Team Eventorizon: Build Diary

[Eventorizon]

After an amazing time with our first entry into the UK championships I thought it would be a good idea to follow the crowd and catalog the development in the lead up to next years championships here on the forum.

Work has already begun on the next version of Conker and quite probably on another machine as well! With help from my dad we have decided to look into a new material for combat robots which will form the basis for both Conker II and his first machine.

Cellite is the material in question, this comes in various forms but the principal is an Aluminium honeycomb matrix with a layer of sheet material boned to each side. Various facing material such as Aluminium sheet, Plywood, GRP and CFRP are used. You can ask the company to face it with pretty much anything you like as long as it comes on a roll or as a sheet.

Back in my secondary school we used it to build our green-power car; some of you may be familiar with the event. Previous machines had been bolted aluminium box section and were not very light or stiff giving is load of problems. Cellite solved almost all all our problems instantly!

We have gone for the GRP or Cellite 620, same as the car, so that it is easy to bond sheets together with resin and more layers of Glass Fibre. The result should be a massive weight saving and an increase in structural rigidity...

[attachment=1:1hoxjbte]Shrapnel Top Quart View 01.jpeg[/attachment:1hoxjbte]

[attachment=0:1hoxjbte]Shrapnel Top View 01.jpeg[/attachment:1hoxjbte]

I am using an identical electrical set up, the only thing to change is the pulley ratio on the disc, from 2.6 to 3.3. My dads machine will be built using the same technique but he is looking at a lifter rather than a spinner with the same armour set up.

Hopefully using this new material will be worth the investment, someone has to try it out, and then other can use it with confidence two and improve on our designs.

Comments, ideas and improvements most definitely welcome!

Edit: Forgot to mention... Solidworks say this weighs just under 10Kg, add a kg for bonding together the Cellite, nuts & bolts, wiring, relay, receiver, mixer and solder, another kg for the top 3 pannels, cellite boned to titanium, and I still have 1.6kg to play with? Wha...

[PJ-27]

On Binky how did you guys attach the pulley to the disk and still keep the sides flush, so you could put thrust bearings between them and the bulkheads?

[Eventorizon]

The Pulley is attached to the shaft through a one way bearing which is keyed in to both the shaft & pulley. The shaft spins in bearings mounted into the disc supports. The Disc is bolted to a pair of spacers/supports which grip the shaft with a pair of grub screws. 2mm thrust bearings then go between the Bulkhead and the pulley, the pulley and the disc supports then finally the support on the other side of the disc and the second bulkhead.

I will get a pic up at some point if I can cos that reads back like a mess.

[PJ-27]

Haha, a picture would be great! I'm sure what you said makes sense but struggling to visualise...

[Eventorizon]

Quick question, I have just got my hands on a 1.2m square, 1.2mm thick sheet of Ti10 from uni biut Ti10 is coming up blank in all my google searches. There is a load of stuff stamped across it repeatedly but Its not with me atm but I will find out what it says!
So can someone tell me what Ti 10 is?

EDIT: Got my answer its grade 5 titanium, but an obscure aero grade.

[Eventorizon]

What do people think... on Conker 3 should I drop the 4WD in order to optimise the weapon or keep it cos that's the style of the machine? Conker 1 & 2 had all the weight in the wrong place. If I drop the 4WD then I could take the drisk up to 4 or even 4.5kg but then I might as well be building a drum bot like 720. As cool as C3 looks at the moment its still not optimised for combat unlike Binky or NST or 720. Thoughts?

[plargen]

would you be able to save weight by dropping 2 motors and use pulleys to drive the other 2 wheels then you could make it more compact

[Ellis]

You can have both worlds. I'd say certainly drop the 4 motors. It's not necessary unless your primary purpose is to push. Cobalt was the perfect example of 2 motors and 2 wheels outdoing the competition, though, and that was down to good design. If the wheels are "in the middle" of the machine, à la Cobalt, I imagine you can also sort of fake the steadiness of 4WD through ESCs with breaking and/or a gyro. I can see that being worth pursuing if you still want to be ahead of most competition in terms of drive.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Sorry to rip a hole in your example Ellis, but Cobalt was 4WD

EDIT: Just to add to the discussion, 2WD gives a touch more manoeuverability, which can be highly advantageous for spinners. Unless you want to have a solid back-up should the spinning weapon fail, 4WD is usually unnecessary.

[Ellis]

Sorry to rip a hole in your example Ellis, but Cobalt was 4WD

EDIT: Just to add to the discussion, 2WD gives a touch more manoeuverability, which can be highly advantageous for spinners. Unless you want to have a solid back-up should the spinning weapon fail, 4WD is usually unnecessary.

?!

Wasn't Cobalt at last year's champs 2WD?

My life is a lie! I thought it ran orange banebots wheels in the very middle of the robot for '12. I swear I saw that setup in a build thread somewhere. Or was that Diablo, then?

Oh well, forget me, lol.

Also, Alex, do you mean the 4:1 gearboxes? 4:1 drive is unlikely to work, is it? Must have a ridiculous theoretical top speed. I'd think their 16:1 is about perfect.