Team Pushover: Build Log

So, after almost giving up last year, here we are. I'm going to create just the one build log rather than keep cluttering up the forum.

I've just finished up a rebuild of the AW Pullover, chall9enging myself to build as neatly as possible. Now, having finished shrink wrapping all the joints, I plug the battery in, insert link/fuse, aaaand, the fuse blew.

I think I'm already way underspecced on the fuse anyway, but I obviously have a short somewhere... great...

Specs:
NanoTwo V3
Vex29 for grabber
2s 20c 3500mah (I think) LiPo
5A fuse
2 x 1000rpm (alleged) n20's for drive
1 x 60rpm high torque n20 for grabber
25mm tough hub wheels
Main body is recycled high impact plastic, grabber arm is from an offcut (polycarb version as spare) and bottom/rear panel are 1.5mm polycarbonate

I digress, first pic of the new log!
Attachment 8761

That is so neat, much better than mine at the moment, nice work!

If it worked I'd be happy... it's a neat paperweight right Now, I need to remove all the heat shrink and go through every connection and double check polarity etc..., probably even need to de-shrink the Vex29 and make sure I haven't moved a couple wires or something...

So as function over form, everyone's is better than mine :rofl:

Well... I, erm... don't know how to say this... I appear to have got the + and - the wrong way round in my soldering frenzy...

So I'll swap them back to where they should be and cross everything that I haven't cooked the NanoTwo...

And don't worry, I've called myself enough names for everyone :roll:

Oops. I've done that before with a FeatherTwo in the past. Not fun I'll say.

Well... no magic smoke at least, so when I get chance to swap it all about it should hopefully still work.

Then all that's left is to take Wej from broken and battered to fully functional experiment... watch this space!

Looking good mate! Fingers crossed it’s okay! I have been trying to design a new Ant on CAD to have it 3D printed but every time I say to myself “it’s finished” I think “ohh nooo I need to do this or that!” So it’s a bit of a nightmare! Haha but hopefully I’ll get something finished soon and printed out! Pull Over deserves a better Duos partner haha! So I’ll get cracking again today!

Bad Wolf

That is some sweeeet wiring. I can relate to you getting distracted by laying everything out to look nice, I'm pretty sure I nearly did the same because the black wire either gave a nice colour contrast or was the right size to fit in neatly. :P

Hope the fuse saved the NanoTwo and look forward to watching the rest of the build!

Ooh what's the new one Wolf? Excited to see it, and tbf, even though I couldnt grab, we did ok 8)

Yeah I think what's happened is I've swapped the fuse/link (luse? Flink?) To the opposite side to save a few g of wire, I'm almost certain I flipped it to put the battery connector to the middle again... like a dolt...

Thanks for all the comments too guys! Keeping it small and neat has been a nightmare, HAVS stage 1 and 50%ish dexterity in 4 fingers over winter makes things 10x more fiddly.

If there isn't any smoke or any heat when the NanoTwo is on, I'd say you were OK. I've cooked my NanoTwo by having a servo plugged in the wrong way (Ikari) so bleh. With the fuse, I'd guess you'd be OK, fingers crossed.

@Bad Wolf: looking forwards to seeing your new one!

Yeah we had no smoke, and the fuse went instantly so no time to get hot, I should have the time spare tomorrow or Monday to find out... I wonder if they're in stock... you know, just in case.

From a conversation I overheard at Ant Freeze 6, no. The problem is that the receiver used on the NanoTwo is not in stock at the moment. If you contact Rory on here, he might be able to shed some light on that.

A quote from Team Nuts's facebook.

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The NanoTwo V3s were forcibly discontinued when the small OrangeRX receivers which they were based around disappeared. Many other DSMX/2 RXs are also being discontinued at the moment, so to avoid all that, the NanoTwo LT is essentially a NanoTwo V2 (which was a cheaper and more reliable design than the V3) with servo leads attached allowing you to use your RX of choice. This should work well for many BBB teams looking to upgrade their kits.

They will be appearing for sale soon. Since the bulk of the manufacturing has been done already, stock levels should also be more reliable now.

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Boom! Cheers James, I'm not on Facebook anymore so I hadn't seen That, good to know... and hopefully I don't need one quite yet anyway... valuable to know though.

Ang while I'm on, quick teaser for Wej, a polycarb front hinge flipper with a target flip of 350g at the top most extremity, if I can get my set up to work fast enough I *should* be able to launch another ant pretty effectively, it's purely experimental at this stage but looking reasonably positive, pictures as soon as it's worth looking at!

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I'm not on Facebook anymore

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Don't blame you, I'm not on there either. I only saw that by chance as I was looking for info about the next BBB event. Even if you don't need one yet I'd still grab one as soon as you can, each batch sells out within hours & it's usually several months between batches. If I remember I'll leave a message on here next time I notice they're available.

