Team Troubles Robot Projects

update:)

all problems sorted (thanks nick) and now its so very nearly ready to run. turns out i wired something up wrong which lead to alot of shorting out and smoke etc, but now everythings good.

at first i didn't like the way it looked but the robots grown on me and for some reason i think it looks alright now:)

litterally just a days work now, waiting for my drum to get sent back to me so then ill get it in place, cut the shaft down to size as its too long and drill and tap some grub screws into each bulk head to hold the shaft in place.

and at the minute i've only got 1 wheel because i've wrecked the threads on one of them because for some reason i forgot to take the chuck screw out and unscrewed the wheel, so basically the screws head has made a right mess of the threads.- so that needs sorting out aswell.

can't upload any pics cos my phones being gay ill sort some out in a few days or so or just when i've got the drum on

update

the drum has been having problems meaning its taking longer than first thought to sort out, it might be ready intime or it might not, if not then im going to pull out:(

if the drum is done in time, ill have to get it from kenny on the saturday and ill not really be able to test the robot fully or obvious reasons but it worked before without the teeth on so i just hope lucks on my side

also - incase the drum is done in time i've got to shave alot of weight out of the chassis tomorrow night when i get home from work, so if i still end up going the robot will be there on the saturday morning in bits:p and ill have to put the majority of it back together then.

dragracer isn't finished either

and i sold my bernerds watch so i can't pause time so im gonna have to rush it all.

fingers crossed

First robot fights aren't until 10.40am Calum, so if your robot's in bits, we can all help you get it together in time :)

Fingers crossed :)

i just tested out the drive and the weapon motor before i take it all apart, since i rewired the robot-properly about a week ago i hadn't tried it yet:P

and thanks for the offer of help ill probabily need it

looks like it could be fairly nippy- if it gets there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OQT0GwH ... rofilepage

despite me using up all of my friday night cutting and jigsawing bulk heads to make them lighter etc , sadly the drum wasn't ready in time, and seeing as this spinner was the only robot i wanted to use in full combat i decided to pullout:(

ill get the robot properly sorted out and do a video of it drumming something in a few weeks or so:)


2010 uk champs VFTW

Shame you ended up not making it along to the event Calum, although robot events can occasionally get a bit un-interesting without a working bot. Saw your drum though, its looking nice. Should be good once there are teeth on it and you've got it spinning nicely.

Its maybe a good thing you had to pull out - I just realised I completely forgot to bring the 27MHz radio gear with me :lol:
You still interested in it?

yh, was ashame i didn't end up going- was looking forward to it aswell, im awating some youtube videos though:D nudge nudge
normally i might have gone anyway, but because it was so far away i didn't see much point in going without the spinner

by the 2010 uk champs i might have TS2 :) as the champs are half a year away or so and from driving my spinners chassis on my bedroom carpet aswell as after spending a few hours on saturday putting it back together:P- i had a good old look at it and i think i can build a better chassis to use for then to use with the same drum. will get this one up and running and will go drumming on my local park to see how it does- at the very least i'll have a back up chassis for when TS2 isn't ready in time:P

will probabily go brushless and get some a123s in TS2 i think aswell. as my new job can fund it all:D

and yeah jamie i'd still like to have it please

No problem, just having it posted then?
Next time I'm on MSN we can sort it out

hey all,
just just thought i'd do an update on all the robots i own because i was a bit bored, but also because i brought a new robot.

i now have 5 working feathers- sort of. TJ2 (left of pic), pinsor (right of pic), a random box on wheels with no name (top right) trouble starter without the drum (top left) and in the top middle my newest robot which i brought from dave mac lev 2 which im going to call NL2 which stands for Not Lev 2.

[attachment=2:z9z4ql36]BILD0039.JPG[/attachment:z9z4ql36]

i've got plans for one more full combat feather but then for feathers that will be my lot, unless a feather gets broken beyond repair then mark 2 or 3 etc will be made to replace it.

TJ2 works nicley at the minute although i see it comming to the end of its life really so next year ill make TJ3 to replace it with a front hinged flipper rather than an electric one.

Pinsors working awesome, and im really hoping to go to reading to really get some proper fights with it. and mabye try and win :twisted:

the box on wheels is working fine.

NL2 is working very nicley indeed, it might look the same but its insides are pretty different now from how they were when i first got it. i made a new battery frame and mounted all the electronics at the back of the robot rather than the front area where they were before. only problem is currently the flipper fires its self-don't really know why . some pics below.

