attraction is the punishment they can take, so I leave them mostly alone.Quote:
Originally Posted by shakesc
Update
Been a while. After a brief flurry of activity post-champs, things quietened down a bit with work and other stuff. With no Robots Live event at Edinburgh this year, there was no rush to get a couple of working feathers for June, which is just as well as all of my non-spinner feathers had been stripped down or beaten up.
The next event on the calendar then was going to be the Kinematic Events beetleweight competition, so best get some beetles running. I decided to make a concerted effort to get Flam running for it, starting afresh as the old version had a folded 4mm HDPE chassis which just wouldn't cut it anymore. After rummaging through the scraps box, I decided to make the sides out of 8mm ali (no idea which grade). I also decided to get the drum made early on as that was likely to be the most intensive part. Haven't got a picture of the finished drum, but this is how it was looking early on. The back piece is 2mm steel and the bolts still had to be cut down obviously:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pslosv9smt.jpg
But long story short, it never got finished in time. Reasons being that I made the drum, but didn't account for how I was going to transmit power to it from the brushless and I'd have to have a bit of a redesign/rebuild to incorporate either a pulley or a groove in the tube. It was also bigger than it needed to be (I went for a 60% replica of the feather) and as such, with all the parts in it, it was going to be overweight. So I shelved it - again - and instead went down a different route.
Boom.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psfdzeqsno.jpg
Had tried to keep it quiet that I bought this off Harry, but in the end I think almost everyone knew :P
Formerly Red Wedding, now renamed Spin Cycle (as I don't watch Game of Thrones...yet). Standard beetle fare, two 1000rpm motors, lipo battery, Botbitz ESCs and a brushless (not sure of spec) attached to a b!tch of a disc. I got it in an almost ready to run state, just needed to wire up the drive speedos and add a lid really, but it took a bit more work than that overall, working out the brushless ESC programming, setting everything up to my liking, cramming all the wiring into a ridiculously compact space, but got there in the end. Trying to work out how to make everything fit:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psyxendfjv.jpg
As everything was tight up against everything else, I added a small polycarb belt guard to stop things getting caught or worn down:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psq7k158eu.jpg
And this was it ready to run at The Iron Games last week. You can just see the last minute addition of a couple of spiked bolts sticking out the back to stop the robot getting stuck there:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psd4pelbr9.jpg
Give or take a couple of instances when it would lose a wheel in battle - something that I'll be looking to address - it smashed its way through the competition to take third overall (losing out to Flatulence in the semis!). Lynx was by far the biggest casualty, getting ripped apart by Spin Cycle in its first fight. It then lost to Headbanger before getting a bye and making it into the aforementioned semis. I let Sam drive Flatulence to make up for totalling his robot in 16 seconds after the 6-hour journey to make it to the event, and he promptly responded by comprehensively beating Spin Cycle. SC then took on Headbanger again in the 3rd place playoff and managed a one-hit KO this time. Overall a good first event and it has given me things to improve on in time for the Games finals in November.
Meanwhile....
Flatulence did what Flatulence does best, which is defy my wish for it to get beaten up and ended. Here it is prior to the fights, looking suitably rough. The only change made for this event was to swap out the MFA motors that were in it for a pair of the 1000rpm eBay motors, which gave it a much needed speed boost:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psrrxaaack.jpg
It first fought against Bonecrusher where, after a couple of minutes of tussling, managed to stack it on its back against the arena wall. It then fought Eggbeater and did what I hoped it would do (and what it did the last time it fought Eggbeater at Deeside in 2013) which was to drive its flipper blade through the big gap in the beater and hoist it up to carry it around the arena. I lost a wheel at that point which made driving a bit difficult but eventually managed to carry it over to the pit and drop it down, Flats included. It then fought FHQWHGADS and employed the same tactics to the same success before seeing off Spin Cycle in the semis. It was then Final time and it was against Eggbeater again. Flatulence was on the back foot to begin with, taking a few blows from Eggy and getting upended in the corner. I managed to get it righted before stalling the beater long enough to wedge the flipper blade in again and, in an almost identical repeat, I drove it over to the pit and dumped it (and myself, again!) in. Job done :)
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pswqqztzdg.jpg
After the competition was over we threw the remaining beetles in for a rumble and both Flatulence and Spin Cycle took damage. Spin Cycle is an easy fix, just needs the motors screwed back onto the gearboxes and Loctited. Flatulence needs a little more work but nothing too major. Despite my light-hearted loathing of it, it's got tenacity and seems to be a bit of a crowd-pleaser; I'd even go so far as to say the little fella has won me over. So it seems only fair that I spruce it up for the event in November.
