Team Riptide Birmingham Chronicles

Seeing as Matt decided to put all of his robot builds into one thread i figured i'd do the same, bit of a weird team scenario we have going on here with two different build diaries but it would be way too complicated with the umpteen amount of robots we have between us.

So on to the robots, i never really bothered with a post champs report and it seems a little late now, having said that i'm eager to get on with some updates instead of taking a break like i said i would.

Hatchet performed so much better at the World champs than i thought and i think it surprised quite a few of you as well, despite taking on 8 different spinners over the weekend it took no significant damage, took a few huge hits from NST but even that was easily repairable. So as it stands i can still use the current machine at some live events until i rebuild it, sticking with all of the same internal components as i was really happy with the weapon and drive but changing the chassis design slightly.

I was much happier with the chassis this time around, the thicker hdpe and the addition of barrel buts really helped with strength. Having said that the top panel was pitiful due to weight reasons and the body was so tall that there was a huge amount weight tied up in empty space. A few changes are definitely in order then, i'm actually going to look at Hatchet 1 for inspiration here, the old machine had the side panels bolted to the baseplate and the front and rear panels overhanging so they were flush with the base of the machine. http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psnu4gk3vx.jpg

I like this design better, it gives me a little more space inside, means i can make the machine sorter and also makes the baseplate and lid flush with the front and real panels. I had a few times at the champs where the lid was caught and peeled back so hopefully that doesn't happen again. I'm also going to make the chassis from a mix of 15 and 20mm hdpe, the rear and side panels took no damage at all this year so they will be made from 15, the front panel, wheel guards and axe bulkheads will stay 20mm thick although i will be drilling a few holes in the axe bulkheads to remove a bit of weight. All of this means that i can afford to have a thicker lid and hopefully fit the Aluminium bracing to the rear corners.

My final update will please some of you in particular (Dave Weston), as happy as i was with the axe this year i wasn't all that pleased with the damage (or lack of) that it caused, especially to hdpe. Seeing as i have a double sided axe with a nice pointy end i'm going to be fitting a second 8mm sprocket to the other side of the axe shaft. This means that i can alternate between pointy and broad heads depending on the opponent, it also means that any of you with suspect top panels had better hope you don't meet Hatchet next year :proud:.

If you managed to sit through all of that well done, I'll be keeping this thread updated regularly with progress on Hatchet and the rebuild of my beetleweight spinner Lynx.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrsam

and the rebuild of my beetleweight spinner Lynx.

---

It's been a while since i last updated with, well, anything. Finally got around to building a new version of my Beetleweight undercutter Lynx, some of you may remember Lynx as the spinner that always promised so much but then cacked it's shiny robot underpants every time another robot looked at it funny.

Well, hopefully that is now a thing of the past, i decided this time that i needed to do Lynx properly, it needed a properly designed chassis, a good drive system and a weapon that is more clever than "ZOMG Lets make it as big and fast as we can and it'll beat all of the everything!!".

So, on to the actual build, first up was designing a proper chassis, for this i grabbed a copy of Emachineshop (not the best for chassis stuff i know but it did the trick just fine) and got to work CADing something based around the old chassis only sort of.....good.

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psu9vimtdq.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscfwwc044.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdglifem0.jpgAs you can see, much better than it was before. It's the same grade Aluminium ( 3mm 6082 T6) but it has 1.5mm deep pockets to keep the weight down whilst keeping the structural strength in the frame, it also has thicker drive motor mounts and it's all been welded into one single piece which means a) it's stronger and b) i can save weight by not having bolts.

Next up were the internals, now Lynx has always been unmistakably a big weapon and i wanted to keep that but build in some reliability. For as long as Lynx has been around it was using an NTM 3536 1800kv 875w brushless motor....which is great if you like that sort of thing. the problem is, it had too much speed and not enough torque for my liking. So time for a change, the weapon motor is now a Turnigy 3548 1100kv 910w motor, i'm also running this on 4s instead of 3, so more torque from the motor, a higher voltage and a more sensible speed of 6000rpm.

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psursykwjr.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...pssmceefau.jpgI didn't take many pictures throughout the build so we've skipped to a nearly finished robot, you can see the new brushless set up and frame and how everything kind of...fits? Wait wait....things fit in Lynx? what kind of sorcery is this?

Glad you asked, Lynx has always had an internal space problem, i've always just crammed everything in and kind of hoped for the best. I could hardly spend all this time and effort on making it better and then shoehorn all of the bits in like some sort of cretin could i? So i decided to make use of the gaping amount of space in the rear spar and mount all of the drive electrics in there. The drive this time is a bit of an experiment as i'm using small brushless outrunners, i've done my research don't worry. It uses 25a Turnigy Trackstar esc's and tiny 1800kv outrunners mated to the very chinese ebay gearboxes. The whole set up runs at 2s which seems to give around the same speed as the normal brushed motors but more torque. This coupled with Lynx's snazzy new foam wheels and the extra weight over them by putting the electrics in the rear means that Lynx actually sort of drives...quite well in fact.
http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9elsi1nq.jpgSo, that's the new Lynx, well done if you managed to sit through and read all of that. It'll be Debuting at the Kinematic event in Scotland on the 6th of August where i'm hoping the upgrades will mean it does well.

