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Sorry for anyone looking for a new post here. I just noticed the 'bump topic' button at the top of the page and clicked it out of curiosity thinking it would give some sort of option to 'bump' the topic but it just straight-out bumped it up to the top of the build diary thread without me posting anything...so yeah...sorry.
Although by posting this there technically is a new post, so I've effectively cancelled out my error...oh well.
Move along, nothing to see here :lame:
i read that entire post and had to check the dtae several times as i had memories of it :angry:
hands up for a ban on forum time wasters :rofl:
anyway thought you had uni stuff to do :evil:
Well I would go and notice a bizarre button that I'd never seen before on the forum and click it without fully considering the consequences wouldn't I? :rofl:
Of course I've got uni stuff to do, and as always, I've spent most of my day doing the complete opposite :roll:
(this time it was working on a new website)
And so that your time hasn't been wasted too much.......Update :proud:
Drumroll getting serviced and going back to Speed 900s to prepare for its non-competition life.
Carcinus working well but needs a better (aka more powerful) actuator.
Kaizer coming back with muchas improvements.
Bullseye getting renamed Rover and being restored to a Typhoon Rover mini replica. Will be used for driving practice/drone purposes/demo/display.
New website a few days away.
Armageddon is a good film.
Got a party tomorrow night.
Ate a chicken kiev tonight that might have been a bit off - now feeling a bit queasy.
Update complete 8)
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
After lying dormant for close to two years, I figured it was time for the website to get a bit of the update treatment. The team now consists of just me and my dad as George has become more involved in his work and getting time off for robot competitions has been proving difficult. I've also recently been condensing my robotic collection due to financial/space restraints and I couldn't guarantee having a fully running robot available for him to compete with.
But rather than continuing under the Team Terminal Damage banner, I figured it was best to keep that as a bit of a tribute to the old personnel setup and indulge in a bit of re-branding for the new one. Introducing...
RogueTwo Robots
Rogue Two is a call-sign used in Star Wars by one of the X-Wing pilots and I always thought it would make a good name for something, so it forms the basis of the new team name (as well as my music channel on Youtube)
Rather than update the existing website, I plumped for a whole new one. Nothing fancy really, just giving some information on the team and robots, with up-to-date news for any regular visitors.
RogueTwo Robots: http://www.rogue-two-robots.vze.com
I've also set up a new Youtube channel for event videos etc (http://www.youtube.com/RogueTwoRobots). There's nothing on there yet but I'm hoping to get the vids from Barnsley uploaded soon.
And just to complete the re-branding, the team email has changed: rogue-two-robots@live.co.uk
It may be a bit quiet for the next month in terms of robot updates but after that there should be some nice progress to report, including some kilobot stuff (settled on a design and constructed a paper model so far :P)
Cheers,
Jamie
Very nice setup, makes me want to hurry up and get my team logo and website done to make my arrangement look as professional as yours 8)
What sort of kilobot are you going for? You might have told me before on MSN but you know how my memory is.
I'm going for a scaled-down version of Snakebite, which is a featherweight vertical crusher design I've had kicking about in my head for years but never got round to making it as it was a bit complex/expensive/potentially overweight.
I'm hoping it'll be easier to get working on a smaller scale though. I've made up a couple of battery packs from an old Nicad pack I had and I think I've settled on a choice of motors but just need to figure out what to do for speed controllers as most small-scale ones have a voltage input starting around 6V, whereas I'm running on 3.6V. I like to make things simple for myself :lol:
new website is cool- i like it :proud:
what u gonna be powerin the claw with on your kiloweight?
