Team Riptide: Hardwired and other builds

After the incoherent mess that was the old build diary, I've opted to start a new thread to encompass all my ongoing builds and whatnot, now I've got Hardwired 2, Overdrive, [next year's secret entry] and my beetles, Fhqwhgads and The Rift. This'll just cover my machines, I'm sure Sam will have his own build diaries for Hatchet and Lynx, or in other words the better robots in the team haha.

Rundown of the machines so far:

Hardwired 2

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...pslpdo6dhb.jpg

Weight: 9.4kg (featherweight)
Weapon: sick drifting skillz
Armour: all the hardox ever (6.4mm total hardox 450 steel)
Active: 2014 - Current

My first combat-ready robot, this is a 6.4mm-ish (2 layers of 3.2-4mm) welded Hardox brick, previously powered by two speed 900s. Worked decently at the 2014 championships - was very bricky but with drive problems, and control was improved a little at the 2015 championships. Eats motors like they're going out of fashion though, and for speed 900s, that's not the best thing. Planning a brushless upgrade for this one.


Overdrive

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...pswfqfi2ys.jpg

Weight: 10.3kg (featherweight)
Weapon: 2.5 kg drum at a theoretical 12000 rpm
Armour: 10/15/20mm HDPE
Active: 2015

I'll be honest, Overdrive did not do well. Maybe it was my dodgy CAD skills, maybe it was the fact it was built less than 48 hours before the event. Either way, it underperformed massively, and got one good hit on Hatchet before deciding to no longer function due to a broken motor shaft. After the weapon broke, I swapped out the drum for an altogether more fearsome weapon...

Banana Overdrive

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psprtiyyr6.jpg

Weight: 4.8kg (Featherweight?)
Weapon: Banana, intimidation
Armour: Banana
Active: 2015 - current?

Because inflatable fruit. Banana Overdrive was riddled with problems, just as its predecessor/alter ego had, but it has one key strength that Overdrive did not have - a banana. It didn't drive particularly nicely because I still have yet to buy a mixer and on-transmitter mixing for DX5s is dubious at best, but it captured the hearts of both roboteers and audiences alike. Well, until it deflated that is... I am thinking of pulling a Great Pumpkin with it, filling the banana full of expanding foam to get rid of the potential entanglement risk and running it as a rambot at live events - Overdrive's going to be retired in its current form and taken back to the drawing board, so the old chassis is just laying about...

Fhqwhgads

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psq3zrjfri.jpg

Weight: 1.1kg (beetleweight)
Weapon: Rambot
Armour: 2mm alu, 2mm hdpe, 20mm wood
Active: 2015 - current

The net result of building a robot 3 hours before an event with scraps found in your shed. Fhqwhgads is by all accounts a shambles, but rather enjoyable to drive at that - the motors and gearboxes are genuinely beefy things from a small scale tank, and the armour lasted surprisingly well against spinners and the like. Admittedly didn't get to fight all of them in working order, but I feel slightly confident now in the design and I'll be running it again now. Even if it is the size of a moon.

Will be updating this imminently with the post-champs report and new stuff, just at a time when it's not 2AM haha

Slightly late post-Champs update
(hey it even rhymes)

Everything considered, I think this championships went really well considering Overdrive was still being finished less than 10 hours before getting in the car to drive up to go to the Gadget Show. Massive thanks to Harry there for firstly putting up with my nonsense and secondly actually building a half decent machine in about 48 hours or so. Even if I did end up breaking it... but we'll get to that later!

Fight 1: Overdrive vs Hatchet vs Satanix 1.666
Loss: 1 point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOs1x9v4Hwg

Well, it worked at least. The disc got up to about 60% throttle in total (wanted to take it easy just in case there were issues) and a pretty nice hit on Hatchet ended up highlighting my dodgy engineering skills. Namely, I hadn't aligned the front panel properly and it sort of came off. The machine itself didn't break, all that went was the weapon belt which I'd not done properly anyway and of course the front plate - I tapped out because the innards of the machine were all exposed as a result of the panel coming off, which included a receiver, two ESCs and a pair of lipos. Not entirely sure I'd like to risk it at that point haha. Still, got a pretty damn nice hit on Hatchet, flipped it over and caused two nice chunks in the front scoop at that!

Fight 2: Overdrive vs Beauty 8 vs Satanix 1.666
2nd - 2 points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dfTpa61FZk

Not much to say here really, Beauty 8 flipped Satanix out then Overdrive almost out, but it bounced into the pit. It looks like the hit I get around 9 seconds in or so snapped the weapon motor shaft and that's when it stopped working. It wasn't spinning up to full anyway so there was probably an issue right from the start, but there you go! Also note how slowly Overdrive was well, driving - that's partly due to dodgy mixing on the DX5e, for some reason it was going insanely slow and I remedied this for later fights by just not using any mixing. Potential upgrades include a more powerful drive and an external mixer so shouldn't be a problem in the future.


