The Wonderful World of Johnny 2x4 (FW)

Hi!
http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/580/photo0087l.jpg
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/9741/photo0086j.jpg
Meet the start of Johnny 2x4, a (well, mostly) wooden robot. Hopefully tommorow I shall be able to make a basic frame for him and test it out.
He'll run off of a Sabertooth 2x12rc (I know, I know, before you say anything it was liberated from my non built BW, and I can't really afford anything else at the moment.) and a 3300mah Nimh. With any luck ill be at the UK Champs with him, making LS4, 540, Boner, Explosion and all the other mean and nasty robots cower with fear at the mere sight of him.

nice name, needs to be a wooden robot called plank :P
any reason the triggers are still atached to the drills?

Thanks! I spent some time trying to think of a suitable name. It was either Johnny 2x4 or Tim Berrton. I think I make a wooden BW called Plank to keep with the scale :P
And the triggers are still attatched because the last time they were ran was when I connected them up to the drill battery to make sure I hadn't ruined them by shoving grub screws in them! It's not going to stay like that, don't worry.

I'll go ahead and assume name is some sort of reference to me :P

Looks cool

I thought it was an Ed, Edd and Eddy reference.

yep

Well, at least 2 people got it :P

i used to love that show as a child but since i had to analyse it for something all the fun was sucked out of it.
any progress on the bot?

:P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by harry hills

i used to love that show as a child but since i had to analyse it for something all the fun was sucked out of it.
any progress on the bot?

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1) I know exactly what you mean. GCSE English Language/Literature killed any books or poems that I may have otherwise enjoyed for me. What did you have to analyse it for?
2) Yes, actually!
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3114/photo0089e.jpg
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2911/photo0088r.jpg
I got this far before realising that I have no wood screws or wood glue to hold it together.
This has the potential to be a reasonably quick build, but my progress is limited due to having to wait for components. At the moment i'm waiting for a battery to arrive (Thanks for the advice on that one, Harry!) and a few adapters to connect it to the ESC itself.

ha
I used to watch that like 3years ago :)
still don't get the name
I have a memory like a goldfish

Johnny was that weird kid with the plank of wood

Got it in one!

Some more progress!
http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/3479/photo0090x.jpg
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/5137/photo0093h.jpg
Look at that, beautiful. Although judging by some of the stories i've heard, I won't be surprised if I open the box tommorow to find the circuit board has managed to escape the screws and completely disconnect itself fro the heatsink.
And that is pretty much all I can do for today, as i'm still waiting on some parts.

As this seems like the best place as any to ask this, would these tx/rx combos be suitable for this robot?
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/flysky-4chann ... 06151.html
http://www.giantcod.co.uk/flysky-6chann ... 06150.html

And by that I mean do they failsafe and stuff like that. Anyone had any experience with them?

I havent had experience with either of them, but from a quick look they seem okay. I would go for the 6 channel set, its not that much more and means you can add in extra functions and whatnot :wink:

Not much progress. As i'm still waiting for stuff, cut the baseplate though. The chassis excluding wheels is about 700*340*44mm. Haven't had a chance to weigh it yet.

Also if anyone could recommend any cheap transmitters/recievers like the ones I posted on the page before it would be much appreciated.

giantcod 2.4ghz 7 channel, not bad and dam cheap

Thanks for the recommendation! Although I think on a 2wd robot a 7channel may be overkill. My next question is do I need an external failsafe with that sort of controller or could I just rely on the reciever itself?

