Team Shock's new Beetleweight

I finally got my beetle spinning today. Looks like its going to work well. :)

The design http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps720ef99f.png

It's a horizontal spinner with a single tooth 110mm Hardox disc and a waterjet cut aluminium chassis.
Disc is powered by a 28mm outrunner on 1:1 ratio with a red brick ESC on 3s Lipo.
Drive is 2 pololu motors with banebots wheels and botbitz ESCs
Will all be armoured in 2mm ti and 5mm HDPE and is currently just under 1kg with everything except armour.

And a spin up test

http://youtu.be/GUGdzOOMQCc

I aim to fit the drive tomorrow and give it a full test then but it seems good so far.

Finished the beetle today. Now has 1.5mm steel for armour but since it only weighs 1.1kg I can always add more if I need to.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps2a1b87f3.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scbq7...d4SNe6vgth2LlA

Dimensions?

180mm long x 180mm wide x 40mm high

Disc is 110mm diameter and 6mm thick

I've spent the last couple of days working on a new beetle to run alongside Soundwave- Mantle.

It's a quarter size version of the heavyweight with a large servo to power the flipper (30kgs torque at 6v but will be running directly from a 2s LiPo).

Armour is only 1.5mm mild steel but is easy enough to patch up.

Managed to get it driving today- next job is to mount the flipper servo and get it finished.

Attachment 4211 Attachment 4210

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsQ8TdlRdZ8

Nice job Will just need a manta feather next, give you somthing to do in the shed this Christmas

:) Thanks! Might have to start work on a feather version!

The beetle is all up and running now. Seems to work well and was 1.5kg on my scales so pretty happy.

First layer of paint is on- just need to add the blue now.

Attachment 4212

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

Cool

All done. :)

Here it is alongside the heavyweight.

Attachment 4213

Looks so neat, I want one :)

Harry

Father and son - D'awwwwww

Is there anywhere to fight beetles? Is anyone bringing an arena that can take beetle weights to live events?

Shane has the arena, The Slaugherhouse, http://bigconkers.com/projects/big-c...slaughterhouse

Only had one outing so far, but got more lined up for some robotslive events next year.

Harry.

Hi Will, What drive motors did you use for the flipper beetle you were running at Burgess Hill?

Hi John,

Both of my beetles use these motors from Pololu http://www.pololu.com/product/1572

The flipper runs them on 2s Lipo and my spinner runs on 3s

Since its looking like there will be some beetleweight activity at the next AWS I have decided to go for a proper competition one and that meant it was time to make a vertical spinner. After playing around with the CAD for a bit I came up with a design that should work and allow me to use the rather nice 10mm thick, 500g single tooth discs i have. The bulkheads have been 3d printed now to test the concept and if it seems like it will work I will CNC it from aluminium at Uni.

This is how it looks currently (with the 6mm disc fitted)

Armour: Titanium/ Steel or HDPE
Drive: 2x pololu 20.4:1 HP motors
ESC: 2x Botbitz 10A
Disc motor: 28mm NTM outrunner
Disc ESC: 30A Red Brick
Battery: 3s Lipo

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1vcx09d5.jpg
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...psxhvsdoqb.jpg

ive got the same drive motors on mine, not sure on the gearbox thou but they are are nice and nippy

Your ones are the ebay 1000rpm ones.


Looks great Will.

After taking part in the beetleweight competition at AWS 44 I have decided that a few changes need to be made to mine to make them a little more reliable and solve the issues that appeared at the event.

Soundwave worked pretty well overall, the disc mechanism is excellent and provided some big hits and plenty of damage. The drive is also very good but it simply is not big enough to contain a large enough battery.

I have redesigned the chassis to have a larger back end to house a new 3s 2200mAh Lipo and free up some space for the electronics. The previous one was only 1.1kgs so there is plenty of weight. The sides will be covered with 1.5mm steel again as this withstood direct impacts from RPM with only minor scratches. This time the chassis will have proper spacers machined to make sure the whole thing stays together properly.

