RogueTwo Robots

Update

Ditched the rear brushless support for now. Something wasn't lined up/welded properly and it was hindering the motor rotation slightly as a result; could probably bore out the collet hole a little more but will just stick with the front plate for now and see what happens.

Done a few wee bits and pieces on Drumroll over the weekend and tonight, but not a lot has changed visually so not much in the way of pictures. I've re-jigged the internals a little; the lipo has been moved from underneath the Scorpion XL at the back to the front next to the brushless motor:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...2_build112.jpg

Wasn't 100% happy with its original placement, plus the brushless ESC fits in better at the back than it does at the front. I've also fitted a foam-lined 3mm aluminium plate on top of it to hold it down, as opposed to the 1mm plastic piece I used previously. A decision somewhat triggered by the current discussions in the Lipo thread.

I can now also remove the lipo more easily by undoing the two socket screws that hold the ali plate down, whereas before I needed to faff about with wing nuts and four smaller socket screws to be able to take it out of the robot.
I've also got one of these:
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/power-battery ... 06643.html

that I'm planning on mounting in the robot so I can keep an eye on the total voltage and individual cell values. It's got a low-voltage alarm so should help with monitoring the state of the battery.

And finally, I've got the brushless ESC set up so the robot's now driving and spinning (just the motor). Still need to get a suitable belt to connect the drum as well as an inline fuse, but once I've got them then Drumroll will be ready to test. Then I can concentrate on re-fabricating the side armour and rear wedge (weight permitting) and paint it. Shouldn't be long now before it's finally finished again :)

Amazing you manage to fit it all in that kind of 3-storey-towerblock-of-parts assembly you've got going there. Keeps it all compact I suppose.

Next job is to get Carcinus and your flipper going then go to Barnsley with us :proud: :lol:

How do you still have spare space in there!

I've thought about getting a Li-Po alarm for Bitza, since we're using Electronize ESC's we don't have any of the built in Li-Po features of Sabertooth or Scorpion. Just don't know if I'll hear the alarm during a fight should our voltage drop that low.

You won't hear a thing in the arena. The best way to get around the issue is to oversize the lipo. I ran boner for three fights last comp before recharging because of a lack of time to get parts repaired between fights. This was possible because my lipo pack was oversized for safety sake. I do not recommend running a robot for several fights without charging though!!!!

The alarm on my monitor is pretty loud but, as Gary says, it won't be particularly audible in the arena. It'll be handy more when you've just come out of a battle to see what voltage you're sitting at.

I still have reservations about how long my battery pack will last. I'm limited by dimensions so will be hitting up teh intarwebz tonight to see if an increase in battery capacity greatly increases the physical pack size. If I can find something similar to what I've currently got, I'll probably upgrade before the champs just to make sure I won't be running low or cutting out in the middle of a battle. Hopefully testing will give me a better idea of how long the battery will last too.

No flipper chassis yet Tony, so little chance of getting it running before Barnsley. Not that I was planning on going anyway :P
Got those tank connectors unscrewed yet? :lol:

I bought that lipo alarm thing mainly for testing- I know the battery pack won't run out in a 3 minute battle but I would rather be ableto have as longer testing time as possible rather than having to stop and recharge the battery every 3 minutes.

What is the capacity?

2200mAh. Never used to pay attention to how much I used with the old setup in a fight, mainly because I didn't have a charger that told me how much had been put back in, plus the old batts were 3700mAh and the setup was less current-hungry, so a little top-up between battles was all that was needed. Will wait until testing to see what's what.

Tank connectors are still standing their ground, I have been trying too, strained a muscle in my hip the other day there trying to get them off and i'm still feeling it :lol: Now my workshop has been temporarily dismantled and a car has taken its place so can't really do anything for a few weeks.

Thats a shame, if you wanted a ride with us I would try to convince my old man to give me a loan of his car, just got insured on it today, so you wouldn't be subjected to the Chevy again :lol:

With Carcinus and Eric Jr we can send um hameward tay think again an aww that :rofl:

You should be fine. Remember we used to run feathers on 1.2Ah SLAs :)

The brushless whilst being more powerful draws nothing (a couple amps) when it's up to speed. So you get a huge current draw at the start which quickly tails off. Make sure that the drum spins as freely as possible. Make sure you put some 3 in 1 or WD40 in the bearings.