Fight 3: Banana Overdrive vs Richie vs Twisted Sister
2nd - 2 points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTCqjYDOImc

It begins...
At this point in the competition, I was going to just drop out entirely I'll be honest - no working weapon and a drivetrain which wasn't much good for pushing isn't the best recipe. Instead, it gained an inflatable banana (courtesy of Jamie) and it was a real laugh to drive around! In this fight I appear to lose one side of the drive, all that happened is a screw came loose and got caught in the plastic colson hubs, which is what stopped it in the end! Unfortunately when Richie turned the robot over, guess which wheel it ended up on?

Fight 4: Banana Overdrive vs Little Nipper vs Rabid M8
2nd - 2 points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFFzrxFTp7E

Well this went roughly how you'd expect. Two machines with big spiky claws, one robot with a piece of inflatable fruit in place of a weapon. Got a few holes punched in the lid (Nipper is scary lol) but no major damage. Even if Nipper missed everything important by mere millimetres - I held my speed controllers together with electrical tape and there was a small scuff on the electrical tape where Nipper's claw had been resting on them but didn't have enough depth in the crush to get them... which was rather lucky! Nipper also managed to miss my right hand drive motor by less than a millimetre too... Oh and the banana got swiss cheese'd by the end of it, which must come as a total surprise to everyone haha.

After that, Overdrive didn't go into anymore fights - instead, its electronics were put into Hardwired 2 to run that in whiteboards which on 3s and with new tyres actually ran quite nicely. The motors from that are now going to a new home so I can be inspired/forced to run brushless like I've been saying for literally a year now. Overdrive's maybe getting upgraded to also run actual brushless this time instead of brushless-wait-they-don't-work-I'll-just-use-drills-instead. Oh and 4wd with big beefy rock crawler wheels. I'm thinking of upgrading the latter so I have something to use at next year's championships, then work on the brand new machine, just so I have a fallback!

All in all though, great event - extremely enjoyable as always and I've learned yet more things for upcoming projects which is always a bonus too! Focus for the short term will be on beetleweights (not another featherweight event for presumably another year now) but I'm building early this time, another thing that I've learned is good haha

Was nipper powered by hydraulics or a lecky actuator?

Hydraulics.

It runs on the ruined hopes and dreams of Banana Overdrive.

And also a very nice hydraulic setup, big ol' brushless on the pump. Did some pretty nasty damage to say the least!

Was doing a bit of lurking on Youtube (as you do at 20 past 2 in the morning) and found this video courtesy of Peter (Scruffy/Night Fury)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JNXQcGcnM

It's the 'free kick' battle as I remember it. Or the 'someone please break the rest of Hardwired, because I accidentally all the electronics' one. Took the most amount of damage in that one fight as it did all championships, but it still all amounted to a few chips out of the armour and a big scuff on the back from Shard... Oh well, Round 3 next event!

Also on a side note, Shiny is actually really scary, I know Nick was taking it to see how it got on, would call that a successful series of tests!

Ahh, good times! Next year I definitely need to try out the magnetic hold-down, that gyro dancing was really annoying. Thanks for finding the video :)

Yeah it did look to be a pain, but I guess that's the perks of having a vertical spinner haha! Hopefully shouldn't have as many problems with it myself with Overdrive's redesign...

Definitely should enter Shiny next year though, really quite an impressive machine - Mr Mangle is also but Shiny seems even more vicious by comparison! As for the magnetic hold down, depending on whether the motors like the constant downforce or not, I suppose you could use some electromagnets if you can fit any in, so that you can activate them when it gyros, and any other time it's not causing unnecessary stress on the drive? I did have an idea once (for when Archangel was a thing) to use one either side with a distance sensor so they activated automatically when the machine was more than 10mm extra off the ground, but implementing it would have been a pain given my lack of technical ability haha

Shiny will definitely be the main bot for next year (unless I come up with something better by then). Electromagnets are much less efficient than NIB super magnets; did you see the tiny magnet modules under Shard? They weigh very little but can have a huge hold-down effect. That tilt idea has gotten me thinking; rather than activate electromagnets, I could use a tilt sensor to cut the weapon power when the bot starts to lift off the floor - that wouldn't be too hard to do at all.

Excellent stuff! Would you be bringing your new horizontal too, or just keeping it as one bot next year?

Yeah, there's the thing, they're not as good but you can turn them on or off as you need them... That'd be an interesting idea though to have a tilt sensor, depends how responsive the weapon is to the motor being turned off though, could be something that'd work well with a brake to slow the weapon faster to stop it gyro-ing too much, though I also realise brakes and spinning weapons don't often get on so well haha

Also, whilst I'm at it

Fhqwhgads gets slightly legit

So, I'm upgrading Fhqwhgads almost completely for some reason, it's now getting 5mm HDPE as a chassis, and these for drive http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking...er_2400kv.html on a 6:1 ratio single stage planetary gearbox (first stage of a drill). Probably about a 70mm-ish wheel on those, and 3s for a theoretical top speed of 40mph, which seems about right for a beetle.

In all seriousness it's idiotic, but I have the motors lying about and they're not quite powerful for a featherweight I think, so why not! Also keeps in with the tradition (?) of mostly making Fhqwhgads out of bits lying about in my shed. Just need to find a couple of magnets now (which I'm fairly sure I have somewhere) and should be sorted. Will probably need a gyro as well, but I'll get to that eventually!