And I just had a weigh in, everything I have so far comes to under 5kg. I've got another wood panel to get, the batteries, some misc. connectors and screws/wood glue to still get, which I think should make the thing 7kg once finished.

its by easiest to get a receiver that failsafes, i beleive the giant cod ones do.

if it ends up underweight, do what i did. add a 2.5kg metre long axe to it :mrgreen:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonny

its by easiest to get a receiver that failsafes, i beleive the giant cod ones do.

if it ends up underweight, do what i did. add a 2.5kg metre long axe to it :mrgreen:

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Nah, already been done, I'm thinking a baseball bat with a nail in it :P

Good news: I found a frog!
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/2237/photo0104z.jpg
Oh and I screwed the frame together aswell.
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/396/photo0105jt.jpg
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/1949/photo0107h.jpg

Please note this is going up against LS4 and whatever ungodly being TS2 turns out to be. Fun!

that thang looks mahoosive, how big is that?
nice frog

700*340*70mm. I call it big boned.
Also, my father brought home a Hobbyking Hk-Gt2 transmitter/receiver combo he managed to procure from one of his friends at work. I'll try and wire up the motors to the sabertooth tommorow and see how it fares.

bigger = better. i use to get the occaisional frog but then my cat ate them all :)

I will end up with frogs in my pond found 3 about 2cm frogs.
awww
now there huge:(

Good news, Johnny 2x4 is pretty much finished! And father found the reason that one of the motors was making a wretched sound and fixed it. Turns out I screwed the gearbox on back to front when putting grub screws in. Just need to get some driving practice in now. And buy some binbags for when it fights LS4.
Expect photos tommorow. When I can actually get to my phone and upload them.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem ... 6963310692
with one of them on your bot ls4 is no match for sloped steel sides

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3166/photo0124fi.jpg
Look at that, beautiful.

i can't tell where the chair stops and the robot begins :P
how thick is the wood?

7mm on top and bottom and 44mm on the sides.
Since that picture was taken i've added a extra bit of wood inside near the front to make it slightly stronger.

I know it would go against the whole idea ofthe plank reference but if you round the sides then ls4 won't rip ye to bits
it looks good though
don't forget to make spare pannels

Yeah I'll probably take a sander to it at some point to round it off a bit. There's a bit of a overlap on one of the sides I need to get rid of aswell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCLlZCZ3 ... ata_player
there's your tactic
nice one dave

have a really sticky out bit of strong steel and it will go flying:)

Question: The 12v 3300mAh NiMh in Johnny 2x4 is quite new (Only 1 charge). Can I get away without discharging it and just charge it? I know it's getting a bit late to be asking these type of questions.

You mean its partially discharged and you want to just charge it up again without fully discharging? That will be fine.

I wouldnt worry about small things like that at the Champs, if in doubt, ask and there will be loads of people around you who can steer you right.

And that's us packed and ready to go!
This will be my first event since Robot Wars so i'm looking forward to it!

DP:
A quick report about how Johnny 2x4 did at the UK Champs.

Short version: Badly, we got 3 points.

Long version: Match one was against Mini Mighty Mouse and Reavenger, my first time driving it in a place bigger than my kitchen and it worked well! It drove like a charm. However the lack of pushing power it had was clearly evident, got flipped my Mini Mighty Mouse and got beached on the side of the arena. 1 point.

Match two was against Ls4 and Ripoff, my plan was to go in and start pushing LS4 around before it could get up to speed, but Johnny 2x4, being 7.5kg, was too light and one small hit sent it far enough away to let LS4 get up to speed. Ls4 then drove into me, clipping the corner of Johnny 2x4 and sending him flying across the arena, killing the removeable link. 1 point. However Ls4 seemed to stop spinning so that was a bonus. I'm not sure if it was the arena or me that did it. One quick repair job later, which involved repairing the base and taping the battery back together and Johnny 2x4 was once again ready to run.

Match three lasted about 6 seconds, I drove at wedgie, wedgie then flipped me out, job done. 1 point.

We then entered various whiteboards, but Johnny 2x4 was limping, one of the wheels was at an angle, the frame was scraping along the floor and the battery was being held together by duct tape, along with everything else. It was a Class D insurance writeoff.

Basically, we did badly, but we had fun! People were friendly, matches were fun and the general consensus in Team Driving Force was that we'd sure as hell do it again. So that's all the matters. Right?

My plan is to make another wooden robot in the future, but before that, I have a plan for something made out of a more conventional material; metal.

Hey guys

Just to say, thank you for making Johnny 2x4, because its awesome, and I took this picture before you had to go in with LS4:

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...2x4artwork.jpg

Hope you like it :)