Cheers Calum. At the moment, the plan is to use a piece of threaded rod attached to the output shaft of a geared motor, just to keep things simple for now. Not 100% sure on the motor choice but so far the thinking is to use one of the motors that I'll be using for drive, that way I only need to carry spares of one type of motor to cover the drive and the weapon. The motors I'm planning on using are some of the MFA geared motors from Technobots for a tenner each.
http://www.technobots.co.uk/acatalog/Sh ... r_229.html
RE 280 4mm Metal Gearbox 15:1 for the drive (part no. 1450-031) and maybe another for the weapon, or possibly the 30:1 version instead (part no. 1450-032)
Hopefully they'll be powerful enough and that'll be my drive and weapon sorted for £40. Got the batteries, got the Tx/Rx, got some chassis materials, so it should just be a case of finding/forking out for speed controllers and then throwing it all together.
And I'm kidding myself if I think it will be that straightforward, but fingers crossed :)
Update
It has been defunct since March last year and I had considered the chassis a write-off but today Kaizer hit the comeback trail. :)
I decided it was time to consolidate all my spare parts and bits of chassis' into one single affordable monthl......err, I mean into a running machine. After inspecting Kaizer's chassis closely, I realised there was a lot that could be salvaged and since I can't really afford to splash out on new stuff just now, recycling is the aim of the game.
So did a bit of work on it today, shortened the chassis by about a third and replaced the linear actuator with a drill/threaded rod combo.
[attachment=2:hyubdyio]k3_build (37).JPG[/attachment:hyubdyio]
Much smaller than before, it's going to be very compact inside, but the small size should allow for some decent armour round the outside. I had to replace the HDPE cross-bulkheads but plenty of spare, stiffer, polypro lying around for that.
[attachment=1:hyubdyio]k3_build (39).JPG[/attachment:hyubdyio]
A rough idea of how it'll look overall when complete. I've been thinking all day of what other robot it reminds me of and I think its Dave range of robots (Orange Dave, Hello Dave) that Marco made. Which is good because I liked the look of those robot :)
The speedos get mounted on the side walls. They are quite close to the motors so electrical noise may be a problem, but I had them closer still in Mk2 and only suffered intermittent interference so I'm hoping a bit more space plus 2.4GHz control should be enough to prevent this happening. Maybe some capacitors across the motor terminals for good measure.
[attachment=0:hyubdyio]k3_build (43).JPG[/attachment:hyubdyio]
Not bad for a few hours work by my standards, from a trashed old chassis to a solid base for a new robot. I'm hoping to get it running by the end of the weekend so will aim to get the mechanical bits finished tomorrow (forks etc) then bump the batteries from Carcinus and spend Sunday wiring it up/test driving 8)
Oh, and after putting up with countless hours of drilling, cutting and hammering over four years, not to mention me plonking my backside on it every so often, my trusty workbench decided it had enough today:
[attachment=0:3n44szhk]k3_build (42).JPG[/attachment:3n44szhk]
So it'll be off to B&Q tomorrow to get some wood to replace that. Just as well MDF isn't sharp, as it was me sitting on it again that caused that to happen!
Looking good already. You putting it in with spinners again?
Can't you just replace the wooden slats?
Yeah Tom, I'm going to use it in full combat again. Last time it was a little too fast for the amount of control we had, so it often hit the spinners unnecessarily and took on damage, but the voltage will be 19.2V, down from the 24V used at the champs (that was a borrowed pack) so it should be more controllable to prevent this happening while still having a bit of a kick to it.
Gary, yeah I plan on just getting a couple of strips of wood to replace the slats, the frame has still got some abuse left in it :)
looking cool jamie, be interested to see how much force u get out of that mechanism
since all pinsors weapon mech and claws are fudged im gettin ti claws made by kenny at some point and im going to do away with the actuator for the same kind of mechanism - usin the motor,gearbox and threaded rod off a 1.5 ton electric car jack to get some propper force into the claws.
once i've mastered the design, will rebuild pinsor towards the end of the year to get it in weight and build it more compact etc
Nice, and then I'll come along and copy your design again :proud:
Sounds like it'll be a mighty improvement anyway. I don't run my actuator at the same voltage as you do but there's just no power in it regardless, so I reckon motor/threaded rod is the way to go. I'm thinking Speed 900 , gear reduction, then threaded rod as I don't want too much force in it, otherwise the chassis will start to fail and I can be bothered to rebuild that.
