Tormenta 2 - Build Diary

[Ellis]

Thanks!

Well after a day's worth of sore fingers and grease going in all directions, the new motors and gearboxes are in. There were some complications in mounting them, so it took much longer than I expected, but it's all looking pretty healthy. I'll stick the some pictures up of the

make-a-massive-mess-on-the-dining-table-fest-2013

tomorrow, which was as satisfyingly massive as I had predicted.

I couldn't drive it at any speed this evening due to noise (by this evening I mean 12am...) but creeping around it feels a world better than it did before. It's a lot smoother and the low-end finesse has doubled. From what I can feel it has lost *some* mad explosiveness but, in the single full burst I did, it still had enough power to wheelspin, which is awesome. I'll be able to drive it with a bit more confidence tomorrow, and hopefully I'll confirm my current opinion, which is that the parts were money very well spent.

Bed time I think.

[mattsdragons]

Whats uour current set up ellis? From the looks of things there is tons of power in there

[Ellis]

Until last night, 12v drills at either 18v NiMHs or 5s LiPo, 36:1 and 100mm wheels. The same tons of power that allowed us to plow through machines in the hockey game at MMM was the same power that made it so unreliable.

I have yet to test the new setup (18v motors and 24:1 ratios) in anger but I have a feeling it's still got plenty of push.

edit: oh and the pictures of the

make-a-massive-mess-on-the-dining-table-fest-2013

as promised...

[mattsdragons]

Im doing the same changes as you, though my set up never broke, everything got hotter than it should so im.interested to see how you think the mods go

[Ellis]

More driving suggests the mods are well worth it: should be more reliable, same speed, less heat, etc. ^

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We have made our own wheels. They work in exactly the same way as blue wheels, with the reverse thread screw locking against the wheel which locks onto the normal thread to hold the wheel on the shaft. The blue wheels sometimes worked their way loose but they were never an issue, they stayed tight 95% of the time. But despite cranking our own wheels down hard, harder than we ever had to before, they work their way loose. Everything is solid, in that it's metal on metal and it's essentially a replica of the blue wheels, but they still work loose.

The tread is just bike tyre, but it does seem to grip our dusty floor better than the blue wheels. The only thing that I can think of is that the added grip means that we're effectively putting more torque through the wheels, and that we've just reached the limit of the standard attachment method for drills? Does that tie in with other people's experiences? If we try tightening more we'll be entering thread stripping territory.

Any ideas? Any old hands got solutions to wheels loosening like this? Going to look into alternate attachment methods. Suddenly, though, we leave in 5 days. Eek!

Thanks.

[maddox10]

We had the same issue with Hannibalito 4.

But that's permanently fixed with 2K glue. Removing a wheel asks for a hot air gun tough.

[Liftoff]

Ellis why don't you fix the wheel to the shaft in a way similar to the way a drill chuck is fixed to the shaft. I never had a wheel coming off this way. I'm using a metal hub threaded with the same thread as the shaft, the hub will cover the whole length of the thread on the shaft. Then the locking screw will lock everything in place. Its impossible to work loose this way as long as you dont strip the threads or shear off the lock screw

[Eventorizon]

You could try Locite on both the main shaft and the counter-thread in the centre. Though I am still surprised that you are working loose an anti-clockwise bolt!

[typhoon_driver]

This is why I have opted for the banebots hex hubs with key ways this year. I lost that fight with beauty two years back because a wheel came loose. Shouldn't be an issue now

[Ellis]

Ellis why don't you fix the wheel to the shaft in a way similar to the way a drill chuck is fixed to the shaft. I never had a wheel coming off this way. I'm using a metal hub threaded with the same thread as the shaft, the hub will cover the whole length of the thread on the shaft. Then the locking screw will lock everything in place. Its impossible to work loose this way as long as you dont strip the threads or shear off the lock screw

That is precisely our setup and it works loose within about 20 seconds of driving hard...

It does feel like it shouldn't be possible but it certainly is, because it keeps happening!

We're going to try locking agents like loctite, see if they help.

And we're looking into alternatives, Gary, such as banebots hubs or in fact making our own. Hoping loctite of some sort does it, though, purely for simplicity.