In all honesty that's how I got the one I have, it said in stock so I just bought one ha. Cheers for keeping an eye out too!

But yeah, that faceache thing is toxic...

IT LIVES!!!!!! sort of...

Reversed the polarity and pit it back how it should be, and everything kind of works, the Vex29 is snappy and responsive, the grabber moves faster than I thought it ever would and it grabs with 750g or pressure at the tip, I'm delighted!

But now for the kind of, the NanoTwo didn't seem to survive so well, it's obviously receiving and processing the signals, but the motors will barely spin even with full stick movement, and I *think* it was beginning to get warm... damn...

Glad its kinda of working mate! Fingers crossed its saveable!

Im re-thinking my orignal idea of making an Ant weight version of Bronco, but this time Im going to have it printed out instead of making it the size and weight of a ugly tank haha

Bad Wolf

Mmm... I think the NanoTwo is toast if I'm honest, I might try and get hold of Rory through the week for a professional opinion.

Just been checking out the CAD in your post, looks good, what internals you going to be using? Sticking with 4wd?

So, no update for absolute age, sorry. Team Pushover has been at a standstill over the summer, this being a responsible adult keeps getting in the way.

Pullover is now on version 4, and I was hoping that at Botfest I could throw it in the arena with everything 100% working (previous 2 versions have all had some pretty serious weapon issues)… but even now it. wont. work. Having replaced the cooked NanoTwo with the latest version and a new receiver, my Devo 7e has decided to spit it's dummy out instead... great...

Wej the experimental front hinge monstrosity is hiding on a shelf as my building abilities and available materials can't get it below 212g whilst being stable enough to stay in one piece, so it's replacement entry for Botfest will be DerpWej, a hideously ugly and poorly build lump with a monster lifter.

As the 2 previous events the "Flagship" of the fleet is the better made of the 2, but suffering from electrical gremlins again. and the thrown together heap works beautifully. I'm spotting a pattern.

Pushover; The team mascot is now more than a box of parts, a 6mm aluminium base with aluminium angle armour supports sits proudly on the work bench, the flipper arm (paddle?) is also present, HDPE sides are cut but undrilled as yet, and the left hand drive motor has seized it's gearbox. So we have an immobile space frame of 6mm alu and 18mm HDPE that looks halfway decent, remember that pattern I was talking about? yeah...

Pics of Pushover soon once the sides are drilled on mounted.

If no luck on the Devo7e, I'll be bringing a second one with me. If you want to use that one, be my guest

Awesome stuff Scarrosaki, really appreciate the offer, obviously i’d Like to get my own working because Pullover :eek:is as yet untested, I don’t even know if it works:eek:

Feels good to have a backup though, cheers my guy!

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Originally Posted by Retroman

Awesome stuff Scarrosaki, really appreciate the offer, obviously i’d Like to get my own working because Pullover :eek:is as yet untested, I don’t even know if it works:eek:

Feels good to have a backup though, cheers my guy!

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No worries dude, give me a shout at the event if you need it and we'll see if can get it running. If you've got a bind plug though bring it, as there's a good 70% chance I'll have lost all of mine :p

Funny enough, the bind plug is currently plugged in...

If I have to wait until event day, I’ll have to manage, it *looks* like it will work, and it’s within size (same body shell as last time) and only about 130g minus 2 screws... so it passes every check except the figure-8 right now :roll:

So after narrowly averting disaster with the Devo 7e (I wiggled the power switch 8)) we now have 2 fully functional ants again!

Pullover weighs in at a hefty 129g ready to fight, I'm thinking of adding a scalpel blade to the grabber for grip and some putty for ballast under the nose, but that's all we'll need I think. It currently can wheelie on command and rocks back right up onto the rear wedge section, without the undertray it actually flips itself up onto its rear :eek:.

specs: 2s 330mah LiPo, NanoTwo, Lemon RX, Vex29 weapon controller, 700g+ (part charged atm) force at grabbing tip, still too fast for my terrible driving.

DerpWej is slightly porkier at 143g and now its stopped tearing its lifter motor off is also 100% fighting fit... if ugly as sin...

Specs: 2s 330mah LiPo, eBay antweight dual ESC, flysky rx, can lift 750g

Both fit (just) in my 97mm build cube, so breathing room for tech check.

Not as neat as last time, but also not wired up backwards :oops:, 1st pic is Pullover on left, DerpWej on right. Pic 2 is the underside of Pullover showing the ridiculous 65x55x25mm space I wanted to cram everything into, because I'm silly.

Attachment 9159Attachment 9160

Awesome, looking forwards to fighting them!

