Team Eventorizon: Build Diary

After an amazing time with our first entry into the UK championships I thought it would be a good idea to follow the crowd and catalog the development in the lead up to next years championships here on the forum.

Work has already begun on the next version of Conker and quite probably on another machine as well! With help from my dad we have decided to look into a new material for combat robots which will form the basis for both Conker II and his first machine.

Cellite is the material in question, this comes in various forms but the principal is an Aluminium honeycomb matrix with a layer of sheet material boned to each side. Various facing material such as Aluminium sheet, Plywood, GRP and CFRP are used. You can ask the company to face it with pretty much anything you like as long as it comes on a roll or as a sheet.

Back in my secondary school we used it to build our green-power car; some of you may be familiar with the event. Previous machines had been bolted aluminium box section and were not very light or stiff giving is load of problems. Cellite solved almost all all our problems instantly!

We have gone for the GRP or Cellite 620, same as the car, so that it is easy to bond sheets together with resin and more layers of Glass Fibre. The result should be a massive weight saving and an increase in structural rigidity...

[attachment=1:1hoxjbte]Shrapnel Top Quart View 01.jpeg[/attachment:1hoxjbte]

[attachment=0:1hoxjbte]Shrapnel Top View 01.jpeg[/attachment:1hoxjbte]

I am using an identical electrical set up, the only thing to change is the pulley ratio on the disc, from 2.6 to 3.3. My dads machine will be built using the same technique but he is looking at a lifter rather than a spinner with the same armour set up.

Hopefully using this new material will be worth the investment, someone has to try it out, and then other can use it with confidence two and improve on our designs.

Comments, ideas and improvements most definitely welcome!

Edit: Forgot to mention... Solidworks say this weighs just under 10Kg, add a kg for bonding together the Cellite, nuts & bolts, wiring, relay, receiver, mixer and solder, another kg for the top 3 pannels, cellite boned to titanium, and I still have 1.6kg to play with? Wha...

so is it the 2 middle disc bulkheads you will be using the new material for?

Everything that is left, minus the electronic parts, is Cellite 620. Highlighted in blue are the parts that are not Cellite, I hope that is obvious, I did not explain it very well first time round :uhoh:

[attachment=0:xk21a24p]Shrapnel Top Quart View Cellite Highlight 01.jpeg[/attachment:xk21a24p]

that looks awesome :D

The titanium we ordered of Ebay has just arrived. 5x 665mm x 425mm plates of Ti2 HT 2mm thick.
The guy we got them from said they were originally used as electrode plates in wind-turbine storage batteries! He has 20 more if people are interested.

How much did you pay for it?

Well was £55 per sheet on ebay with £13 postage then £4 for each added sheet but we got 5 for £250 as the guy was driving past on his way down south.

Why on earth did you need 5 sheets??!!!

Two for the new version of Conker for the base plate, top armour and side armour, two for my dads machine which he is designing and 1 for any spares. It was a lot but I cant see us needing to buy anymore for a long time. Also given that when I got a quote in 2.5mm Titanium for Conker I's base it was £200 on its own I thought it cold be quite a saving... but to late now.

Beginning to figure out the structure and internals of the new robot. It doesn't have a name yet but it does have a goal... anti-spinner.

[attachment=0:89x1ny0v]Develop 01.jpeg[/attachment:89x1ny0v]

Two 50mm GLA actuators at the back give a total theoretical flipping force of around 35Kg and the flipping action takes less than 3 seconds.
The (entirely theoretical) anti-spinner design is in effect a shallow wedge with heavily re-enforced beveled edges. This should deflect any strikes up and off the armour. Also the entire front of the robot will lift up including the bevels giving the machine a wide area of attack not just a small section like on other machines.
Both Conker II and this new machine will share parts, so both run off GR-01 motors, 100mm blue wheels FR30HS ESC's and will also use the same Cellite substructure to reduce weight.
The side and rear armour will also be the same as Conker II, 2mm Titanium followed by 15-20mm of HDPE.