Overdrive

Overdrive last year was a pretty decent machine I think, hampered by a few last minute construction issues because everyone knows the optimum time for robot building is <48 hours before the thing's supposed to fight. I was going to sell the parts on and start afresh, however issues with postage and not being able to get them to where they needed to go, I've decided to keep and revamp Overdrive and give it another shot at the title.

So, first port of call was un-superquickbuilding the thing. Don't get me wrong, it worked but I could see where the refinements and improvements needed to be made (more on that another time) but the core of it is that it's going to now run (hopefully) 4wd from a pair of Ranglebox Saturn-16s and 775 motors. Oh and some nice lasercut panels.

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psz1bzygu1.jpg

These are the ones that I had lasercut originally, then forgot bolts exist. The drum therefore was about 10mm too wide to actually fit the panels... To remedy that, countersunk bolts in the disc may be the best option. It'd also look pretty nice too I think, along with paint that isn't orange.

Here's the slightly reworked Cad
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...pszvfb3r0a.png

Not a whole lot different on the outside, the back end is angled to stop it getting stuck and will probably try doing something to the sides too but that's about it. Don't think I ever posted the cad in full however for Mk1, so there you go!

Another interesting thing here too -
http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...psc8egcrz1.png

Seems like an axe fits surprisingly well aesthetically, and I'd probably be able to get the reduction in. Not an immediate focus but wouldn't need much modification at all to get an axe on it for non-spinner events and/or whiteboards...

Mmm, tasty! The only problem I can see with that is maybe inverted driving? Other than that, the design looks great.

Thanks! The inverted driving is a big 'maybe' - according to the Cad it should do it, but I'm hoping that the disc will help knock it over if its got enough torque.

Or just hope it doesn't get flipped haha!

I figured it might drive inverted but its hard to tell from the CAD angle. Some things I have noticed from other vertical disks: most disks can self-right if the disk is already spinning when it gets inverted. Few disks can self-right if the disk is stopped - start-up torque isn't the best feature of brushless motors. Disks with surrounds (thinking of the VD series of bots) almost always self-right.

How about adding a pair of HDPE extensions to the top of the disk support arms? I think that with some experimenting you will find a hight where the motor can get the disk up to speed and where the disk has enough engagement with the floor to pop Overdrive back on its wheels. The extensions would weigh very little so its well worth trying.

Well, the wheels do touch the ground but I'm willing to bet that it won't be particularly nippy around the arena upside down... I might have a try with something like that, it sounds an interesting idea so might be worth a couple of experiments at least!

My main plan is to flat out hope that I don't get flipped upside down (K2 style) but might be worth a try. Probably a few tweaks to be made to the design too, slightly worried about the potential for getting stuck on the boxy sides but with any luck could be solved relatively simply. And stylishly haha!

Riptide Goes to Scotland, gets rekt
It'd be funny if it weren't so true...

Beetles

That above synopsis pretty much tells you all you need to know haha. Alasdair/Suvv's video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHmAxhNCKOQ

Fhqwhgads once again turned up unfinished and a last minute rush to get the thing working meant it wasn't in 100% shape, as if it ever was. Was a brand new version of it, with 20mm HDPE on the front and was alarmingly not that over-armoured... Lynx and Spin Cycle were both pushing between 8 and 15mm gouges on each hit, roughly, which is pretty insane.

Managed to win a fight though, against Bonecrusher (which has been conveniently omitted from the above video... :p ) though in all seriousness Bonecrusher should have had that one by all accounts. I just fell lucky that he drove into the pit!

Working on a new horizontal spinner for the next event/champs, called Zodiac. Basic horizontal spinner, nothing fancy but should hopefully be reliable is what I'm hoping. Think Newton/Spin Cycle but less ambitious and probably not as good hah.

Other things

New featherweight in the works, Zen - horizontal spinner using one of those discs that seem to be everywhere - the 300mm ones like Inertia and Combustion both use. Basically a FW version of Zodiac, similarly unambitious horizontal but more designed for reliability than anything else. Will be a backup in case Overdrive underdrives again. Probably an SK3 or NTM 5060 motor, 6s, disc speed aiming for about 6-7000 there abouts, nothing extreme but fun all the same!

i ommited nothing....i simply forgot to hit record befor our fight cause im a spanner

Just a quick update whilst I'm still doing the event post mortem, FHQWHGADS is now the UK Beetleweight Champion! Thanks to everyone who helped on the day as well as Stu and the team for making it such an awesome event. Lots of fun, and I actually did well for once, with the help of Rory of course! Congrats to Jamie for 2nd with Flatulence, Luke for 3rd with Fat Lip and PJ for 4th with Spinza!

Few videos here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...lwh81Al6hYPps4

Congrats on the well deserved win!

Beetleweight Champs 2015

Loads to get through here, so I'll divide it up by individual robot. Just want to say beforehand though, a gigantic thank you to Stu, Aimee and Kevin, as well as Shane for helping host a remarkable event, loads of fun and very well organised! Also want to thank everyone there for being just generally awesome, particularly to Rory who brought Fhqwhgads back from the dead, Shakey who made Zodiac not wired like spaghetti, Ceri for loaning me escs and everyone else who helped in some way, sorry if I've forgotten anyone. All success that weekend was a great big team effort!