Pinsor with ti claws and a 1.5ton mechanism should be awesome. Is that planned mechanism the same type of setup as what powers the lifter Tom made for the MW?
yep, i bought another car jack a while ago after tom gave me voodoo and i was um-ing and ar-ing about what to do with it, was gonna repair voodoo at first but thats been put aside for now at least, then was gonna make a vert crusher with it but then decided theres not much point in building a new robot if the ones i have already arn't very good lol so shud work on them instead.
and little hitter in particular has got me so many times now i wana be able to actually get a bite onto it lol
only problem is if the max force is reached in the screw mechanism the gears in the gear box end up breaking which is what happened to the car jack tom put in voodoo because he wound it down too far, will have to see how it handles it
Update
Got some more done to Kaizer today. Finished off the lifter mechanism bar one bolt that I need to buy tomorrow so should hopefully be able to give it a test then. Haven't got it all wired up yet but only got a few more mechanical bits and pieces to do before that.
How it's looking so far, managed to re-use the lid as well, with a bit of trimming:
[attachment=0:xlaiw602]k3_build (47).JPG[/attachment:xlaiw602]
I had borrowed the batteries out of Carcinus to use for testing, thereby giving 19.2V but this meant that if I wanted to run both robots at the same time I would have to buy another two packs eventually. So in keeping with the current parts recycling philosophy that I'm trying to employ, I've taken a bit of a step backwards technology-wise and opted for some SLAs that have been sitting about to use in the robot. Two 6V, 4.5Ah batteries linked in series for 12V. They have similar dimensions to the Ni-mh packs except for being slightly taller but that works out as an advantage for when it comes to securing the batteries in place.
[attachment=1:xlaiw602]k3_build (48).JPG[/attachment:xlaiw602]
The drills are 16.8V so they will be undervolted, but they have a top speed of 1000rpm as opposed to the standard 550rpm drill so the robot should still be quite nippy. The lifter drill is 9.6V so it will be slightly overvolted, which should give a nice level of extra speed and power. A full lift of the forks takes a few seconds now (compared to 20 seconds for the old actuator unit) and the distance travelled by the nut on the threaded rod is a mere few inches for full travel so the forks will hopefully be more effective this time round.
Aim to get a bit of a test run in tomorrow so will see how the SLAs cope with it.
looks gd Jamie
as ever one of the most compact fws i have seen :D
if you can do a video of it working that would be cool, and where did you buy those 16.8v drills from??? didn't think they came in that voltage???
also about your batteries i have a number of old drill batteries about which i really could do with selling/passing on as you seem to be 'skint' i can do a good price :proud: :proud: :proud: :proud: :proud:
well done
alex
Thanks Alex. Yeah I do like to make things compact sometimes, then usually regret it later when I can't fit everything in :crazy:
I'd like to get a video up of it running about; I'm going back up to Glasgow for uni tomorrow so I might not have time to video it just now but I'm done with uni on 5th May ( :proud: ) so will have plenty of time then to sort out a vid.
The drills are a bit of an odd voltage yeah, they're the big bunch of drills I bought off eBay a couple of years ago now and they were mostly hammer drills, which I think is why they were a slightly unusual voltage.
I should be alright for battery cells, I've got a fair few old drill packs lying about too but they tend to be in the order of 1.2Ah which isn't a lot. I like to go for a minimum of about 3.5Ah in battery packs to make sure run-time is sufficient.
viewtopic.php?f=166&t=3312
Update
Had a week down at home after exams and managed to get some robot work done; could've done a lot more but drum kits are distracting and dogs are demanding :P
Kaizer has progressed nicely though. Fitted the batteries securely, mounted the weapon speedo and got the power distribution bolts fitted so I could get it wired up and running:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...k3_build50.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...k3_build55.jpg
(more pics at http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/ ... /?start=20)
Still need to fit power LEDs, a couple of pieces of armour at the front and some side protection but everything else is pretty much done. Did several tests with the lifter and had the connection between the threaded rod and the drill shaft breaking a few times but tapped some threads and used some grub screws and have managed to improve the joint. It still comes loose now and then but that's purely to the grub screws loosening through vibration (the rod is a bit off-centre so it makes the mechanism shake a bit :) ). A spot of Loctite will sort that out though.