That's a cool design! Quiet unique! Hope it goes well, and it's a clever idea to have a liftable anti spinner wedge. And good luck with the new (ish) material, will be interesting to see how it goes.

try saying ti isn't expensive now Gary!
(for a child who has no money)

fine, ti is not expensive on ebay. If you dont' have money, go get a job. That's what I did to fund some of my first robots. Part time job.

Gary is right... when you have no spare money, get a job :)
Luckily I have one and I am going to be working all of july, august and september to get the money back. Though with my dad now involved we are sharing the cost of some parts and cos we share spares that cuts down the cost slightly to :D

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It doesn't have a name yet but it does have a goal... anti-spinner.

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No such thing. :uhoh:

Its a Goal, it doesn't mean we will succeed but it combines various elements of other machines together to give it, what we think is, the best chance :)

[attachment=0:3tf2qe7l]Develop 02.jpeg[/attachment:3tf2qe7l]

Current weight in solidworks is 5.5Kg... We might be able to have a Cluster bot at this rate!

moar acuators. moar armour :P

you going to put any celite or whatever its called in their Alex?

Yep the base, uprights and the the bottom layer of the armour is to. We are going to layer Ti on the top faces but the machine is so light, less than 9Kg all in, that we are considering putting a layer of Hardox 400 on every side. The only problem with that is bolting it securely to the rest of the machine!

Here we go, the first all parts pictures!

[attachment=1:6kc98k8o]Render 01.JPG[/attachment:6kc98k8o]
With the lifting arm fully extended...

[attachment=0:6kc98k8o]Develop 03.jpeg[/attachment:6kc98k8o]
Up close and personal...

Given that it currently weighs 9Kg, we are thinking about adding a layer of 10mm Hardox to all sides. This will be most critical at the front to stop spinners getting in between the back of the lifting arm and the front of the robot!

Suggestions and improvements welcome :)

that looks cool! nice design, but maybe on the lifting are, you could have an extra bit folded over on the corners, to make it more ridged , and less lightly to get pulled from behind and bent from an impact on the corner of the wedge (if you dont get what i mean, have a look at tornado's wedge, im sure its on google some where, or if you rember tiny toons wedge, how it is bent round the corners) i just think that will make it even more spinner proof! but looks awesome still, And your a good CADer!

will be a pig to drive with the wheels that far forward

It would drive around the weapon (such as 360 and Venom/Hypno-disc and Razer did), meaning pointing it would be easier than if the wheels were at the back. Only issue with the drive might be that the mass of the machine will be behind the wheels, so when you turn you'd build up lots of energy (several kilos of robot), making stopping mid-turn hard. It would tend to over-steer, I think. I guess that would make it hard to point. Hm.

Perhaps, to make use of that swinging mass, stick a massive great thwackbot-style axe on the back? Like Barnsley-bot! :D

It looks great, and it's certainly different. Could it not get stuck on its side?

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t would drive around the weapon (such as 360 and Venom/Hypno-disc and Razer did)

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They're all 4wd, 2wd will be impossible to drive, the back end will just constantly kick around and oversteer.

The thought behind the steering was it would be like Venom's or 360's with it pivoting around the front wheels rather than the middle. This should mean that we can keep the lifting arm under another even of they try to escape. Though a pendulum effect is a distinct possibility, and will definitely look into the stuck on its side issue, thanks Ellis!

As Alan said.. 360/venom drive well due to 4wd skid steer...

Diablo has wheels at the front and a ball transfer at the back and it's totally un driveable...

If your making this robot to go against spinners... Cover the wheels... And angle the edges of the wedge down to the floor... As it is, it wouldn't take much horizontal force to rip that arm off... Remember the force being pushed sideways onto the tip of your arm will be even greater at the pivot point due to leverage.

move wheels back and make sure there are no catch points for horizontals. if i remember correctly ironside has a hardox 4mm strip bent in an octagon . corners have a large radius so there are no catch points for horizontals to catch on. also am i right in thinking that having a large weight infront of the wheels would help the steering?