So that's that for now. Got a few things that I'm wanting to make progress on robot-wise and not really sure what to focus on first. I'm still limited to weekends and half of them are usually already busy for one thing or another so it'll be slow going, but Robots Live will be at Glasgow Comic Con at the end of September so should probably sort out the feathers for that.
Kicking your arse with your own robot as revenge, worth the journey
Seriously though was great seeing you again man and both bots were looking great (ignoring the fact one was built by someone else).
I'm not at all surprised Lynx got totaled after getting it back home for a closer look, the machining was top notch but 6082 is not a good material for thin chassis parts, i can literally bend it with my bare hands.
If you're at the Beetle champs in November we can have a proper spinner scrap with NotLynx (may or may not be a beetle Last rites with 7075 chassis parts.....)
thats assuming either of oyu make it through a match with bonecrusher mk3.... loved the fight with flatulance was my personal favourit and i do fell if i had been able to get a better drive train working it would have been more intresting cause i would have been able to push you about going to get the next scoope much lower to the ground though so wont be an issue this time
What servo do you use in Flatulance? Would it be ok to see a picture of the insides?
I've failed pretty badly at keeping this updated due to it being much easier to update the Facebook page, but here's one to see the year out:
Ode to 2015
As the last few hours of 2015 tick away, it's time for a quick look back at the last year of combat carnage, and what a year it has been!
The first event of the year was no mere skirmish, it was the 2015 Featherweight World Championships hosted by Robo Challenge and held over four days at the Gadget Show Live, and was the best event yet! Over 40 robots from all around the world battling it out to become the victor. Drumroll had a complete rebuild and new drum and, combined with the reliable internals from the 2014 version, performed very well, finishing 10th, making it a top ten world featherweight robot (just!).
From then, it was off to a new event in a new(ish) weight class, with the beetleweight Iron Games in Clydebank held by Kinematic Events. Our first major foray into beetleweight competition and our first trophies in ten years as Flatulence and Spin Cycle finished 1st and 3rd respectively; a great event all round.
In September we attended the Glasgow Comic Con event to put the robots through their paces in the Robots Live arena. Onyx went eight fights without breaking or burning anything out, and was even under the control of Robert Picardo, aka The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, while Drumroll saw a few fights and was doing reasonably well until it smoked a drive motor. Oops!
Finally, to round off the year, it was the Fighting Robots Association Beetleweight Championships down in Bromsgrove, again hosted by Kinematic Events, and again another successful event as Flatulence came 2nd overall and won Best Driver, while Spin Cycle was awarded Best Aesthetics, serving as a consolation considering its underwhelming performance :P
So, all in all, it has been a cracking and successful year. Many thanks to all the teams and competitors, who have become very good friends in this fantastic spobby. You all make the time and money we spend on our machines, occasionally to see them destroyed, totally worth it. Best wishes to all of you in 2016!
As for 2016, we're considering taking a year out from the combat side of things. Time to work on the machines is very limited due to grown-up work and all the robots need some investment (and more importantly, time) put into them in order for them to maintain their competitiveness in the arena. If we do take a break, we won't be disappearing completely. There will still be plenty of updates here and a lot of focus will be given to our next building project. It'll be a robot, but not a combat robot. Have a basic parts pic and a blurry scribbled drawing by way of teasing :)
Happy New Year!
http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5628&stc=1 http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5629&stc=1