[attachment=1:z9z4ql36]BILD0041.JPG[/attachment:z9z4ql36]

[attachment=0:z9z4ql36]BILD0042.JPG[/attachment:z9z4ql36]

i did film a video of lev 2 flipping stuff about in my back garden but the video is terrible and really doesn't do the robot justice because the robot kept getting stuck on my patio floor etc, i flipped some of my other robots in the above pic with lev 2- but didn't film that but it throws them nicley into the air so hopefully roll on oota!

and lastly trouble starter, all finished now just waiting for the drum really- something which i originally tried making myself with some end caps made by grant but after so many problems with it, kenny is in the process of sorting it all out for me.
its driving really nicley and its really nippy which will hopefully prove to be good when i get to use the robot.

towards the end of the year im going to make a heavy weight, is going to look like a big version of TJ2 so when its finished envy bring it on!- sadly this will probabily take forever to make as my new job takes up all my free time, but i can't really compalin because it does pay for the robot stuff.

will make a next post when the drums back in my hands:) and its all working

was bored today so me n a few mates made a bodge job arena in my back garden, flimed it, edited out the boring bits and stuck it on youtube with some pendulum music:)

fun times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTxqka9nzM

been a while since i've updated this soooooooooooo

went to reading on sunday by myself unfortunatly as any of my mates who would have wanted to come with me were either at uni or hungover, although was still good fun.

had one fight with not lev 2 and its flipping arm got destroyed for no reason- pics below, spend a few hours on monday fixing it all.

[attachment=2:37ig01yv]BILD0002.JPG[/attachment:37ig01yv]

not only was that bar bend but the whole of the arm its self was also bananna shaped after the fight. - i can't spell bananna.

the robot got stuck against the side barrier for ages i must have had to fire the flipper 15 times to get the robot on its wheels again which i think is when the arm buggered up- with all that power and no robot on the flipping arm to really stop it.

but that wont happen now................

[attachment=1:37ig01yv]BILD0008.JPG[/attachment:37ig01yv]

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got some nice comments about pinsor:) thanks--- although now its claws will need re building other than that it was good.

pics of one of/ or the last feathers im going to build. that flipper i started yonks ago, i think i made the base of the chassis before i made pinsor but got carried away with making pinsor intead so it kind of got shoved aside.

heres a pic of when i first started doing stuff to it again

[attachment=2:1wv712ie]27.10.2009.JPG[/attachment:1wv712ie]

heres a pic of how it is as off a few hours ago

[attachment=1:1wv712ie]3.11.2009.JPG[/attachment:1wv712ie]

and again with the flipper open

[attachment=0:1wv712ie]3.11.2009-2.JPG[/attachment:1wv712ie]


bottle is in, motors, cylinder and what i would like to think is an over engineered flipper hinge and back end:D but time will tell

buffer will go in when i get it, waiting for batteries to get delivered and speedos- will hopefully be here by the weekend so i can mount them along with the valve and have a test drive with the flipper going aswell and then finish the rest of the chassis off at some point

as for the heavy...................

motors will arrive soon, got a cylinder, kart wheels, bottle on the way, so still need to get a few parts.

when those motors arrive im going to get some sort of drive section made that will bolt into the heavy when its made, i plan on using gears

Thats cool looking :) I'm amazed your robots are in weight when they all have proper steel tube chassis

Looking very nice , but is a buffer tank going in there to?

hey yeah it is, im getting one off grant, as they make them but they just need making and then testing or something- not totally sure.

i've got the future buffers dimensions so it will fit in, im going for a 0.5 litre buffer or something around that size-not totaly sure as i've forgot lol

more done today

speedos are in but want wiring up, valve is mounted and all the pneumatics are done- not to the best design really- as theres a few too many elbows for my liking because i had to go around a alot of stuff in the robot with the pipes but still seems alright.

more chassis done but still wants a few more bars adding in and the batteries want going in aswell, so its getting there

pics

[attachment=0:djeipatp]7.11.2009-1.JPG[/attachment:djeipatp]

[attachment=2:djeipatp]7.11.2009-2.JPG[/attachment:djeipatp]

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and heres a video of me trying it out self righting,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it56dBdZ6R8 ---its dark lol but it can sort of be seen

when i used to fire the flipper it did turn the robot over but since its alot heavier now it doesn't anymore:( still waiting on the buffer so it might do after:)

and tom i can post some pictures of the pneumatics and all the parts still if you'd like.

thatd be great ! :D

Looking good - how's it doing for weight?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by k_c_r

Looking good - how's it doing for weight?