Cheers! See you all soon

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrsam

The drive this time is a bit of an experiment as i'm using small brushless outrunners, i've done my research don't worry

---

*Harry did his research don't worry :p

Good to see my drive system working out. Need video of it driving asap. NIce improvement over the last version. Wish it luck in combat.

Haha, I did my research through harry (copied him)

Drive works real nice actually, i'll get a video up here some point today.

That's a very pretty robot. I can only dream of this sort of stuff with my hammer n kitchen step. Do you draw it in CaD and then send the file to someone to get milled? If I learnt cad could I do this?

You don't need to learn to CAD at all, there are plenty of people if you ask nicely will lend a hand in that department. *cough* Jarvis, Ellis, Haz *cough*

Yepp all drawn up in CAD and then sent to someone else, I'm pretty rubbish at CAD tbh but Emachineshop is simple if a little clunky at times.

There's no reason why you couldn't do stuff like this if you learnt to CAD, heck i've managed it and i'm more than useless at that sort of thing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mattsdragons

You don't need to learn to CAD at all, there are plenty of people if you ask nicely will lend a hand in that department. *cough* Jarvis, Ellis, Haz *cough*

---

*Cough* Botwright, Matt Smith also *Cough*

Completely agree with Matt there though, if you don't feel all that confident there's people who are usually more than willing to CAD stuff up for you.

Always learn CAD if you can. It's a fantastic skill. However, being able to design is way more important. Any schmuck can CAD, not everyone can design properly. Not saying I can ofc I build boxes with exposed wheels but it's still a fairly valid point.

^^

What he said

As cool as Lynx looks, it's still untested so it could turn out to be a piece of complete poodoo

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrsam

*Cough* Botwright, Matt Smith also *Cough*

---

Everyone always forgets Matt and I :(

HEY GUYS I DO CAD ON COMSSION TAKE A LOOK AT MY WORK WHAT I HAV EDONE IN THE PAST

http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/...pse517wxgi.jpg


But yeah, I can Cad but design is still something I'm learning as I go... it's pretty important to know that!

Capitals and typo's don't help :D

For starting with CAD, Sketchup for (very) basic 3D, and something like emachineshop for accurate 2D work. For more serious stuff, Autodesk Inventor or Solidworks are the top two options. I use Inventor for everything.

Haven't updated this for a while, so remember how my previous post was all "Lynx is great now, looks at how gr8 it is m9?", well ummm.......

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...pssem6ji8f.jpgThat was after it's very first fight with Spin Cycle which lasted just 16 seconds, typical of the two most powerful spinners to get drawn against each other in round 1, it was my fault in hindsight seeing as i *technically* did reverse Lynx straight into SC's disc, but we won't argue too much over who did what to who and when.

After this frankly laughable showing i decided to sell what was left of Lynx and have a rethink, as the beetle scene stands it all seems to be overly powerful spinners and that's great but i fancied something a little different. I drove Jamie's robot Flatulence in a fight against Spin Cycle in Scotland ( and won by the way) and i really liked it's style so i decided to get myself some of that sweet, servo lifter pie. I've had the idea of a beetle version of the Heavyweight Atomic for a while but i never got around to building it because Lynx, it won't be anything special and i'm making this one all by hand so it'll likely be rougher than scraping your man junk over a cheese grater but i can live with that if it works.

Specs are as follows

Chassis - mix of 3, 10 and 20mm hdpe
Drive - your standard beetle 1000rpm motors
Weapon - Lifter powered by a 40kg torque servo, can also use the front 3mm steel plow for ramming
Batteries - 2s lipo for weapon, 3s lipo for the drive
Esc's - 10a Botbitz

As i said, nothing special but it should be cheap, reliable and at least last a bit longer than the bit shouty thing i built before.

Some pretendo for you

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psafe5vhwm.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...pswiadhrtl.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psndv9peis.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psukjsocci.jpg
Updates will follow over the next couple of weeks

Cheers.

It's been a while since i last uploaded and with the beetle champs looming i felt it was about time.

You may remember last time i was talking about Atom, the beetleweight Atomic that wasn't a spinner, because i'd got bored of spinners. Well Atom is still very much a thing, but guess what i went and done? designed a new spinner, because that's sensible right?

I'll get to that in a minute, but first a little Atom update.

The first thing i did was to start on the huge steel wedge, suffice to say i will not attempt to replicate this ever again without a proper vice (i bent 3mm steel with a big set of pliers whilst the sheet was clamped to my kitchen counter, it sucked to do).

