Team Microbots Build Diary

Getting ready for a lot more stuff to come, expect to be thrown from the arena in next years UK FW Champs!

Skyfall
Skyfall is under major redesign and is going back into the shed at the end of the year for a complete rebuild, but same basic concept and same pneumatics, but I think Speed 900s in the middle of the robot, so it will be able to turn without difficulty:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ity100/1-1.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ity100/2-1.jpg
More pics of the CAD here.
In the mean time, as the old 12v drills have now conked out, I will be fitting a pair of 9.6v Gimsons for the time being, which will eventually be used in new Metalbeak, a crusher with a hefty Gimsons Linear Actuator to power the claw.

Antomic
With the approach of AWS 39, I will be building a new ant which I have bought all of the parts for now:
2 x Pololu 50:1 HP Motors
2 x Fingertech TinyESC v2s (expensive!)
1 x KST DS125MG Wing Servo with 7kg/cm of torque... Will be fun to see robots lifted with such ease, the 3.5kg/cm I have in Anti-Gravity 3 right now is enough to lift ants easily at full power.
1 x 6v NiMH
1 x Minima 6E RX
The armour will be a type of Aluminium Alloy that I can't for the life of me think of the name of that weighs the same as normal aluminium but is a lot stronger. I have shed loads of it, so no need to buy that, but I want to get the parts before designing a body because of the size limit.

Prometheus
A brushless spinner concept based on 259 that I hope to have working by AWS 39, but I highly doubt it what with Skyfall, Antomic, and of course, school work (going into Yr. 11 'aint easy!). But I still hope to be shredding coke cans by the end of the year with a 10,000 rpm spinning flywheel powered by a Scorpion 2205-36 Brushless Motor at 6v.

Project X
Not forgetting of course the newest addition to the team, the transmitter problems are all sorted now so it should drive perfectly. As far as I know, it's the only robot using six independent Gimson motors to provide ultimate pushing power, but if you know otherwise, say. It will remain unchanged for a long time, as it works perfectly and as far as I know has very few minor flaws that will hardly ever put it in danger. The 40mm HDPE bulkheads on each side and in the centre of the robot are, I believe, unbreakable by Featherweights, but the scoops are so bendy that I really need new ones!

I went all out on the diagram of Skyfall, so perhaps it can be used as a basic pneumatic FW guide:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...100/Slide2.jpg

sounds and looks very impressive Jarvis, liking the sound of the mini 259 :) don't bother with 6v, its so pitiful, go for a 3cell lipo, or a 2 cell if you are weak/sensible :P
oh, and regards to schoolwork i found away around that, its just a case of not doing it :lol:

I imagine you already know this but a 15A electronize won't be enough for a speed 900.
Apart from that looks very good, sounds like you are going to be busy for a while!

Looking forward to it all, mate. :)

Is this one also going to be as long as an Oil Tanker?

No:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...100/Slide3.jpg
Because the motors will be at the sides, and not at the back, I can shorten the back end by 6cm, and since the original body (exc. wheels) was 53cm, it's now only 47cm. The main box section of the robot is also smaller, a width of 20cm as opposed to 29cm.

how you planning on putting the motor & gearbox and the wheels at 90 degrees??

Something similar to this might work:

http://www.omniconcepts.com/graphics...angle_gear.jpg

Oh that's going to be expensive for decent bevel gears...

About €10 for the cheapest anglegrinders I can find.

That gives you a full gearbox.

ahhh i was looking at a DIY gearbox using bevel gears on different ratios.

This build will be one to watch :)

first part looked like dt coursework lol

I found with a lot of angle grinders that the outer plastic casing is integral to the structure of the gearbox. They also use Helical gears.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PJ-27

I found with a lot of angle grinders that the outer plastic casing is integral to the structure of the gearbox. They also use Helical gears.

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So? Still probably cheaper to get the gears from such a gearbox, than to buy 'm from RS or HPC.