---

I'd like to know as well, it looks heavy.

hey,

its bang on 12 kg, so its abit weighty but its not the end of the world- just the batteries to go in, buffer and 2-3 more chassis bars and then hdpe armour all over probs 6mm or so- im not bothering with a base plate and ill drill holes in the chassis aswell- i've still got to do that with pinsor any how.

will be do-able:)

If you do what you just said and get it in weight i will do a mooney to the crowd watching at fairford next year.

lol, well shane u better get practicing pulling mooneys lol, but seriously if it does end up being over ill try my best to get it as close to the weight as possible, i dont want u guys thinking im taking the mickey by making stuff badly over weight

update

my new flipper robot is no more as it wrecked its self.

for some reason the chassis has deformed from all the flipping i had been doing in my back garden during testing. so what was a nice flat to the floor flipper blade ended up being 10mm off the floor now lol. even thou the majority or the welds were good and i built it as strong as i could problem was theres no other way to make it any stronger as parts etc are in the way.

so im counting it as experience and im rebuilding by doing it the bulkhead way using ali, HDPE and ti.

different design aswell- rough sketch below, not decided on how the sides will be but will sort out their shape later

[attachment=1:xc3pa0hd]24.12.2009-1.JPG[/attachment:xc3pa0hd]

something like that, dunno what state of mind i was in when i drew it but i think it could look cool and completly different

its supposed to be a kind of animal type thing- although which animal im not sure, but it will have leds in the eyes and one for each nostrel 8)

heres what i started of it after work on monday i think it was, and im hoping to do some more saturday,

[attachment=0:xc3pa0hd]BILD0033.JPG[/attachment:xc3pa0hd]


as for the name, your guess is as good as mine

You can go two ways with chassis, either build it so stiff that it can survive anything or build in a certain amount of flex. I generally prefer to allow the chassis to flex.

You can get into the nity gritty of the science behind materials as I'm doing with my degree but the basics are,

- steel and titanium will both take a certain amount of deformation before returning to their original shape, ie they have a certain amount of spring in them

- ali for the most part will permanently deform. It's not advisable to hammer it back into shape as the atomic structure has been stressed.

- plastics are a bit special in how they act but to keep it simple they will generally spring back from a deformation (depending on the plastic) or can be heated and reset.

update of the strange lookin robot i designed, mores been done and im starting to think its lookin cool-ish now

[attachment=2:3jba2rhp]BILD0043.JPG[/attachment:3jba2rhp]

thats main bulk heads in, and paper model of the sides shape - but that still wants some tweaks

[attachment=1:3jba2rhp]BILD0045.JPG[/attachment:3jba2rhp]

1 of 2 of the flipper arms sides made from 10mm ali- i've yet to cut the other one

[attachment=0:3jba2rhp]BILD0046.JPG[/attachment:3jba2rhp]

thats the whole robot with the flipper arms side masking taped in place so u get a sence of how it will look

[attachment=1:srvfs15g]BILD0048.JPG[/attachment:srvfs15g]

thats with the flipper arm in its open position,

[attachment=0:srvfs15g]BILD0047.JPG[/attachment:srvfs15g]

and thats showing how the ram will be mounted, with it being near enough vertical in the robot

when its all done i can cut out all the excess ali to shave loads of weight off.

and garys as you were saying, im doing all the main structure from ali and the side structure - covering the wheels from ali with hopefully ti armour so the ti will have a bit of give, but im wanting the centre section where the ram etc is to be solid when i say side structure it will be more clear in the comming weeks with what i mean

im starting to prefere this way of building to the heavy box section way but all this jig-sawing ali is getting annoying lol and theres still a fair bit to cut

ill eat my hat if thats not over weight :lol: :lol: :lol: . awesome none the less.

ill get the fork and knife and plate ready for ya :rofl:

want sauce :?: :rofl:

it will be over weight untill i cut out all the excess ali, in the 2 main bulkheads once the robots finished and i no whats what, ill cut loads of ali out of them

will be much easier to lighten it compared to the other one i built using box section

when it ends up not being over weight-i've got a few hats u can eat aswell

drop a little oil in front of the blade as you go, you'd be amazed at how much it helps the blade move through and will increase their life.

been ages since an update, robots came along a bit more since i last updated this, but havnt felt very motivated to do much robot stuff for the last month or so but with broke/unfinished robots i decided to pull my finger out again. managed to do some last saturday

this is how it currently is....

[attachment=2:1fanmid7]BILD0044.JPG[/attachment:1fanmid7]

with those 2 side pod type bits lightened like that thats taken 150g out of each one so when all four are done thats 600 grams off the weight already- weights dropping off! also that ram weighs 2.3kg lol wen i've got all the robot done im getting kenny to make a new but lighter one to the same dims hopefully

[attachment=1:1fanmid7]BILD0045.JPG[/attachment:1fanmid7]

but few people have been giving me ideas and daves bin moanin at me sayin 'its too tall' and wen i had it flipping before it bent all the shafts on the flipper arm and ram i didnt manage to try self writing from its side and i didnt have spares to try it again but i dont think it will anyway. good new is i've got plans about that- pic below.....