How's Pullovers weapon working now, iirc last time you were having problems with some horrific lag on it?

Ah yes, that lag was... interesting...

i timed it when I got home, from pressing and releasing the stick it was 0.6 secs to move and almost 1.4 to change direction, but now it snappy and responsive, so much so that I want to add a dead band to make it less twitchy, good power now too.

I seriously question whether DerpWej is even remotely competitive, I think our front angle is a little steep, but it pushes like a tank.

anyway, bring it on! I’ve lost to you before, I’m sure I can lose to you again :rofl:

Botfest 3 today, and mixed results for Team Pushover...

Pullover performed very well, let down only by the nut that was holding the controls :roll:. On out 3rd attempt, we finally scored (lucky) win against Bodacious Fyraan-Gaaris, and went on a good run managing to beat a few others, although lost to both Voodette, and Janet Street Porter. Ended up out in the heats but finally seem to have the robot working as it should, except when it died randomly - never just works well does it? So I have a loose connection and a dodgy power switch on the Devo.

As for Wej… well... it's going in the bin. It. Was. Terrible. I managed to be embarrassingly and overwhelmingly beaten by almost everything, I did score 3 points after Psycopathy (I think) gave up. Turns out we have some serious design flaws, with the arm down it was too narrow to push, the arm itself had to be shortened for the box and ended up too steep, and with the arm up it wheelie'd everywhere and left enough room under the front for a small car to park up. Pants.

Also shout out to Kev with Spinnahhh, I fitted a bulldozer scoop to Wej for the rumble, which he proptly chewed off, followed closely by the wires to the weapon motor!

There are plans afoot however, find the loose connection on Pullover, fix the Devo, replace Wej (Spinner perhaps?) and crack on with Pushover and see if we can't have something to display next time.

Enjoyed my little self though!

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Originally Posted by Retroman

Pic 2 is the underside of Pullover showing the ridiculous 65x55x25mm space I wanted to cram everything into, because I'm silly.

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Did you use CAD (compression aided design) there? :rofl:

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Originally Posted by McMullet

Did you use CAD (compression aided design) there? :rofl:

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I wish there was some aid... it’s turned into a freak show where I need 3 thumbs, 6 fingers, the planets to align and to hold your tongue *just right*, ideally needs a rewire to fit the new shape, but I’m lazy...

On a side note, I think I’ve found the loose connection, it seems to be the plug onto the rx carrying the bec, this particular receiver is destined for PushOver, and is a bit too big, so once my pinless rx arrives I’ll do said rewire and need less interference from the gods to get the bottom on :roll:

Also, has anyone repurposed an electric axe mech to use as a flipper? It will give me a better layout for the PushOver regarding removable body panels for access (if my pencil tells the truth anyway). Thanks.

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Also, has anyone repurposed an electric axe mech to use as a flipper? It will give me a better layout for the PushOver regarding removable body panels for access (if my pencil tells the truth anyway). Thanks.

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If it is anything like my mechanisms, I'd put a couple of pins in the gearbox housing and a connecting rod to the flipper arm to make it move. The pins will interfere in the motion of the arm trying to rotate so you'll have a "up" and "down" position on the mechanism.

Thanks Lucy, that slightly refined what was already in my head, I couldn’t work out how I was going to limit the travel, was weighing up limit switches and all sorts, food for thought... I just figured that it would be easy to get a fast flipper in the space I want, some of these axes on here are pretty scary looking for a speed and torque standing, so long as it’s based on an ace that will self right we should be good :proud:

Now then... Stripped my Devo 7e apart to see what the power switch issue was... found 2 of the 3 wires on the back of the switch were loose, no problem, just re-solder :proud: and nope... much fiddling later, I found that some of the power switch cover has broken off and was catching in the slot preventing full throw... really!? :cry: anyway, a cure is a cure...

Next item;

Pullover: Have modified the design slightly to use gears/pulleys etc... to power our front hinged flipper (well, more of a roller at this point) and was tweaking a shock absorber using hooks and springs when I saw CSB2's progress... and a drive belt, it's lighter, simpler and easier, so I may *have* to steal the idea a little.

This should result in Pullover having more torque for the 'flip', probably more speed than this awful linac, and (more importantly) more reach/swing so it might actually be able to self right!!!

Ants: Pullover is still disconnecting the power to it's own rx with alarming regularity, the problem seems to be chassis twist and unlucky placement actually pulls the plug a little, currently in process of hand filing some aluminium blocks to thread and make into rear mounts for the new undertray, that should massively improve torsional strength.

Wej: Still utterly useless and couldn't fight it's way uphill.

