HardWired II

HardWired II's coming on nicely. Well, I say nicely, it's not actually being constructed yet, though most of the components are on their way to being done. Got the drive and lifter linac sorted (I think) and the electronics are pretty much done too. I'm highly considering just running 14.4v for this championships, should be by far enough but mostly because I won't have enough for the 6s battery I'd prefer to have, assuming my drive will take it.

Main things now are:
A - getting the aluminium cut/machined to shape and size for the body and put together in such a way that it'll stand up to Little Spinner, 720 and the rest of the heavy-hitters

B- getting the bearings and the like mounted within a piece of aluminium side-armour for a bit more stability on the wheels, cheaply (going for 12mm axles and just getting the bearings into a 15-20mm 6082 T6 aluminium bulkhead instead of messing about with buying mounting blocks. May not be the best thing, but it'll be cheaper).

C- actually building the lifter/scoop - going for 25x25x3mm mild steel box section on this one, welded to a mild or stainless steel scoop for the actual lifting element. Would like a design that slopes down sharply, then evens out a bit so I can get underneath other machines a bit easier. Would have had a completely flat part, but it's probably not all too feasible given it'll be mild/stainless steel. If I had the money/weight allowance for thicker titanium or hardox I'd have gone for that, but for now it'll be mild or stainless, as thick as I can get it (aiming for at least 8mm to keep the spinners out, but may have to cut down). Would have gone for the 20mm aluminium again, but I really don't think that's the best choice given the thickness.

Unfortunately, these are the three most critical parts, so I'm either going to need to be extremely careful or get my University to machine cut a few blocks down. I have no idea how this is all going to work, considering my budget is literally depleted by this point for everything past the aluminium (hence going for things like mild steel) but I'm sure it'll get there. It better do now that I've already booked for the GSL Champs!

Do you have any pictures it sounds good.

I don't just yet, will be having some soon! Got some parts on the way, then I need to get some T6 aluminium and machine it down, somehow - (don't have money to have it machined down by another company or whatever :( ) then bolt it all together, stick a new receiver in there (Orange RX, hopefully failsafes with the DX5e I'm using) and the job's sorted!

What's that I can hear in the distance? Could it be...? Another major redesign?!

Well, sort of. Basically, the original idea was to go 4WD with a 4-bar lifter, which would have made the machine essentially a Featherweight Storm II, missing a wheel either side complete with Hardox scoop. Plans have since changed, and now I've changed to two wheel drive (beefy motors) with the same hardox scoop, both of which look pretty great (thanks, Maddox!)

In a nutshell, it's out with the 4WD for now, and in with a 2WD rambot, with most likely a back hinged scoop, or perhaps a small 4-bar IF I can fit it in there. If not then I'll re-evaluate to try and get some kind of lifter in there, for the simple fact that I think the lifter would work excellently in tandem with the push if I could work it correctly.

Here's a very quick paint image of what I had planned, http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5abfbc7.png,
I've not ironed out the creases yet, nor really put any major thought behind it - I'm just waiting until I've got all my materials and parts here so I can cardboard mock-up the lot and see what I'm working with so that I don't make it massively underweight (not likely) or overweight or make everything the wrong scale...

Just thought I would post up the albeit somewhat limited progress I've made towards HardWired II being completed, since I had a spare few minutes to hand. Couple of weeks time, I'm hoping to have the whole thing built and ready to fight!

Also, as a little side note - what's considered appropriate protection for LiPo batteries? I have some 2mm Aluminium I could create a box with for it, and have it encased within the bowels of the machine, but I'm not entirely sure on the exact rules, since I've never managed to blow up a battery (thankfully!)

On the subject of blowing up batteries too, I'm rather hoping nothing of the sort happens at the championships - I'll have no spare LiPos!

Conscious of the fact I'm clogging up the forum with questions, does anyone happen to know what size bolts would be suitable for end-tapping 20mm HDPE together? I'm thinking M6, but I've never dealt with it before so I haven't a clue. Normally I'd buy a few different sizes and see what's strongest, but I've got no time at all to get it all finished! Going on with 20mm HDPE for the main structure now, end-tapping and bolting in some angled pieces of steel to give it a decent structure. Same goes with the baseplate, I'll be bolting that in too using a similar method. Top armour's likely going to just be aluminium, or whatever fits in the weight limit.

Aside from the point too, how difficult are 4-bar lifters to get right? I've got a basic idea, but the sizes of the arms are something I'm a little bit concerned about - I can move to an easier back-hinged lifer if needs be, however.

Do not end tap hdpe, it's too soft to tap into. Use L brackets

I see... Is there any way suitable to attach HDPE to HDPE directly as an aside to L-bracketing it?

Been looking at L brackets too, can't seem to find anything that'd stand up to too much force, I think the strongest I've seen are 150mm long by 26mm wide by 2.9mm thick... Might resort to having some made out of stainless if needs be, though that'd have to be a last resort because it'd be costly...

Just hoping to build something that'll stand up to at least a few hits with my downright appalling engineering knowledge...

You can screw it together, I did for many years. Not a brilliant solution tbh but it holds.

With conventional wood screws or bolts? I have to apologise, I've only ever worked with a solid body aluminium chassis, which was welded for me so I'm still getting my head around it, even though the championships are really quite close now...

May just wing it and see what happens. Probably going to go with some 50x50 2mm thick angle brackets and attempt to make my own angle braces out of scraps of wood or HDPE, using probably m6 bolts, if they're not too thin/thick. Then I'll just drown the entire thing in glue and hope it doesn't fall to pieces!

Woodscrews hold relatively well into HDPE. They won't always stop the pieces coming apart with a direct spinner hit but they will handle most knocks. Many feathers use this method.