The gearbox itself is another matter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hard Time

ahhh i was looking at a DIY gearbox using bevel gears on different ratios.

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The gears in an anglegrinder do have a ratio. Like 1 to 2.5.
That was my conclusion when making the twin Speed 900 setup for Prodigy Evo.

Quote:

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PJ-27 wrote:
I found with a lot of angle grinders that the outer plastic casing is integral to the structure of the gearbox. They also use Helical gears.


So? Still probably cheaper to get the gears from such a gearbox, than to buy 'm from RS or HPC.

The gearbox itself is another matter.

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It's not a problem, I just saying don't expect to remove a nice self contained unit from the angle grinder.

What speed controller do you you use for 6 motors? Lots of smaller ones or one large esc?

One Scorpion XXL does the lot.

i'm wondering when you are going to cook that

Thats what I though, lot of amps for one xxl :)

6 18V GR01's on 1 Scorpion XXL, a tad to much I fear.

We would use one of our Sidewinders for that task, but alas, the availability of those is very limited.

Maybe a small Wotty?

Has anyone dismantled a cordless grinder before?

Comes part of the parcel with the Bitza theme!

What do you need to know?

MOAR CAD!
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ity100/1-2.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ity100/2-2.jpg
More
These are for Antomic, most of the stuff for it has arrived, just waiting on the motors, wheels & power. Made the design invertiable as well as being able to self-right just in case, and also found these awesome stickers with the ESCs, and they are going on the sides:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...820_011941.jpg
Unfortunately the Skyfall rebuild has been put on hold due to controlling parents, my mum won't let me buy new motors until the Gimsons wear out, or by the end of next year, despite me paying for them...
Ahh well, I guess I'm stuck with my current robots for now, but hey, I can focus on the antweights more!
New Metalbeak seems now to be in the distant future, too much stuff happening at once.
See ya in Swansea!

Just dug my 10 year old wooden arena out of the shed:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...907_174623.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...907_174559.jpg
Needs a clean, but at least it doesn't have a family of spiders living on it now...
Amazing how its held up over the years, give it a flipper and mount it on wooden legs, I think there may be an ant arena in the making.

The arena my dad made for me is sitting under my bed behind me. Had an awesome flipper, where you smash a doorknob, which was one end of a pivot that went underneath the arena, so the other end would smash into a hinged piece on the arena floor (the flipper) meaning you could basically flip the robots as hard as you could punch the doorknob.

Had some epic OOTAs back in the day. :proud:

I wonder how many roboteers had their own homemade arenas when they were young? Yours has a great paint job and is much larger than mine!

Skyfall & Project X are ready for Maidstone!
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...eMaidstone.jpg
Finally sharpened Skyfall's blade, should be low enough to get under people now.
You can clearly see the hole Cobalt put in Projects X's scoop at Swansea, ouch!
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...CobaltHole.jpg
For some reason, Project X drives in every direction fine, except backwards, where it drives really slowly. What could be causing this? Thanks,
J

what transmitter are you using?

I look forward to meeting them!

T2 and Project X must have a bash around in the street, by the way. :)

I'm using a Hitec Optic 6 TX with Optima 7 RX

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Relentless

T2 and Project X must have a bash around in the street, by the way. :)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...9CeVKiwQw#t=2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8wqQIQR47c

Update
Project X has had another successful event at Maidstone, surviving one feather fight, but Explosion flipped it out in the second :x . Quite surprised that Project X's Scorpion XXL still works, after seeing Tormenta 2 close up I'm thinking of ditching it for two BotBitz 85A ESC's.

Skyfall had quite a dissapointing outing, worked fine on the bench, passed the tech check, then went crazy in the bullpen, started randomly driving backwards, and once I got it back to the bench, put the link in and it worked fine. Why did this happen? Does anyone have any idea? Any help would be gratefully recieved in solving this to avoid it happening again and putting people at risk.
Once I had it in the arena, though, it worked fine, until I tried to self right :uhoh: ...
The battery came loose, whipped round, broke the connector and flew out of the robot into the polycarb screens. Burst one of the cells:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...009_161736.jpg
New one on its way, will be ready for Deeside! As for the detachment problem, gonna make a BIG HDPE arch to hold it in place.