Right then, on with the fights...



Bananageddon

Pair of clusterbots with bananas atop them. Didn't really expect anything at all out of these apart from maybe being a fun way to make up numbers... which is basically what happened. They got a lot further than I thought they would though. Since I could only drive two robots, these were commandeered by Dave, Sam, Alex, Ian, Shakey and one of Matt Pearman's friends throughout the day. Basically, whoever was free and wanted a drive!

Fight 1: VS RPM/ Bonecrusher/ Incomplete Control

https://youtu.be/C3c97rdauVQ

This one ended pretty quickly for Bananageddon. Sam's half of the cluster got quickly pushed into the pit by Bonecrusher after driving around for a bit, then Dave reversed into the pit since the entire machine was out at that point anyway. Shame about the rules regarding clusters...

Fight 2: Losers Melee vs Flatulence/Atom/Blackout

https://youtu.be/j1Y0Xoz5wrg

This time, things went a little better - Blackout was defeated by Flatulence (we've all been there) early on leaving the more damaging threat to the machine out of the way. Flatulence and Atom then paired up to take on a Bananageddon each, but Atom then appeared to conk out, somehow sending Bananageddon through to round 2! Miracles do happen.

Fight 3: (Round 2) RPM/ Rancid 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5ei4DVv9kI

This fight required a win to progress - with that in mind RPM went straight on the offensive, getting a slight hit on Bananageddon then going on the attack against Rancid. The bananas carried on doing what they do best (survive, despite all the odds) and took a few hits on the wheels from RPM which pulled them off but still both mobile. Which was more than could be said for RPM, which I'm told cut its wiring and immobilised itself, eliminating it from the fight. It was now a fight against Rancid, and the bananas just got bullied and pushed around - they have very little grip and pushing power so it was inevitable at that point. Still, another loser's melee and somehow the joke entry didn't get brutally slaughtered in the first 3 fights. Might actually make it through an event here...

Fight 4: Losers Melee vs Zodiac/Incomplete Control/Bar Fight
(win to progress)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASaS30a_-IE

Now, normally someone with two robots in a fight would make an unofficial allegiance to try and get one of them through at least. Not me however, I realised enough was enough and since Zodiac was struggling too due to issues I wouldn't be able to fix until after the championships, I'd send them both out in a blaze of glory. Bananageddon died.

Actually, not strictly true - just the wheels got turned into a thin paste across the whole arena, the rest of the machine was weirdly still functional other than that. Consider me impressed with your rover kits, Hobbyking...




Zodiac

Formerly Soundwave, Zodiac was just a repaired and refined version of the existing chassis, running on 4s instead of 3. Unfortunately, I later realised that running the disc that fast led to a pretty alarming lack of bite, so I think for the next iteration I'll drop the voltage or end disc speed. Other than that, it carried on running despite taking a bit of a beating!

Fight 1: Vs Ion/Blackout/Napalm Beach

The first fight I had at the champs, so the nerves were pretty high and I think that was rather obvious in my driving. Also fast robot is very twitchy... Not much to say really, landed a good few hits on Blackout, the former of which got hit upside down by Ion, who then got stuck on its side for a relatively quick victory! The hit on Ion's drum towards the end of the fight ended up bending the bulkheads of the machine, which naturally had repercussions through the rest of the tournament. Still spun though, impressively!

Fight 2: Vs Spinza/Ion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzvhB_HibDM

This one was a lot more drawn out. The initial hit from Spinza actually pulled a wheel off, leaving me technically immobile straight away. Thanks to spinners doing spinnery things though I was able to still navigate the arena, but the damage was relatively terminal still - I wasn't able to actually get any worthwhile hits other than one on Ion that took off a wheel towards the end, but other than that this was a relatively unimpressive fight for my machine. On the damage front you can very clearly see bits of the 3d printed pulleys get ejected out of the front of the machine from where the disc was tilted. Still ended up with second place however, but with a win needed to progress this put me in a loser's melee...

Fight 3: Loser's Melee vs Bananageddon/Incomplete Control/Bar Fight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASaS30a_-IE

Mutiny! As said before, I decided pretty early on that my only aim in this fight was to destroy Bananageddon, and Zodiac didn't disappoint - I nearly got all 6 wheels off the robots (Alex ruined my fun) before being pushed near the pit and losing one side of drive again. Unfortunately despite trying to gyro-steer my way around the pit I just ended up stuck on the edge before being pushed down by Incomplete Control. A 2nd place finish meant Zodiac was out of the competition in Round 2!

(going to write Fhqwhgads' up in a second post, brb lel)

FHQWHGADS

The robot that laughs in the face of the pit. After a pair of rushed Fhqwhgadses I actually started this one early (though still did the bulk of the work the night before because procrastination) and opted for a more competitive 4wd setup, with wide wheels and 4s for punchy, fast drive. The idea was purely to have a competitive pushbot core with the wide catcher style design of Fhqwhgads 1 and 2, and it worked actually surprisingly well. Far better than I thought it would! Once again, thanks to Rory for un-nuking this thing and to Ceri for the controllers that made it work. Unfortunately BB10s don't like 4s...