[attachment=0:1fanmid7]BILD0041.JPG[/attachment:1fanmid7]

since its so tall its got alot of wasted height, so if i move the ram to one side, i can lie the bottle down and im thinking about cutting the top of the ali chassis off to about 20mm above the side pod bits so the buffer still fits in as is, so its more explosion shaped, cut new flipper arms- same look but so it follows the rest of the robot where i would have cut it down at the back then i can have a simple hole at the back for the bottles valve

will put each sides electronize speedo in each sides pod section as space inside the robot will be tight but will be nicly compact then ti sheet i've got over the flipper -and it shud be little hitter proof lol

gonna try get it cut down next saturday and try get new flipper arms cut on the same day

nothing done on robots what so ever for a while now, pinsors still broke and everything else is in bits either under my bed or in my shed.

but, with the feather uk champs commin up i wana get something ready for that, i would be taking my drum spinner which is litterally just waiting for the drum to be ready, but its a case of kenny finding the time to do it

so i've got a hardox disk - which most people seem to have one of:P, speed 900 spare and drill motors and speedos and a mahoosive amount of batteries lying around so im gonna make a vert spinner with it all in the style of 259- 4 wheel drive off 2 drill motors, hardox lower outer skirts as a kinda strong buffer round the edge against other spinners and gonna try make the skirts flat to the floor to stop nicks bar spinner gettin underneath n gettin the wheels- if hes still makin it,

will litterally be a 1 event robot am gonna go all out with it n see what is re usable afterwards

not gonna bother with a srimech-how ever spelt, cos its extra weight use n i wana make it solid as possible if it goes up against other spinners so i can reverse into them etc. pic of few bits below.


[attachment=0:1svx5c27]BILD0051.JPG[/attachment:1svx5c27]


will be doing it week nights after work now as i have absoultly no time anymore to really do any robot stuff- but will be able to manage a few nights a week :)

as for broken robots they'll be stayin broken for a while yet cos i wana try get doin my heavy wen i get the stuff off grant in july and the hardox sheets- gonna take it slow and get it ready for next year

ok so that feather i was on about doing i decided i couldnt be bothered making it, so if my drums done intime ill bring my drumbot and if its not ill give the event a miss.

bin spending odd hours every now again doing stuff to my ali feather which looks quite a bit different now:-

[attachment=2:12pw1bvu]BILD0055.JPG[/attachment:12pw1bvu]

[attachment=1:12pw1bvu]BILD0056.JPG[/attachment:12pw1bvu]

[attachment=0:12pw1bvu]BILD0057.JPG[/attachment:12pw1bvu]

inside theres like no space for anything lol, the valve imma have to tape to the ram or something. just batteries to go in under the ram, speedos 1 in each sides pod, make a new bottle holder and cut the back armour down n do a hole in it for acess to the bottle valve, and lastly strengthen the arm n take all the excess ali out the main bulkheads and baseplate

And heres a picture of the state pinsors in at the minute, don't actually have any good pics of it whilst it was lookin sweet- probably shudda took some whilst i had the chance because it now looks like this :P.......

[attachment=0:373zcmkf]29.6.2010-1.JPG[/attachment:373zcmkf]

thanks to major damage and little hitter to name a few, but it'll be back eventually wen i mod it properly :)

also feels good to have got all the robots out my room and put em in ma shed feels like i've got my bedroom floor back

Pinsor looked sweet? When? Just messin mate, everythings looking good. the ali feathers looking 100 times better now.
We makin new claws for pinsor when it gets the new motor in?

you offering to make some for me? lol

might make em outta some 3.2 hardox so its all 1 piece and wud be lighter aswell- dunno yet havn't thought that far ahead

Furthest ahead I've thought on mine is replacing the actuator. Not sure what with yet but anything will be better than that pile of...ahem...that we both used :lol:
Oh and fingers crossed for the drumbot being at the champs :)

you used the same actuator as me didnt you? we wudda got more force if we closed the claws using our hands lol

im putting that carjack mech in i was on about, just need to get round to doing it haha

can't believe it but its been over a month since i did anything to my ali feather just goes to show the major lack of free time i have these days lol but i had nothing to do today so did some more to it, pics below..

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[attachment=1:2ed73y84]BILD0071.JPG[/attachment:2ed73y84]

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managed to get the valve to fit in properly which is a win, im off work tomorrow so ill do some more, needs battery mounts doing, and then sort the flipepr arm out and fingers crossed i can do a wire up and a test drive and flip etc, just off 1 bar with the chassis near enough empty it almost turned its self over lol so wen its at 10bar it shud be pretty sweet.

finished the arm yesterday, fired it at 3/4 pressure it'll eventually run at and after so many flips it started bending lol. with the ram to the side it twisted the arm and its bent the top section of box section into a bannana shape where the ram connects to it, so all in all not great but its crazily good for LP :)

bent the arm back easily enough, so just needs beefing up somehow and i got some ideas (Y) win