RogueTwo Robots

Thanks Kody :)
Its taken a while to get Drumroll to where I wanted in terms of performance but I finally feel thats its close to how I initially intended it to be.

Alex, would love to stick a video up but still got computer problems at the moment which is restricting my upload abilities. That might be getting resolved this week though, Ill need to wait and see. How about a video from Rebel Robots of Drumroll beating Crumple Zone? :proud:

Gary, Kaizer is looking a lot better than it will after its come up against Hornet, Kishar and Pillow Torque :)
The entire lifting fork mechanism is finished now, just requires the tightening of a few bolts here and there. Drives are in place, speedos are in place. Just need to fit in the batteries (which arrived today) and get the whole thing wired up (link, LEDs etc). Then itll be a case of getting the armour cut and fitted, a lick of paint then good to go hopefully. Ill be bringing all my tools and the bots up to Glasgow next weekend to get all the loose ends tied up in the week leading up to Rebel Robots so hope to get plenty of testing and battery cycling done in that time.
If youre in Glasgow anytime that week Gary (2nd-6th Feb) youre more than welcome to swing by and check out the bots (but no sabotaging Kaizer if you do! :P)

hmm that offer of a match against drumroll sounds.....interesting lol get your pc sorted so you can show off how good drumroll is!!!!!

One down, one to go

Drumroll is done! Mechanically its all ready to go. Ive got a replacement battery pack and theyre on trickle charge at the moment, gearing up for a good testing session down the industrial estate tomorrow. Provided nothing breaks there, all that is left to do is the fiddly little things like painting, sharp edge protection and weapon locking pin.
Unfortunately I just couldnt scrape the required weight off in other parts of the robot so Ive had to sacrifice a weapon motor in order to get the robot within the weight limit (its 13.5kg)
Although the energy stored in the drum doesnt change, spin-up times will be slower and maintaining rotation in a series of sucessive hits against resistive objects will be harder but ach well...
Might consider switching the back Hardox wedge to a titanium one in future to claw back some weight and refit the other weapon motor.

Got a list of stuff to do on Kaizer tomorrow to get it ready; Ill be doing the big noisy construction stuff while I can get away with it at home (:proud:) and then all the wiring and internal fittings can be done up at my flat in the coming week.

My computer isnt going to get fixed anytime soon unfortunately so I dont see me getting any pics or vids uploaded before the comp sorry.

One week to go!

Damn...
quote:

Provided nothing breaks

Why oh why do I say these things??!

I took Drumroll down the industrial estate yesterday and tested out the drum. Very impressive stuff. Smashed up a computer monitor, the old drum, and the old chassis. Getting some nice airtime from the drum etc.
I was then driving the robot towards the old chassis again, and unbeknown to me, one of the bolts holding the shaft in had vibrated loose and fallen off (I forgot to loctite it).
Two seconds later, the shaft wiggles out one end, the drum drops to the ground at full speed and SMASH. Sparks from the concrete, a shattered top panel, weapon motor mounts broken and motor ripped out, front bulkhead cracked in two, baseplate bent and tensioner bent. Dont get me wrong, it looked spectacular (and Ill have it on my video camera at Rebel Robots if anyone wants a look) but man, I dont think Ive ever sworn so much in such a short space of time.

Drumroll is not dead though! :mrgreen:

Managed to repair most of the damage. Thankfully the weapon shaft is unbent, drum is undamaged (apart from some blunt teeth) and motor still works, so its almost all back together. Just need to flatten the base panel and come up with a temporary bulkhead fix for Rebel Robots and Robo Challenge. After that I could either cut a new bulkhead or take some time out from competing and start planning/building Drumroll Mk2, with invertibility and gyroscopic dancing :)

Getting an exciting tingling feeling now what with the Rebel Robots arena being officially good to go, plus the fact were only five days away! Wondering whether to get a haircut if were going to be on camera (anyone who has seen my recent Facebook profile pic is free to offer their opinion :P)

Sharp edge protection, locking pins and paint left to go

see the trouble is with these spinner owns is they cant help but smash stuff up and what happens????

they smash their own robot up

lol

Lol been there and done that. There is nothing quite as disheartening when you realise that you have taken the flange off the aluminium pulley that you paid 60 quid for to get custom made :P

Best of luck throwing it back together Jamie.

Never fear, Drumroll arose from the ashes last night and is fully working again *evil cackle*

Even managed to get Kaizer wired up and tested out. Broke something on it too (Im doing well!) but itll get fixed today and finished off :)

Damn...again!

I fixed the broken bit on Kaizer (one of the lifting fork mounting points) Its now been reinforced to make it stronger and Im much happier with it than I was before it broke.

Running it around the kitchen let me get a feel for it although I wont be driving it much at Rebel Robots. Its nippy (so Im feeling more confident about keeping away from the discs of Kishar and Hornet 2) and quite controllable, nice to drive really. As a last test before stopping for the night, I spun it on the spot continuously while raising the lifting forks. I could hear the batteries running down a bit, which is what I wanted so I could trickle charge them again, when all of a sudden....POP!

One of the cells in the pack exploded (not violently, just the loud pop) and damaged another cell in the process. This has left me in a bit of a sticky situation. Im going to go on the hunt for a powerful soldering iron and attempt to make a pack up from the surviving working cells of this pack and the spares from the pack Drumroll damaged. But in the event that Im not able to, or the homemade pack assembly doesnt go too well, can I ask...

Does anyone have a spare pack (either new or used) of 9.6V 3700mAh Nimh batteries in a 4x2 block formation eg:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/9-6v-3700mAh-NiMH-Battery-Pack-Compact-Vapextech_W0QQitemZ320160397744QQcmdZViewItemQQptZ UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN?hash=item320160397 744&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66% 3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/9-6v-3700mAh-N...tech_W0QQitemZ 320160397744QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ToysGames_RadioC ontrolled_JN?hash=item32016039 7744&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66 %3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240% 3A1318

that they could bring to Rebel Robots at the weekend as a standby. A new pack off eBay wouldnt arrive in time but if I was to borrow someones pack Id be willing to buy it off them after the event if they wanted to part with it. If anyone can help out, Id be most grateful!

Additionally, does anyone have an idea of what would cause a cell to pop like I described? Is it due to drawing too much current out of the battery, more than it can handle? Im guessing this is the main reason since Kaizer was spinning on the spot and running the actuator at the same time. My other concern is, spinning and lifting the forks is a likely arena scenario, so its not ideal to have cells popping during a fight. Is it possible that the application would be more suited to Nicads (or possibly A123s now that Nicads are hard to get) since it seems to be drawing a lot of current. The setup is four 16.8V drill motors running at 19.2V, plus an Okin Deltadrive actuator driving the forks.

Any insight into the above in relation to battery technology would be helpful, as Im still quite uneducated in that department (too used to the simplicity of SLAs :))

Thanks

well i have a pack of 8.4v in stick form cant remember mah its vapextech pack

vapextech are very good aswell

i doubt you will ever have to spin on spot and lift the forks but dont know what your like in an arena :)

Jamie,

I have a feeling that a battery going pop means that it over heated. Probably due to too much current being drawn.

You have 4 drill motors being overvolted plus a linear actuator running along side. That is a huge amount of current for a pack that should only be able to discharge 35amps max.

If you can afford them I would go for the A123s. Been playing with mine and they are $exy!!!! Huge current discharges and light as hell. Throw them in drumroll and you will notice a huge difference!