Fight 1: Vs Fat Lip/Mr Snappy 2/Newton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHq22Anv22w

Having encountered weight issues earlier I was left unable to actually fit a lid to Fhqwhgads and instead ended up taping the electronics in. Bad move. Early signs were rather promising - it was fast and able to push things which made it automatically 50 times better than the old ones. Unfortunately, despite me sticking a Ranglebox sticker on the back of the machine Newton carved into my electronics and rendered me out. Granted I did charge into the disc but oh well. It turned out that large pieces of ESC were no longer actually on the esc, something that Rory managed to use legit robot necromancy to cure and get the thing actually running again, which I was rather amazed at given the state it was in post Newton. Also managed to take some of the weight out of it to fit a .5mm polycarbonate lid - not enough to save getting axed but enough to prevent death by spinner again! Point of note too, I felt extremely bad for this fight as I found out during the fight there's no unstick rule in the 4-way matches, hence Newton was stuck on the guts of Fhqwhgads with no way out...

Fight 2: Loser's Melee Vs Lynx/Spin Cycle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9URhyhh2x4

Two very dangerous spinners here - had to play this one very cautiously indeed. The speed of the machine definitely helped here - managed to get at Spin Cycle before it got up to top speed, though it did land one good hit on the catcher which I think bent it down onto the floor, but otherwise did something to slow the machine down a tad (never really figured it out but it was never the same the rest of the event, slight drag on that side). Lynx got pushed about a bit, landed on top of the robot (and scarily close to the link) before being thrown off and Spin Cycle ended up in a corner. At that point I decided to go for Spin Cycle to get back at Jamie for breaking all our things at the Scotland KE event back in the Summer, but also because out of the two it's probably the one I'd least have liked to fight again since I've seen what it did to the 20mm block of HDPE on Fhqwhgads 2... As it happened, it appeared to lose the drive to the disc, followed by a whole entire wheel. In the pit, job's a goodun!

Fight 3: Vs Fat Lip/ Surprize

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDvKKNF1Nas

This one was a pushing match - I think Surprize had some kind of drive issue and was pitted quite early on by Fat Lip (note opportunistic nudge attempt lol) after which it was a very close fight between Fhqwhgads and Fat Lip. No idea what it uses for wheels but I honestly couldn't push that thing at all! In the end, it was a lucky bit of miscalculated driving from Fat Lip that put it on the edge of the pit, otherwise I'm not sure which way it would have gone on a judge's decision...

Fight 4: vs Limpet XS (Quarter Finals)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32CkYoKXENU

Into the knockout stages! Limpet has a pretty faultless record at these events, so this was definitely a fight I was dreading. By happy coincidence however, the wedge on Limpet is higher off the ground than I thought and Fhqwhgads got straight underneath - I knew all I needed after that initial shove was to keep that front facing it, and the catchers definitely helped block Limpet getting round the sides. One lucky push across the arena saw Limpet in the pit, and Fhqwhgads through to the Semi Finals!

Fight 5: Vs Spinza (Semi Final)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUzO595Lhms

Spinza is a pretty fearsome robot when it gets spinning, so the main tactic here was to just not let it spin. Unfortunately, it looked like it had a few problems on startup which was a real shame but meant I could get in to push it about a whole lot more. Despite being predominantly a spinner, Spinza has quite a nice drive behind it, meaning it was a lot more awkward to get anywhere but in the end the catchers did a nice job and helped me keep a hold of Spinza just enough to send it into the pit. Had Spinza's bar gotten up to full speed, I have no doubt this would have ended VERY differently...

Fight 6: Vs Flatulence (Grand Final)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4qsrB6sHoM

This was the point at which the nerves came back - this was the first event where I'd actually achieved some success but I never thought it'd be this much success! Flatulence is a VERY good robot, simple but reliable and exceedingly efficient if the Scotland KE event was anything to go by. There'd be no shame being second here...

Pre-fight I opted for some Anti-Flatulence duct tape (well that sounds weird out of context) cross the bumpers, but this ended up putting me overweight. I tried without the lid but still just slightly over, so the bumpers got cut off to prevent flatulence having any points to hook Fhqwhgads on like it did to #2, and as Jamie demonstrated pre-fight (cheers! ;))

Despite the main worry being dealt with, Flatulence's scoop was actually able to get under Fhqwhgads's paint scraper, and I also had electrical problems during the fight meaning the machine was a bit twitchier and sometimes unresponsive, something I still haven't quite figured out... The fight progressed as you'd expect, both robots circling each other trying to get into a position to push the other into the pit, thankfully the catchers helped keep Flatulence on the scoop whenever I got the opportunity. With around a minute left of the fight, I thought I was losing on points so needed to finish it with a knockout. One bold move and that was that, 2015 Champion!

Like I said earlier, there'd have been absolutely no shame whatsoever in losing to Flatulence, Jamie's a very good driver and it definitely could have gone either way by the end!