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0nnaccjd.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psxswkmqwk.jpgThat's just after the bending, no filed edges yet. I was actually really happy with how it turned out even if it damn near killed me to do it.

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdo8jzb6h.jpgWith the edges filed and the lip sharpened, i also mounted it to the flipper arms with some m6 bolts and a nyloc the other side. I will countersink the head, i'm just lazy. Also note the 5mm polycarb baseplate.

Now i'll admit, i got lazy and forgot to take pictures of the rest of the build. So i'll fast forward to where it's currently at. The drive has been mounted, as has the lifter servo which has been tested and works rather well, does however need a bit of work to make it self right reliably, but i'll sort that soon.

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...psh8cx8itc.jpghttp://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...pskeugw6wr.jpgA couple of pics of the servo and how it's mounted, nothing special. It's just a couple of hdpe mounts which are then bolted to a piece of 5mm polycarb, the servo horn will then be cable tied to the flipper arm so it can be retracted. Under the piece of polycarb sits the drive motors, esc's, rx and batteries.

The eagle eyed among you will have noticed the little robot lurking in the background, that my friends is the replacement for Lynx, called err....Lynx!.

It's a drum bot, because i wanted a spinner, but not a mid cutter or a vertical disc/bar, there's already too many of those.

It's full of bodge and probably going to do terrible but then it's Lynx, so i won't be too surprised. The chassis is a mix of 20mm and 10mm hdpe, standard beetley drive of 1000rpm shadymotors, botbitz 10a esc's, 3s lipo, 28mm outrunner spinning the drum at 12K rpm fairly standard really.

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7ecrdgdt.jpg

The chassis as it stands currently, the wheel is too small but i didn't have any of the right size for a pretendo. Needs Moar drum though right?

http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps5xw2m1q6.jpg

^^

Drum things

It was made by Harry and all credit to him it looks amazing, i should have it in my possession in the next day or two along with the brushless set up to run it. Both robots will be a rush to finish as for the time being at least i'm somewhat unable to build stuff ( i broke fingers, it happens) but with a little help from my dad it should be just about doable.

I'll try and keep the updates regular as things should progress quickly.

Cheers

im looking forward to you keeping your streak going and atleast one of these exploding when a scottish bot hits it

Scottish robot?

I think you're mistaken, Harry built the robot that wrote Lynx off

Some Scottish bloke just bought it off him

Looks really good, thanks for putting up the picture about how the servo acts on the arm it gave me a lot of ideas.

Haven't updated this in a while, i had planned on a big post Beetleweight Champs run down but, it was a flop for both Atom and Lynx, neither worked how they were supposed to. Atom has gone to a new home awaiting upgrades and Lynx has been given a complete rebuild and a new name to go along with it. May i introduce "Swag Demon"

http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5640&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5642&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5643&stc=1

It's Lynx, but built better, with more care, attention and i didn't build it in a rush. Hopefully the problems of the first version have gone from this one.

Now you may have noticed a familiar face in the last picture, that my friends is the new Hatchet (Hatchet 3 to be precise, #Howinthehellamionmythirdalready). I should note that mid 2015 i moved into my own flat, and as such lost almost all of the nice tools and workshop space that made me look like a half decent builder, i am now building with hand tools so stuff is now rough, very rough.

Anyway, Hatchet 3..

I liked Hatchet 2, it worked well (when the link stayed in) and it proved at the World champs that it can tussle with the big boys. Having said that, it had it's problems. It was tool tall, too big, the top armour was a joke and the axe whilst looking aggressive actually did very little in the way of damage. Through talks with other builders i've realized the reason for this is how the axe was made, it was strong as hell and very well made, but it had it's weight in all of the wrong places and as such wasn't making the most of the energy.

So i decided to start again, start from the ground and make my way up, keeping the good and getting rid of the not so good. The Electronic side of things, drive motors, esc's, batteries, weapon motor and weapon esc have all stayed, they worked well so i see no need to change them. The axe is gone and will be replaced with something that i feel should be better. Speaking of.....

http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5644&stc=1

This is my design for the new axe, taking inspiration from a few different places. It's going to be a single 10mm thick piece watercut from hardox 500. It weighs roughly the same as the old axe but there's a couple of major differences, 1) The kink in the axe arm inspired by a very well known Hammer bot, after watching back footage of Hatchet 2 it was clear that the robot was jumping so high when it fired that the axe was hitting the front bulkhead before hitting the opponent, wasted energy, this should hopefully stop that. the second difference is that there is now much more weight focused at the head, where you want it. Hopefully this means Hatchet packs a fair more whack this time around.

That's pretty much all from me for the time being, expect some updates as things start to progress, i'll leave you with some classic pretendo images and some of how Hatchet currently stands.

Cheers!

http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5647&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5649&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5650&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5652&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5653&stc=1http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/atta...tid=5654&stc=1