This is the new version alongside the old

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps59a1ddd0.jpg

I am also working on a vertical spinner after getting hold of a new disc (not the one shown here). This will have a larger brushless to spin it but will largely be the same internally as Soundwave.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps54738877.jpg

Great, more spinners... :?

Looks good though :D

Spinners in this class are really quite easy to make so expect a lot of them. But you saw how well even 5mm was able to take the hits as the robots didn't weigh enough to let the weapons dig in. Even aluminium might work if it is designed correctly.

Looking good though Will. That vertical looks potent!

I know, after a pushbot the spinner is one of the easier designs alongside the axe or even the servo operated lifter.
I do not dislike spinners in general but I do like to see different types of weaponry (in one team), just my 2 coppers.

Those new designs look great will, should be good

The chassis pieces for Soundwave 2 and Inertia-B are being laser cut at the moment. So hopefully they'll be back pretty soon so I can get them going for Stevenage. I've opted for a slightly larger brushless for Inertia this time to make sure it has no trouble spinning up the bigger disc.

Some beetle progress.

The chassis pieces for Inertia and Soundwave have arrived. I now need to cut the armour panels and start welding them together. I'm also trying some new printed wheels in these to see how they perform.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscae8384d.jpg
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse4b54234.jpg
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...psqgmbu3t9.jpg

Looks great Will :)
Who does your cutting BTW?

Thanks Jarvis, I use Emsea for all my cutting now and they've done a great job

Cheers :)

What did you use for rubber on the wheels will?

Some more progress

Everything is now here for both machines so the build will start tomorrow

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...psorprgcv0.jpg

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9pbajiks.jpg

why do i feel like nomatter what i build its going home in a binbag now

Just realised that I haven't updated this in ages.

I got Inertia B and Soundwave 2 working for Stevenage last year but both had a couple of issues. Inertia was about 50g overweight and had problems with the weapon belt coming off over 50% throttle. Soundwave had some dodgy flappy armour and a bent weapon shaft which stopped it spinning properly.

I dug out Soundwave today and got it back up and running- the armour is now fully welded to the chassis to make it nice and strong and a new weapon shaft has been fitted and it all runs much better now :) Even had chance to give it a lick of paint.

Final weight is 1.35kg so there is a little more room for extra armour if it needs it.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...psnf5mvgpa.jpg

Inertia is largely fixed as well. The belt problem has been solved by remaking the pulley on the disc with a wider flange and I am cutting two small sections out of the chassis in the morning to get the weight down. Pictures to follow.

I am also working on a new 4WD brick to enter into comps as well. I'm hoping to get most of the chassis made tomorrow but its essentially 10mm HDPE (with aluminium bracing), 3mm stainless scoops on the front and back and 4mm polycarb for the top and bottom.

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...pszqptg1lq.jpg

The beetles are now all done ready for the event next week.

Soundwave now has top panels and an LED wired in- weighs in at 1350g

Inertia has the top panels finished, new printed pulleys and a tighter belt- the result is terrifying as the disc can finally reach its top speed without ejecting the belt. I've also ordered a couple of spare discs in case I wreck one. Final weight is about 2g under the limit :)

Mantle has been reassembled with new motors and Botbitz ESCs, nicely underweight with about 80g spare.

Beaut 2 is all set for John, now has some HDPE armour to give the spinners something to chew on, the flipper is awesome though and should throw opponents very nicely :)

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...psjdbbdoxf.jpg

these look great again i feel like im going to need to put more into armour...lots more

Will these are simultaneously impressive, scary and beautiful.

I see Soundwave has a new shape. You think it'll last more than 10 seconds against RPM this time? ;)

The big challenge for him is to see if he can avoid being stacked against the wall (aka losing) against Flatulence the next time they meet ;)

I'm hoping the changes will stop it losing in the same way to RPM ;) the armour is now welded on instead of Velcro plus I've got the 500g disc waiting if I feel like using it.

Failing that Inertia is ready and waiting... ;) and genuinely terrifying! The disc sounds far scarier than the feather version!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by teamshock

genuinely terrifying! The disc sounds far scarier than the feather version!

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But in this dog eat dog game - its not about the bark. Its all about the bite :)