Post champs, I've since taken Fhqwhgads apart to take a look at it and it is in dire need of a few things - namely, new speed controllers (the 30a monsters in there are needlessly huge) as well as replacement motors as one of them seems to only work sporadically, and I also need a new sheet of 2mm HDPE for some replacement bumpers. It'll be back for more when Kinematic do more events, but until then it's sat on my shelf looking a tad sorry for itself. Next plan is to work on the 4th incarnation, that I'm hoping will incorporate a sawblade arm with some luck - will need a rebuild from this chassis because of weight reasons but the basic idea will stay the same!

Once again, thanks to the KE crew and all the teams who took part, extremely fun event and it's great to see how the beetleweight class has progressed in such a short space of time!

You did really well! I had a problem with an intermittent 25mm motor. It ended up being that where the motor mounts to the gearbox the screws had vibrated loose. It meant the motor came out of alignment here and there and the pinion would bind the gearbox up. I took it apart and tightened everything and it was fine. Now after each event its part of my routine to strip the motors down n tighten everything up.

I think the cheer from the crowd when Flatulence went in the pit says it all you did so well dude, shame Lynx never really got working i would have preferred more of a scrap.

I'll be after your title next time #Whatiseventeamwork

What a great write-up; thanks!

Has there been any word on the Kinematic events for 2016? The website hasn't been updated.

Thank you!

Dave, I shall have to have a look! Did you get the ones off eBay, or did you buy some from Ranglebox? I've not noticed any problems with mine I got from the latter, but I think they've been loctited and whatnot already. Could be an idea?

Yeah Sam I think there's a few rematches that need doing! It was a really close call that last fight though, genuinely haha

And Duffman, not yet but I'm led to believe any announcements won't be too far off! Hopefully will be taking my lot to a few of them haha

Mine were just cheap from eBay :-) if yours are from Ellis they will already have been sorted. For the champs I threadlocked everything and didn't have a problem lol. Have noticed a few places selling them do a battle hardened version :-)

Well, I've just dropped my application form in for the featherweight champs, whilst I'm down for driving a far superior robot to any of mine, I'm also working on the next generation of ridiculous combat robot, though this one should actually pack a bit of a punch too, it's a vertical spinner using the same basic setup as made famous by Inertia and Combustion but with mini clusterbotlets, 2wd wedges with small cutting discs if I can find the weight. They won't do much but hopefully make some nice sparks!

Will post build photos soon

Featherweight Champs 2016

Not gonna write too much about this given my only fights were with Massacre which got Massacred, and Bananageddon Overdrive 2: Electric Boogaloo suffered much the same fate after not being charged (oops)

As a result, it's time to look at plans for next year. I'm not so sure where my financial situation is going to be at by then so I'm putting anything overly ambitious on the back burner and bringing back Hardwired 2 with a little twist.

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...swwm3pqml.jpeg

As part of an upgrade to brushless drive motors, Hardwired is going to become a full body lifter, inspired by Team Toad's Polar Vortex. I've got a few ideas of how to achieve this, but the favourite at the minute is going to be a heavier duty gearbox (most likely a Saturn) with a brushless outrunner to save space, geared to some kind of linkage underneath the machine. Another idea I'd have liked to pursue would be 80-100mm hubmotors for the wheels, but I expect that to be reasonably expensive (that being the main reason for not building Zen, horizontal spinner, for 2017)

It's gonna be a tough challenge but should be rewarding and something quite different if I manage to pull it off. I would have gone for a simple overhead lifter but I thought it'd be interesting to go for a more unconventional setup, and so that I can still make use of the needlessly thick hardox on the front of the machine haha.

Fhqwhgads

I'm sure it's probably wrong on some kind of level taking this seriously, but I've retired Fhqwhgads 3 from competition to make way for Fhqwhgads 4, cardboard mockup attached:

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...sxbt9s5il.jpeg

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...sfdtmo7w0.jpeg

As you can see, it's a lot smaller than the old Fhqwhgads. As a result it's a LOT more of a squeeze, considering it has 5 motors, 5 Escs, a 4s battery and a lifter mechanism to fit in there. It should be a pretty potent machine, the wheel size is dropping slightly but gaining grippier and wider tyres so push should be even less of an issue, and it will actually be built properly for once (yay) so it might not start falling apart after 2 fights. Hoping to debut it at Burgess Hill but we'll see. It's predecessor will be there regardless.

And that's about all for now, regular updates again soon - just dealing with the end of my final year which is just a barrel of laughs and sunshine and all those nice things.

Stay tuned!