On 12V, it's moderately nippy and the lifter has good speed however I'd like to change it on to Nimhs at some point. I don't think the SLAs are going to do the job properly enough but they will suffice for now. I've got some video footage of it running that I'll get uploaded but I've just discovered I've only got 3GB of space left between both hard drives so I need to clear some space first. Should be uploaded in a few days.
In kilobot news, the design has been changed and I'm now going to attempt a mini version (roughly 1:6) of Cassius II. I put some details in the kilobot thread in the General Section but specs are likely to be similar to:
2 x MFA 30:1 drive motors on to 47mm aircraft wheels
1 x 3.6V, 1800mAh Nicad battery pack (may change)
1 x heavy-duty servo to power the flipper with 20kg/cm of torque, possibly just controlled through the receiver with a separate battery pack
2 x sub-micro servos operating miniature micro switches to give bang-bang control (depending on speed controller situation)
Chassis will most likely be a combination of polycarb and HDPE with some small bits of metal for good measure. All weight-pending of course :)
lookin good jamie i like it, very impressed all four wheels are on the ground aswell cos i think if i tried that at least 1 would be in the air! haha
wud be cool to give it a hardox outer shell, could attach to the front on the slopey bits that go round the sides to protect wheels n then round the back.
I don't know why but Calum's comment gave me a vision of Kaizer suddenly becoming a Hardox tortoise with lifting forks, I think I might not have had enough sleep :P
Looking very good Jamie, love how compact the electronics are.
Lookin cool mate. You managed to sell drumroll yet?
Cheers guys. Once again I thought I had made it too compact to work with but everything seems to have fitted in quite nicely.
I'm thinking about using Hardox for the outer armour, I've certainly got enough weight for it. Going to use some ali and spare HDPE for now but will ideally change to Hardox for the next full combat event. Will definitely have armour on the front and sides but I'm not planning on running the armour all the way round the back as the rear wheels can keep in touch with the ground through 180* which is handy if it gets stacked up against the wall in a certain way; that's a feature that would be lost if I armoured round the back. Hope that makes sense :)
Drumroll's not sold yet, but had some interest and currently just waiting to hear back from someone regarding maybe buying it. It's had its spruce up to make it look a bit nicer than it has been, just need to get a replacement drum shaft for it (current one is bent and is making the drum stiffer to spin) and a couple of small needle roller bearings for the belt tensioners.
Testing out the rebuilt Kaizer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnX9CZfSaz4
cool looking nice there
i like it, nippy and seems to have good lifting power :) u tried lifting random stuff yet to see what it can take?
Nothing too heavy, I'm too worried in case it breaks itself beyond repair :lol:
You can't hear it too well in the vid due to the music but the mechanism does strain a little when lifting Carcinus, and that's roughly 11kg. It lifted/turned over Drumroll though and that's close to the 13.6kg limit so it can cope but you can hear the force bearing down on the mechanism. The connection's already broken a couple of times and I've had to make some mods and it's holding up fine at the moment but if anything else breaks or any threads strip then I'd have to start over again with a new piece of scissor jack rod etc so I'm trying to avoid overloading the setup :)
Thats a very quick lifter, wish Cabrakan's was that quick :P
How much were you selling Drumroll for anyway ?