There are still things missing all over, maybe 80% complete. And there will be issues with any design but moving the wheels back would probably be a good idea. Though this isn't my machine its my dads so in the end he has the final say, and he is the one that has to drive it as well!

A gyro would help the oversteer issue, but it would make your ESCs work seriously hard, having to fight that swinging 13.6kg arse constantly.

Designed a new single tooth disc for Conker... 2.5Kg of Hardox 400. I should Rename him Talon!

[attachment=1:2c4v2v93]1 Tooth Disc V2 01.JPG[/attachment:2c4v2v93]

[attachment=0:2c4v2v93]1 Tooth Disc V2 02.JPG[/attachment:2c4v2v93]

Just noticed I have missed the hole to bolt the disc to the pullys... woops :roll:

Just from the look of it, I would be concerned as all the impact will happen at the tooth and that's the weakest part of the disk as it has that big hole cut out of it! I would be concerned the disk may be bent into the hole or even snap.
but I have never used hardox or made a disk spinner so what would I know :rofl:

I think you should check your calculations as that seems a ridiculous amount of extra material on one side to balance out the tooth. The deisgn is cool though

Taking on board your thoughts... Version 3

[attachment=1:3hmlwq2o]1 Tooth Disc V3 01.JPG[/attachment:3hmlwq2o]

[attachment=0:3hmlwq2o]1 Tooth Disc V3 02.JPG[/attachment:3hmlwq2o]

For scale, the radius of the tooth is 100mm, and the main body is 75mm and the disc is 20mm thick.

At its thinnest point it would be 15mm so a cross sectional area of 300mm^2. The original disc had a thinnest point of 20mm at 10mm thick, so 200mm^2. NST got a full on hit onto that point and the disc survived intact.

I am relying on solidworks 'centre of gravity' inside 'Mass Properties' to get the designed balanced. I just hope its right...

Can anyone suggest some ESC's for the scorpion brushless motors? (The actual scorpion ones will be very good but they are also very expensive)

One for the HK-5035-500KV and another for the HK-4035-800KV.

Both would be running at off 2 5S liops wired in series

Thanks In Advance :)

any controller for that amount of power will be expensive. Welcome to brushless.

I use castle creations

http://www.castlecreations.com/products ... x_ice.html

You would be looking at the phoenix ice 150 or 200

I figured, the 200 is the same cost as the scorpion commander we would have to use but you are right, its brushless :lol:

Buzzbar uses something a bit cheaper and uses the biggest brushless i've ever seen. Looks like a bit rubbish (and the spec might well be a little optimistic but last I heard from them it was running with no problems at all.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HOBBYWING-EZR ... 559wt_1114

The new design we are looking at... this is version 4. It will have 2 set ups, a drum spinner option and a heavy armour option. The drum option will use either a HK40 or HK50 Scorpion brushless motor and the armoured option will have an equivalently weighted hardox re-enforced front.
[attachment=0:3blxvhy8]Ortho 01 800x800.JPG[/attachment:3blxvhy8]
There will be belts running to give it 4 wheel drive and in the armoured configuration we are set up to have 4 of the Banebots 124mmx20mm tyres per wheel to give maximum grip.

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Originally Posted by Anttazz

Buzzbar uses something a bit cheaper and uses the biggest brushless i've ever seen. Looks like a bit rubbish (and the spec might well be a little optimistic but last I heard from them it was running with no problems at all.

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I would be very temped to try that first, even if it goes up its considerably less than destroying a 120A scorpion commander! Thanks for that :)

Alex, that's the same brushless ESC that I use in Drumroll. It's a very nice controller, has a reverse function (along with many other options) and as Tony mentioned, coped with the big-ass brushless motor that resides in Buzzbar.

My lipos are only capable of supplying up to 88A, so the controller is quite over-spec'd for my needs. But I'm sure I remember Graeme saying they pulled 200A through it in Buzzbar briefly on occasions and it's still running well. Didn't take too long to be delivered, and for the price it's definitely worth it.

Nice design by the way :)