Whos doing what to what before the next event......

[cliveb]

Team Toon Update

Alex has had a word with the Commander in Chief, and it would now appear that I might be given a second chance in a whiteboard at Portsmouth.

Toon Raider had an intermittent wiring fault at Worthing, so I shall be working my way through the wiring loom trying to find a broken Anderson or section of cable, replacing with new ones as I go.The repaired gearbox seemed to hold up ok so hopefully I can give it a good test out at when I have sorted the wiring.
Hopefully we will be putting in a Victor Regulator to try and get a bit more pressure to give the flipper that little bit more oomph.Finally i might give the paint job a touch up as Ripper scratched it and left a green smear down 1 side.

Clive

[Ianshock]

Well...after Worthing, Maelstrom needs some work. So I have been advised by Team Principal to focus my efforts on the following upgrades.

1. New flipper lever arms. The imense power of the 600g buffer upgrade (!) has resulted in the end of the flipper arms to push thru the 20mm steel tubes. Never had these fail before....but the old girl had 3 OOTA at Worthing so not bad

2. 2 x motor fires. Well we thought chaffing (you know how i suffer) but 2 direct shorts on both motors in 2 fights does seem a coincidence. These 400w mobility motors only done 1 event...so maybe the bog std wiring aint up to the job. Will replace the 2nd brush housing wiring before having to rethink (and avoid refitting the old knackd littons)

3. Re tab 2 x battery packs with deans straps. Due to 2) above we blew 2 battery backs - tabs came undo - the amazing Wotty survived both attacks. If 2) above is due to motors drawing too much current we'll have 3 evacuations of the arena in 3 fights ! Might try and get a clamp meter to see what these beasts (!) are drawing.

4. Try out a co2 bottle lever modification to a screw top type design. Team Principal will post the result...probably already done but thought of a simple solution to save swapping the tap fitting. Doenst modify the valve in anyway so maintains saftey etc.

5. Team Principal has had 1.3m x 1.0m sheet of 4mm hardox delivered. 45kg but couldnt get any 3.2mm for love nor money.
Assuming 'Mummy' of Team Principal allows me 'robot play time' (BTW 1 robot minute = 30 earth minutes) then I might have started the gearboxes for the bosch 400s for the new Team Shock h/w.

6. Off to the US for work week after next...dont bother asking shopping basket already full from robot marketplace. Can resist a little robot $ spend !

Anyway TGIF. Cheers Ian

PS appreciate any HEAVWIEGHT teams responding to A123 post and can just recommend which Chinese supplier to go for !

[robotwars]

Ripper has now finished it's upgrades ready for the demo tomorrow, think it's finally going to blow itself apart !

Ian, might be interested in some a123's if your getting some and I need to save some weight before the next uk champs and will need nicads for my new heavy I'm about to start !! Keep me posted as I might tap onto your order and we can maybe get a discount.

Malice boys have some I think !

[jonny]

i might be interested in tagging onto the order too

[mattsdragons]

i might be interested in tagging onto the order too

same here

[Team Invade]

We were quite pleased with Eruption's performance for a first event, although we have found a few teething issues that need to be sorted:

Adding a skid - During the Saturday shows, it tipped back while driving making it practically impossible to get under anything. For the Sunday shows we managed to create a temporary skid, which made it work a lot better. This however is not a temporary solution, and we need to make a hardox skid of the same style before the next event.

Re-routing the bungee cords - The bungee cords which we used to pull down the flipper were fastened towards the front of the robot, which we believed to be not a problem. After testing though, we realised that they did not pull down the flipper arm with sufficient force and leaving it not fully closed. We are going to re-route them so that they pull the flipper arm straight downwards, which we believe to be a better method.

Anti-balance device - We discovered during the Worthing event that the robot balanced perfectly on it's lower back panel. This is obviously a major problem as it leaves the robot stranded (and in worse cases immobilized). We need to find a way to stop it from resting there. We a currently un-decided on how to do this, although we are thinking of using ballast in the front end of the robot to tip it down, as we have approximately 10kg to spare.

[terry]

ps any HEAVWIEGHT teams responding to A123 post and can just recommend which Chinese supplier to go for !

I did reply, I didn't think £6.60 per cell from uk was a bad price, ive ordered them from china and they are unreliabale with delivery. I also only bought them in 12's as its too much if it gets lost, didn't want to get
stung with import tax either :wink:

[craig_colliass]

Sorted out Tron (the boring box )
One of the pins from the gearbox had come loose and jammed the motor and then blown one side of the Wotty. changed another motor and gearbox as well all OK. I'm looking for some 9.6v or 12v drill motors if anyone has any.
Work on Seraph had to make another angle bracket for the hub cap spike, after being run over by Major Damage and then the RL floor flipper it broke!
Still waiting on some parts for Saint, Cherub will need a bit of welding but nothing much. Will order some more split links!

[robotwars]

This thread needs renaming roboteers diary !! Interesting though !!

Didn't test rippers new gas system at the robot party as it was raining outside, so just did my usual trick of terrorising kids in the village hall with it driving around.

Will be tested on Monday morning now and then next weeks mission is some TLC for Matilda, Smidsy, finish the etek powered gokart im
Building for a school project, and carry on collecting bits for Mincer my new heavy !!

[cliveb]

I forgot also got to put a dip tube in the gas bottle