Jamie just shorten the forks by 30mm or so if it struggles. You're engineering degree work should tell you why :P
Never mind degree work, I've got virtually no proper engineering knowledge and I've got a good idea why :P
Indeed, leverage and all that. Not going to bother cutting a bit off just now though, because I've just got it looking all pretty with a paint job :proud:
It should manage alright but I'll see how it performs at Edinburgh and then shall take things from there. I've replaced the 15A Electronize controlling the lifter with the Victor 885 that's sitting unused in Drumroll at the moment. Quite a change of rating I know, but at least there's no risk of burning out the controller :)
Plus the Victor has the brake/coast jumper option and having it on brake allows for some precise lifter positioning.
Both Carcinus and Kaizer are ready to go for Edinburgh. Taking them and all necessary tools to Glasgow with me tomorrow as I won't be home before the event to collect them. Need to give both sets of batteries a few cycles so might borrow a flatmate and go and try to find somewhere quiet to drive them about, preferably away from any possible interaction with the, err, local population (pure aye man, whit's that pure crazy thing there you goat, is tha' liek tha' Robot Wars s**** that wuz oan the telly?)
In other news, the basic chassis for my mini-Cassius II replica kilobot is coming together. Got the base panel, main bulkheads and flipper arm all made (pics tomorrow) so it should just be a case of buying all the remaining components, installing them then armouring up, but when is it ever as simple as it sounds?
I was planning to armour it all in polycarb in the same way as Cassius is but with all the angles on the body, the brittleness of the poly I have and the thickness (3mm probably won't stand up to the spinners that well) I think I might plump for some HDPE and paint decals on to make it look like the heavyweight. Might last a bit longer too.
Not sure what it weighs yet but I will be drilling weight-saving holes regardless. Also need to come up with a name for it, so suggestions welcome :)
Cassandra?
The first thing that comes into my head at the mention of Cassandra is the character from Doctor Who, the last human whose remaining skin is spread across a frame, which was just a bit gross :P
Here's a couple of pics of it so far. Hole saws are just to get an idea of the size of the wheels. The battery pack you can just see at the back will be powering the drive motors through the micro-servos and switches and the receiver pack in front will be powering those servos and the servo used for the flipper. The motors will sit between the two packs.
[attachment=2:3cy7uk7i]kb_build (8).JPG[/attachment:3cy7uk7i]
[attachment=1:3cy7uk7i]kb_build (9).JPG[/attachment:3cy7uk7i]
Two battery packs may seem a bit much but I reckon I've got the weight to spare just now and it keeps things relatively simple. If weight turns out to be a problem, I'll look into getting a higher voltage battery pack and power the receiver through a BEC.
Also got Kaizer painted up nicely for Edinburgh :)
[attachment=0:3cy7uk7i]k3_build (66).JPG[/attachment:3cy7uk7i]
Now it and Carcinus are just undergoing testing to highlight any faults. It's not often there is time for testing due to the robots usually still getting built right up to event time but there's a lot to be said for putting them through their paces over and over! I've only had them up in Glasgow a day but have been able to spot little problems and get them fixed or calibrate things to tweak the handling of the robots. Just need to keep cycling the batteries and bashing them off each other until there's nothing left to break :)
Im liking the front-hinged flipper bot.
It looks like Cassius and Mute rolled into one. Good job.
That's a good sign, since it is meant to be a miniature replica of Cassius II :proud:Quote:
It looks like Cassius
Well the robots had a run around at the weekend over in Edinburgh. Didn't win any fights but neither of them are really melee-winning robots, plus their performance was average-ish. Carcinus only had one fight which it broke down in and as it was the last fight and I've not yet looked at the robots, I don't know what caused that. All other times it ran without any problems; it may have ended up in the pit a few times but not once was it due to my dad's driving. I think he's getting better :)
Kaizer was a mixed bag of fortunes. It made it in to every fight bar the first one (a problem with the Radio Link tx/rx struggling to find each other among all the other Spektrum sets being activated, much like with Carcinus at Barnsley) but it rarely made it out of the fight still running. Think it got pitted once, stuck on it's back a couple of times and broke down a couple of times due to a connection coming loose. Sustained a few hits from Little Hitter that deformed the top panel several times but nothing a big hammer couldn't fix.
