Boring Brick

Yeah that would be great Nick, since the Binky fight having some kind of protection for the motor seems a must, it got too close to taking it out

Quick video of Hatchet post champs, filmed this yesterday but it's taken forever to upload http://s921.photobucket.com/user/mrs...3ca13.mp4.html

Just have the chassis made out of 7mm Hardox, that'll protect it!

Seriously though, it's a very solid machine and with some upgrades it'll be very strong. In any case, it looks rather mean with that scoop - I can't believe it actually fit, and I'm rather glad I brought it down for you now haha! Just need to fit a 5S LiPo, check up/replace your drive motors and improve the transmission on the axe and that'll be quite a formidable opponent!

Also, regarding your wheels... Remember how I said a motor went? I shook it to see if there was any loose parts of the magnets or whatever and there was a small m4 grub screw in there. How that happened, I have no idea, but I guess that solves two mysteries of the champs! I'd guess it was when I did the wheel change on mine, probably managed to pick it up on that little bit of grease that ended up on the gears...

Yeah the scoop looks awesome, definitely a keeper! that grub screw was probably one of the ones that got left on my bench which were undersized so i didn't use them, that's about the most damage Hatchet did to a robot aha. I really hope i can make it to Barnsley with Hatchet as you said you were going to go i want that 1 on 1 with Hardwired!

It does! Really compliments the whole look! Well, if that really was what caused the motor to go kaput, you're the only person to have caused terminal damage to HardWired this year! The motor still ran somehow but I think it was running at stall mostly. I was just feathering it but I was still technically mobile I guess!

And I definitely will be going to Barnsley, it's literally 15 minutes away haha - hope you can make it up too! We definitely need that 1V1! Hopefully I'll have sussed HardWired's traction issues by then so we'll be able to have a proper old scrap!

If i can get Hatchet running by then i'll definitely try my best to get up there, it's not much more than an hour on the train so it's possible. I've watched the gladiator battle back and that 18v battery made the axe look really powerful so at least a 5s lipo will be going in, if not 6s, it depends what this version can handle.

Well, you've got the weight (and space, if you buy the right ones) for a dual battery setup, maybe 4/5s drive, 6s axe? The only worry would be overvolting the drills too much, they're not the most reliable things in the world as far as I remember... If you've got 18v drill motors though, go nuts!

I'm thinking about some 18v drills but a dual battery set up might be a good idea, the 30 amp electronize i'm using for the axe is 24v max and a 6s lipo fully charged is around 25ish, i know that No Toy runs that set up but his axe runs on a bigger ratio with smaller gear motors so maybe it's easier on the ESC that way, besides the way that Hatchet's axe ran on the current ratio on just 16.8v Nimh proves that it has the power already so if i increase the ratio slightly and up the voltage to 5s i reckon it'll have more than enough power without being over the top.

Had a chance today to sit down and draw up some design ideas for Hatchet 2 and also priced up the majority if parts that i'll need and overall it's not too bad if you consider i have almost a year to build it. The new look chassis design i have is radical to say the least and makes Hatchet 1 look a bit boring in comparison, i'll be keeping that under wraps though until i start building. Here's a list of the specs i'm currently considering..

4mm Aluminium Baseplate
20mm Hdpe bulkheads with 8-10mm Hdpe bent and wrapped around the whole body in a single piece
15mm nylon axe bulkheads with bushings/bearings to really free the axe up
5s 2650mah 65 - 130c Turnigy nano tech lipo, don't believe the rating for a second but it's a good price
Tz85 drive speed controllers
12v drill motors for the drive, still not ready to fork out for gimsons although i'll see what money is like.
Same axe as before but much more powerful, 5 - 6:1 reduction instead of 3.5:1 and 8mm chain rather than 6, couple that with the higher voltage and the switch to lipo and i think i'll have an awesome weapon.
80mm wheels this time rather than 100 as i feel they were a little exposed this year.

Let me know what you think

Sounds a good list of parts! Only things I would mention though is the wheel size and your drive - I think personally you'd be fine with 100 still, mine were 80 and they seemed a tad on the smaller side, unless of course you're making the machine less tall in which case that's fair enough! Then the 12v drills may be a little pushed on 5S in terms of their overall reliability, you might want to look for 18v drill motors or similar if you can find any suitable ones. Other than that, sound! Also, are you still using the hardox scoop on this new machine?

Do like the sound of a single piece of HDPE wrapped round the body though, I do recall that there's a machine in the US that works a bit like that, it's got layered armour and it's fed into the front somewhere, improves strength I'm told - that's definitely a good thing!