Cylon Upgrades

Hi All,

After Saturdays Roaming Robots event I have to say I was quite impressed with Cylon. It took quite a good hammering at times including being thrown out of the arena and just kept on going.

After taking it apart and seeing why it started veering off to the right, it turns out the friction drive only failed because of a grub screw falling out.

There are a few upgrades I have been considering. Some of which are no brainers and some of which are a wish list. Just after some advice on some of this, so ill start from the top and carry on from there.

1) The removable link becomes easily dislodged so i was looking to replace it with one of the red ones everyone else seems to use. Anyone know where to get them?

2) It doesnt self right if it lands on the back part of the robot. This is a bit of a problem with the basic shape of the robot. That said Im a bit reluctant to change the basic shape of the robot (it does look very good and I have to say Froggy has produced a bit of a work of art there!!) and dont quite know how to sort that out. I had some ideas about introducing some spikes at the back to stop it happening or some sort of clear plastic strip on the lifter.

3) It needs dropping at the front so its more likely to get underneath things. This seems simple enough. It currently has a 20mm roller balls underneath and i was thinking about replacing it with two 10mm roller balls. These seem a bit flimsy but interested in others experiences if any.

4) The friction drive is great for getting about the arena and surprisingly reliable when using the aluminium rollers. That said it really doesnt deliver a great deal of power which means it gets pushed about by anything on the arena floor. I have attached some photos of the mounting etc. and would appreciate some comments/opinions on how best to convert this to a geared system. There is limited space to introduce this. The wheels are 50mm diameter at the moment whith about 15mm spare space (diameter) and about 15mm depth if i want to introduce some different ones. I would prefer to keep the existing ones, but not fixed on that idea.

Anyway, any comments welcome. As I say Ive put some photos on line. You may have to cut and paste the links to your browser as it doesnt seem to be picking them up properly.

Andy

http://www.highstreetsearch.co.uk/cylon/03122007.jpghttp://www.highstreetsearch.co.uk/cylon/03122007.jpg
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ff6000>1) The removable link becomes easily dislodged so i was looking to replace it with one of the red ones everyone else seems to use. Anyone know where to get them?

http://www.technobots.co.ukhttp://www.technobots.co.uk

ff6000>2) It doesnt self right if it lands on the back part of the robot.

Tricky, I think some spikes or fins at the back of the robot would be the best way to go. I can imagine you dont want to change Cylons shape, it is very nice indeed.

ff6000>3) It needs dropping at the front so its more likely to get underneath things.

You could go with a 3mm - 5mm plastic skirt that scrapes over the floor, making it scoop more.

ff6000>4) how best to convert this to a geared system.

Hannibalito uses a gear that is attached straight onto the wheel, and it and the wheel rotate around a rigid solid axle. this makes a pretty compact drive train.

http://www.computerclub.nl/uploads/msrconcept.jpghttp://www.computerclub.nl/uploads/msrconcept.jpg

This is the idea, the small gear attached to the shaft of the motor, and the wheel and big gear rotate around the rigid axle. A plate holds both the axle and motor in place.

BonX uses the same system with a 13/85 reduction

Indeed, we use 54:13 on ours. Bonx has a higher ratio than Hannibalito, so especially on 24V it will outpush and outrun Hannibalito 1 and 3 with ease. But the drive trains themselves are basicly the same.

54/12.

All our speed 900s and Vipers have a 12 teeth mod 1 gear

You know, Ive thought about the gear box upgrade, the modifications to the shell needed and so on.

As I say, when I look at Cylon I can sit there and criticise, but in actual fact, Froggy has put together a well engineered robot which looks great.

I am in fact becoming more and more reluctant to seriously modify the original concept of the robot which may not be the most competetive but is designed to be cheap and fun.

Its also simple for Luke (10) to get involved in fixing and he can learn how to take it apart and put it back together very quickly.

I think I may do a bit of research on friction drives and see what comes out of it. I know peoples views on this, but these have come a long way recently and are used extensively for wind turbines. As I work a lot with manufacturers of these I have some good people to ask for advice.

That said, I can see a fabulous friction drive resulting but still not being good enough for what my expectations are. I can see Cylon three coming along very soon after this is sorted. (Which is worrying as weve not even started on Cylon 2 - engineering for engineerings sake, what could bemore fun?)

Regards

Andy

If you are happy with the performance of Cylon, by all means keep it as it is. It is truly one of the nicer looking robots in the field. But since you brought it up, we throw our ‚0,02 in. :)

I know that Leo and believe me I will be taking a lot of the advice on board. As I say the older one wants to build his own so itll all come in useful.

As I say I also think ultimately itll end up with a geared drive but I think just out of interest I may take the long way round getting there.

Andy