So in terms of upgrades:
Kaizer - the lifter worked but it struggles with traction once it's got a robot hoisted, so it couldn't actually do anything useful with them after that. There was also too much flex in the lifter mechanism/chassis so that needs reinforced/built better. The SLAs did the job okay but when the opportunity arises I will upgrade them to something better. There's a drive relay needing replaced too; it went into its last two fights without reverse on one side but I didn't have a spare with me. Something needs to be done regarding traction with a robot on the lifting arm; one option would be some outriggers to help get some power back through to the wheels, but first I'm going to try the simple method of screwing some bike tyre onto the wheels. It will increase speed and grip, raise the ground clearance a bit (most beneficial for when it's running upside down) and hopefully allow me to lift other robot then push them around. Finally, it will need some sort of armour round the outside. Wasn't a problem during the weekend but come the UK champs I'd prefer to have a steel bumper running round it to try and fend off any spinners.
Carcinus - ran fine in general but it's clear that the claws don't really have any power to them. I've known this for a while but not done much about it because I've just been trying to get it running to a decent degree. Now that it is, I can start to consider other claw drive options. Ideally a Speed 900 through a gearbox onto a lead screw; more realistically, a drill motor direct to a lead screw.
When initially planning to increase the power, I envisaged having to build a new chassis to cope with the forces but to be honest, that's more effort than I can be bothered with at this time. I've now realised that all I need to do is build the claw mechanism into its own self-contained unit (maybe from box-section steel or something) that can be bolted into the robot so that I can avoid having the whole chassis twist and bend from a resulting increase in power. With 4kg currently to spare there should be enough weight to manage this.
And on a side note, I have now decided that I am determined to get a new Drumroll running for the champs. Having driven Little Flipper I've felt how precise a Scorpion XL can be and I've got one waiting to go into Drumroll II. With better control, increased speed and invertibility, it would be a significant increase in my chances of doing well. I can't afford to go full whack with the design yet so some compromises will be made for the champs to cut down on costs but it's mainly little things that shouldn't compromise performance.
Update
Been a bit quiet on this front lately. Room decorating and moving out of uni accommodation has taken up much of my time, but my room's finished and I'm back up to Glasgow tomorrow to get the last of my things. So tonight, I got back round to doing a bit of work. Nothing majorly important, just doing a bit of cardboard-aided-design:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...dr2_build6.jpg
Pretty similar to the cad layout posted a few pages ago so that's a good start. Can't help but admire the wheels :lame:
I couldn't cad the outer armour originally so I posted a pic that had been crudely edited in Paint; thankfully I'm a bit more skillful with cardboard so you can sort of see how it will shape around the robot. Looks a bit shoddy here, but hey it's just to check sizes:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...dr2_build5.jpg
You may notice that there are Nimh packs in there compared with A123s in the original cad; I've decided to leave better batteries to a later upgrade when I've got more pennies. I have the Nimh packs to spare (as Carcinus won't be running at the champs), they fit nicely into the back of the robot and I have the chargers for them so they'll do for one event. I'm going to have to monitor them carefully between fights because the brushless does draw a lot more out of them than the Speed 900s did so they'll need charging a lot, but when they're well cycled the robot can run with the brushless quite well, as I discovered in a couple of whiteboard fights at the tag champs. The drum in this robot will be lighter too than the original Drumroll so theoretically it will be less of a strain on the motor.
The rear wedge is currently hinged at the top, but this means when the robot is upside down the wedge is pretty ineffective so, thanks to some constructive comments, I'm going to hinge it in the middle so it works well both ways round. Also now looking at wiring in a changeover relay to the brushless and alter the tooth design so that the motor can be reversed upside down and the teeth can still get some decent hits in.
Will be a little while before I can get the materials and get started so I can hit the cad again and make the necessary alterations. Looking forward to getting it built though :)
Looks good Jamie :) how big is the design atm? It does look very compact internally from the pics.