Your robots have been promoted to rank of awesome. Please may you put up a picture of the insides of the wooden robot you took to the feather weight champs? :)

I can get photos of the bits I have left lol

It's not revolutionary like, it's literally just a pair of gr01s bolted to some polycarb

For the lifter, one option could be to put a cam on the end of the gearbox that pokes out the bottom of the bot and can rotate all the way round... Nice and simple/ compact, it won't stall out the gearbox and motor, and you'll get an amusing hopping motion if you hold it at full power :L

The Fhqwhgads is dead, long live the Fhqwhgads

Burgess Hill was this weekend, and with it came the Beetleweight Tag Tournament. Long Story short, Fhqwhgads was paired with Incomplete Control and together went undefeated for the win thanks to some clever tactics (people like to team up on the champ, who knew?)

http://i.imgur.com/Qz6V2Qn.jpg

I felt Fhqwhgads was lacking in power this time, turns out this was thanks to the soldering on the motors. Ellis (the man behind Ranglebox.com) spoke to me about it saying that it's the heat from soldering that can damage the brushes and cause the motors to lose power. Explains how the machine went from being able to push Limpet XS around the arena with ease to not being able to push anything at all. The foam wheels probably didn't help either in all fairness, they were spinning a lot too.

As a result, I've taken the decision to retire the robot from competition entirely and start work on a totally new machine for the Beetleweight championships, if I can even afford it. I'd hate to have it just get obliterated in round one because of a few inherent design flaws that are starting to become all too apparent... On the bright side, undefeated past that incident with Newton. My longest win streak ever! In fact, may well be my only win streak higher than 1...

Wodge

http://i.imgur.com/g6XxQOs.jpg
(image blatantly stolen)

Brand new addition to the team, Haz (Massacre, Flatpack, other cool robots) gave me the chassis to Wodge at the weekend which was promptly brought in to replace the alarmingly unfinished Lobster Knife Fight (more on that another time). Was rather happy to have this one on the team, it was actually the inspiration for Fhqwhgads' almighty wedge of derp which I still maintain was what won me the competition. It sure as heck wasn't driving skill or build quality...

Wodge worked alright til it set fire to itself. Yay Botbitz 10a's.

http://i.imgur.com/E07gvGH.jpg

Future for this one is basically to be a more sensible Fhqwhgads 3, with more brushless and probably magnets. May add a weapon at some point if I have weight/ability to.

The Rift
[menacing laughter]

Featherweights
Also because one instance of kindness wasn't enough, Haz also gave me the old Massacre (2014) chassis. It's quite a nice little base for going and building next year's featherweight champs entry on - going for an overhead lifter or disc. More on that when I get to it!

Wodge looks a bit like the Trilobite stuff from the states :)

Hardwired 3

Sorta writing this in anticipation of getting accepted for the upcoming Insomnia event (which I think is doubtful at best) but I've finally taken the plunge to build a robot that isn't made of wood and hopefully isn't total crap.

Initial plan was once again (just like Overdrive) 'Hardwired 2 with a disc' but as time's gone on I've done similar to Overdrive and gone for a new chassis, all watercut out of hardox and goes together with M6 threaded bar and Saturn 16s from Ranglebox (/ad)

https://i.imgur.com/2xn79js.jpg

It's basically Also Riptoff built similarly to how Tormenta 3 and Pulsar have been designed - the weld-less design is extremely useful for someone like me with no welder or really many tools. Means it's a very quick fit together which I'll be needing!

Will update more when (if) the build goes ahead in the next few weeks ahead of the event. Still more to do on the cad but it's not gonna change a whole lot beyond that image id imagine, visually!

Update time!

Hardwired 3 AKA How I learned time management is an important skill

It's been a few weeks now since Insomnia (an appropriate event name considering) so I've had enough time to reflect on Hardwired 3 and all it's flaws. It's many, many flaws. This isn't going to be a traditional build diary because of the nature of how it came to be - there wasn't really much of a build. Think of this as more of a review of how bad this thing was hah.

First things first, the final cad:

http://i.imgur.com/YSsguFr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/12BkYYo.jpg

Very little time remained before the event, so getting this done quickly was of the absolute most importance - as a result there were some pretty mega oversights in building the thing. Specifically, there's no mountings for the lid or baseplate on there which was just as well considering the thing turned out to be 13.55kg on the day but we'll get to that later...

You can see the improvements since the last revision - it has the ears on it to assist inverted driving and a bent wedge. In the cad this is 5mm but due to supply issues ended up being 6 which didn't help weight issues. Also didn't help with weight distribution issues either which is again something I'll get to later.

The whole machine is built Ellis-style, using waterjetted panels connected with Ranglebox m6 nutstrip except with a fraction of the legitness of Ranglebox builds. I like this sort of design due to the fact that it allows me to spend as little time in the actual build phase as possible, being horribly arthritic means that actually building is difficult - with this I literally just need to hacksaw some bits of aluminium bar, maybe file a few things down, bolt them together and bingo. Also means it goes together extremely fast which was helpful considering the circumstance.

The whole machine is a mix of 4mm (most panels) and 6mm (wedge, bulkheads) hardox 500 with bits of aluminium (ears) in places to save weight where hardox would have just been overkill. Worked well again but I think the 6mm could easily all be knocked down to 5 or even 4 to save some additional weight.

Another design quirk is the presence of the rubber shock mounts holding the entire rear of the machine together - this was an idea shamelessly ripped from US scarybot Also Riptoff and whilst it seemed to do the thing for Riptoff I didn't much find any great use for it, still a nice little trial I suppose.