Ridic-U-Loch-Ness Monster: now this is the freak of the bunch, mostly under-wraps for now, but I have a burning question before I can take this build seriously, I've seen a 4-6 legged ant flipper *somewhere*, I am aiming for a similar concept, probably 4 legs at the rear driven by a motor/crank/cam arrangement, but looking at the build rules again, it won't be a walker as there isn't enough degrees of movement, but it also wont be a shuffler as it doesn't rest on its body for the 'recovery period'. The legs will sort of 'scurry' forward with the leading edge riding on the arena floor if that makes sense?

'Nessie' will be build regardless, however if it doesn't classify as a shuffler it may be of limited performance as the mechanism is likely to be reasonably heavy. If it works I'll post a vid and brag a little:p.

Leopold: the 'World's Ugliest Beetleweight' is in bits again, still not happy with the build quality and general fit and finish, you could believe it was made by a fish...

Current plan is finish Pullover's adjustments, attempt Nessie, finish Pushover's flipper, and then maybe Leopold can get a look in...

Nessie; so far so terrible, the unusual design is making it difficult to balance, and it vibrates like mad. On a separate note, the walking test bed almost works, we may have it in one piece by Christmas....

The arena is framed out and waiting for some more ply for the surface, not happy with the finish of what I have, while.i wait for the ply I need to refit the kitchen (yay), but once that's here I can resurface and rod in the base, alu angle is here for battle box frame already, then polycarb on order at payday... despite hating working with wood, I've actually quite enjoyed this.

No progress on anything else for now, and I'm trying desperately to resist painting/modifying a tx as I really don't have time atm... send help...

Sounds like good progress, can't wait to see what the arena and Nessie will look like when they are finished.

Ok...

had a couple of hours on the arena over the weekend, aaaaaand disaster... well, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, this quarter pipe is a PITA, but I have a workaround!

The problem we have is that the same ply for the floor was supposed to make the radius, preferably as one single arena floor surface, but bending it at *just* the right spot was, just nope... So I separated the 2 parts, main floor and ramp, dry bending the ply resulted in a horrible cracking sound at quite a large radius, like 500mm tall and 2/3 of the arena... so I soaked it and tried again on Sunday, we were 30 seconds from perfect and it split.

In short; we are now waiting on some thinner, bendier ply and making our own laminate and making the bend more of a preformed piece, and adding more support to the ramp in case we loose any rigidity.

Now I can see why no one else has done it, but I will succeed, simply because I want to see what happens when I drive up it ;)

Hi everybody, long time no see! What a few months, new workshop 8), busy at work, new kitchen, motorbike accident, and now a pandemic. Wow.

Updates!!! Sort of...

Arena; first up, updates on the arena, we are currently on attempt no. 7 for the quarter pipe section... and still not happy, current climate is making procurement of more wood fairly difficult, I kinda *want* to post pics but it looks terrible all half finished and unpainted. So no. Bonus: we have some lovely UV reactive paint for it now!

Wej: totally rebuilt from the ground up, backflips like Cassius :proud: although isn’t great at getting under things right now, so still a “sort of” wedge.

Pullover: loose connections appear addressed, now suffering what seems to be brown out, more reliable than it was, though that is hardly an achievement.

Nessie: still self destructing at every available opportunity, but the basics are *almost* there, it walks/hobbles, spins up and expands on cue. We have an odd vibration at high rpm, I think the balance is out, but once running something like successfully, we need a weigh in. I think we’re a touch under, hopefully enough to make it 3 legs per side, 2 is too much of a compromise, I’ve saved a few grams, but good lord it’s slow and cumbersome.

Leopold: Srapped due to general pants-ness, parts to be repurposed into something else, either better or sillier.

Pushover: Nothing. Zero. Not touched. Ashamed.

Kitchen: finished :roll:

Ill gets some pics up a little later on, probably only the finished ants, and maybe a workshop shot, of we’re lucky, it’ll be painted like one of those French girls too.

Hey Paul!

Ouch, hope your accident didn't result in anything too severe?

Updates look good, getting something to work reliably is a challenge in of itself. Love to see the UV paint on the arena! :P

Hey Lucy! No, being honest, I walked away, so I’m happy at that. Bike was written off, and I was supposed to get my new one on Tuesday just gone, but lockdown happened, not so happy with that bit. Could be worse.

Well, Pullover is being obstinate, mind of it’s own I’m sure. I’ve got a BEC to throw in to see if that cures it, there’s plenty of spare weight thankfully.

The paint should look look good if the test piece is anything to go on. Got a lighting rig to go in the battle box to give a white spotlight effect a la larger arenas, plus a UV floodlight, or both. UV reactive is planned to mark out the chevron areas and extremities so we can have blackout battles, 90s lazer quest style!