In other news, the parts for the antweight have all arrived now, cursed battery took an age to come through :angry: . One motor is done, just getting round to the other one, been a while since I had enough spare time to do it.

See ya all at the Champs!
J

I wonder if your radio is freaking out because there are so many spektrum frequencies (Which is essentially bluetooth) and you're one of the last to arm up ? I had problems with my radio cutting out when I tried to arm up, then cut out in the arena.

Your radio brand is also not a really recognized one, not sure if that helps your cause.

If you are having random problems it's worth factory defaulting your Tx and rebinding. Then check your failsafe is setup correctly.

2.4Ghz sets are frequency hopping to overcome interference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MicroGravity100

The battery came loose, whipped round, broke the connector and flew out of the robot into the polycarb screens. Burst one of the cells

---

Vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmGtyJ-2-IY

Good to hear it will all be ready for Deeside Jarvis :).

My last street fight with Satanix did not go very well, it was back when I had a controller that couldn't handle it. Youtube 'Satanix vs Trojan Street fight' :)

Skyfall is ready, battery held in place properly this time:

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...NewBattery.jpg

Also got the angle grinder out to give it an even sharper edge :evil:
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
J

EDIT: Forgot to mention, have had words with Robot Power over in the USA, since Project Xs ESC was a prototype XXL v3 they sent us, quoting the GR01 specs. on the Gimsons website, they said it should be fine for the job, even told them we had 6 motors, 3 in each side. So may not need to replace it after all :D

Event Report - Deeside
Well, Deeside was a disaster for Skyfall, 5 fights, battery fell out in 4 of them (cable ties and gaffer tape sorted it out in the end :lol: ), then the negative wire on the battery slipped out of the connector in the 5th. Managed to give her a nice send off, died for the last time trying to help Mr. Pink self-right :) . Laid a nice flip on LF3 in that fight, I suppose they used all their luck & concentration on the HW Champs :rofl: .
Took so much damage at this event, Battle Axe whacked the left side panel and bent one of the ali brackets (there should be two in the pic), the cold from the pneumatics and the properties of ali meant that the arm snapped when being bent back:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...pedBracket.jpg
At least the side went back to normal :D ! Hooray for HDPE!
It's the end of this incarnation of Skyfall, rebuild is coming early after seeing how badly the drive responds. Upgrade to Speed 900s, BotBotz 85A ESCs & a 24v LiPo pack should allow the drive to be everything I'd wanted out of the first robot. This current one just has so many faults, the drive, the flimsy scoop , the flexing flipper arm etc:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/.../BentScoop.jpg
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...RamDamage2.jpg
Despite this, it worked OK, being able to flip machines if they somehow got onto the never properly sharpened scoop :lol: , and with a pneumatics system as heavy as that & all of the ali structures, it was a miracle it was in weight, and by this much :shock: :
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...0/DSC_0317.jpg

I also picked up Metal Beak's beak from Jamie at the event:
http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ty100/Beak.jpg
Lovely, 20cm long, 1.5mm welded Ti construction, 2.5mm Ti point, and it only cost a fiver :D !

Just looking around for a LiPo for Skyfall, would this be any good? If not, what would?
Thanks,
J

It says it can do 65C, which at that 4.4Ah capacity would mean 286a discharge ability. I don't know what sort of current is drawn from weapon firing stuff but it's way overkill, I'd say, for 2 speed 900s. That said I'm not sure what they can draw when running 24v.

Oh and that's a 7s, I'd say 6s would be better, as when fully charged it'll be a little over 24v, which is what the 85a Botbitz ESCs are rated at, and what many lower-end LiPo chargers peak at.

I'd think something like a 6s 4500mah 40C would do you fine.