Friday Night: The Build

So yeah everything turned up Friday afternoon. As anyone enduring my complaining across that week will have known, the event was in less than 12 hours away and Parcelforce still hadn't delivered the things they should have done some days prior. Hence half the build literally being at the event.

Few photos I took in the midst of ragequitting:

https://i.imgur.com/yrWFlZ5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cf6I8qM.jpg

The slot together design really did assist in a quick assembly. It took about half an hour to get it to a robot shaped thing which was very helpful - I managed to do that and paint it whilst I was waiting for the rest of the stuff to turn up. When the parcel did arrive very late in the day it was again a pretty swift bolt-together affair, few issues that I ran into with assembly that I didn't get to sort until the event - just trivial things that ended up taking a long time really.

The Event

Hardwired 3 missed its first 3 fights much to my disappointment. It eventually came together in time for the second day's second run of fights, where I was drawn against Clank 5 (which, as it happened would have been its first fight anyway). First things first, death hum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfLA2PMPJIE

Say what you will about the machine, it's not great but that noise is terrific and I love it. Much, much nicer sound than the precursor, Overdrive.

Fight 1: Hardwired 3 vs Clank 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGIhQEqWpWE

Not a great deal happening here I'll be honest. Did highlight a good number of issues though - despite the fact the drum holds a frankly insane amount of power on paper the wedge was actually causing issues with bite, as was the lack of traction in the arena. got a few hits on Clank and managed to finish it off. It actually retired from the competition after this, a fact I'm both terribly guilty about but immensely proud of. Yay I broke something at last ha.

Fight 2: Hardwired 3 vs Explosion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_BhgWafnT8

Hardwired 3 tore Explosion to shreds within seconds of activate being called and went on to win the championship. Oh wait, no, I ended up out the arena in 30 seconds.

In all fairness I'd have really done a number on Explosion had I got the wedge working properly - I had thought to do an anti-flipper wedge but just didn't get the time since I was driving home every night to save money. Damn you, expensive hotel pricing.

Fight 3: The Rumble
"Just make sure you don't break it before your other competition fights I guess" - Rory Mangles

https://youtu.be/WAMqFYQgVpQ

Lol oops.

Having basically counted myself out from even slightly placing by my robot being done at the last minute (something came up) I thought I'd get some proper testing in on some whiteboards. This seemed a great idea at the time. I managed to smack Omega out of the arena (first OOTA yay) and break all the bolts on one side of the disc since they weren't high tensile. That jammed the mechanism and then Pendulum caught a wheel at the back. Strangely, this Saturn still worked fine and it was the other side's 775 that died - it stalled and overheated on 6s thanks to a cracked magnet, got hot enough to ignite the tape holding the electronics in and well yeah. My bad.

This was not good, it basically put the weaponry side of the robot out of business for the rest of the event. I mean I could have fixed it with the necessary amount of effort, but effort. Rory checked over my electronics again like the wizard he is and deemed them all to be fine despite us thinking a TZ had blown up - that's a stalled 775 to the point of fire not killing one of those things. Genuinely bulletproof.

Fights ergh to whatever - vs something or other and thingymcwhatsitcalled

I think I fought omega and disturbance next? Loss from being pushed into the pit, fairly trivial stuff - nothing to report other than the lack of disc made it drive so much nicer. Weight distribution needed looking at for sure. Still fun fights though just can't remember them for the life of me haha.


Hardwired 3.1

So it got sold already and I'm planning to rebuild but much, much better. The big flaws this time were disc design, wedgelets and weight distribution so the new one is going to have 4wd and a larger drisc, bigger teeth and better wedgelets to help get under things better. Ti chassis is planned too as well as brushless drive to squeeze every last bit of wasted weight out of this thing, unsure where to put said weight but it's nice to have it. The key inspiration for this next one is very obviously Shard as well as Ripto, I'll upload the photos of the cad at some point when I'm able to, but having spoken to the minds behind 720, Shard, DB10, Riptoff and so on I think I'm a lot more clued up now on how to make an average spinner into a good one. Still will probably require some development but certainly is headed in a much, much better direction. For now though, I'm focusing on Phantom, the planned heavyweight. More on that soon!

Interior Crocodile Alligator

http://i.imgur.com/0JcqT7i.jpg?1

robot sucks, doesnt drive. looks cool tho

Oh wow what weight class?

Antweight, was supposed to be going to ant freeze but it's looking like I'll be forced to drop out thanks to technical issues.

Long time no updates

Yeah so I basically gave up on robots for a while due to some reasons just after Insomnia last year. With the next one being relatively soon I've opted to dig HW3 back out the shed and make it do less of a suck. Almost a total overhaul but retaining the same chassis. Well... the front half of it anyway. With a bit of luck it should be a massive improvement - no pictures yet sine I'm waiting for the event for the reveal, however...

Livewire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nftolKFe470

So after the sale for this thing fell through I got bored of trying to sell it for way less than it's probably worth and ended up building it into a functional thing. Disc's geared for about 10k and makes a hell of a noise which I'm happy about. It's applied for the upcoming championships (to go to a separate driver) and after that it's destined for Extreme Robots live events (eventually) with the spinner friendliness.