Boner

[typhoon_driver]

Ok so for the 3rd or 4th or whatever time I'm going to try and keep a thread updated with progress etc etc.

Well boner is in a fairly battered state after the yeovil event last year. I wasn't able to make the champs as I was working offshore at the time however this year I will be there and have some upgrades to make to boner.

First out are the drill motors. They have worked well for me but on more than one occasion the plastic casings for the gearboxes split open. So it's time to go for some gimsons. I didn't want to get the plastic versions as I just didn't feel great about how rugged they were hence waiting for a metal version. Bought two 24v 36:1 ratio motors and gearboxes. To these I am using the 124mm banebots wheels. Same as the ones I previously used. However this time instead of the green ones which are far too soft and now looking worse for wear, I have gone for the orange wheels. They definitely feel far more up to the job although the green ones did last for two competitions. To mate the two I have gone for the hex hub from banebots with a 1/2 inch bore. Now this doesn't match completely with the 12mm shaft of the gimson motor (around 0.7mm larger in diameter) however with the grub screw and a bit of key stock holding the wheel in place I can't see it being an issue. It's also nice to move away from the thread and reverse screw that was such a pain when it came undone. The shaft currently sticks out beyond the end of the gearbox however I am just going to cut off the excess. I don't fancy using the thread on the end due to the large bending moment around it plus it wouldn't fit into the space reserved for the wheels in boner.

The drum is staying the same. Think it's done at least 6 competitions if not more now and is still in good enough condition to warrant use.

I'm going to ditch the electronize in favour of the hacked botbitz controllers hacked by me as I have the programming kit to do so and it isn't a difficult job. The electronize will likely find themselves in the for sale section before long.

I'm going to ditch the castle creations brushless esc in favour of an unhacked turnigy 85a esc. Basically one that I haven't hacked. I've burned out two of the large castle creations controllers in the past and they aren't cheap to replace or fix!

Battery wise I may stick with the large 5s pack I have or go up to a 6s pack or 2x 3s packs for that bit extra oomph from the brushless but time and money will tell.

Few pics below of the bot as it currently is and the new parts.







This will likely be the last outing for boner as it currently is. I'd like to redesign the chassis completely, keeping what's good about it and designing out the flaws.

[typhoon_driver]

It's half 11 and I'm done for the night. Wow that was a long day!

Boner is now wired up with the new motor in place and an additional bearing support on the main shaft as I've had twisting issues in the past. Did a spin up test earlier today and boy was it a cracker. Looking back on the data logger on the castle creations esc, the drum got up to 9000rpm and at that speed was only drawing 3amps, yes that's right, 3amps! Spin up time is basically as fast as I can turn the knob on the transmitter.

Swapped out the unusual noise drive motor for a fresh one. Need to speak to Ewan about that as it's only been run in under no load for 15minutes but i'm much happier with the drive.

Started to look at 540 at around half 9 this evening. At 10 I fired up the mill and made a motor mount from nylon. It's not tidy and it's not clever but it works and that's what I'm happy about. Rest of machine isn't an issue. Should have some fun in the whiteboards with it!

Pictures and videos below.

- 540 spin up
- boner spin up (yes that's my foot to stop it dancing off the crate)

http://i.imgur.com/5asNVR0.jpg - boner bulkhead showing smooth pulley and threaded axle
http://i.imgur.com/WmFiaDx.jpg - quick glimpse of the workshop as it stands atm
http://i.imgur.com/lJ7yFVo.jpg - close up of boner

[Ellis]

Boner was pretty rad at Yeovil last year... can't begin to understand what it must be like at 9000 RPM!? Can't wait to see it go. 540 too.

[TeamPsyclone]

Wow, they are two truly fearsome machines... I doubt a box of steel would stand up to them for long. Lucky I'm not entering, I think I'd faint to see them in the flesh-Metal-plastic. Yeah.

[typhoon_driver]

Update - Post champs strip down

Not an overly successful champs for me due to a few let downs however it was a fun champs none the less I enjoyed myself and it was good to catch up with everyone.

Spent a couple stripping down boner this evening to see what was good and bad post champs. At the end of the final white board, the drum and drive didn't work and it was essentially dead in the water.

The good
- The batteries are all in good condition although I wouldn't believe the figures that turnigy quote for their nano series. Divide the C discharge ratings by around 10 and you have the genuine figure
- The turnigy 85a speed controllers that I reprogrammed are still in one piece and work well. I can easily see these being the standard for featherweights now
- The body is all in one piece with no real damage bar the self inflicted damage on the top after it rotated into the drum
- The drum spins just as freely as ever, in fact better than it ever has
- After replacing the brushless motor shaft it's still spinning perfectly
- I didn't burn out a brushless speed controller!

The bad
- The gimsons........well I managed to nacker 3 of the 24v motors, all three went "crunchy", sounded odd and then finally nackered themselves (in two cases they went bad before they had even seen battle!). I poured the carbon brushes from one out of the cooling holes of one of them. The gearboxes are still in one piece and rotate freely enough. I get the feeling that the motors are no good being hard mounted with the all metal gearbox, it's basically all too stiff for what boner puts it through (vertical shocks)

Pics to follow.

[RogueTwoRobots]

I get the feeling that the motors are no good being hard mounted with the all metal gearbox, it's basically all too stiff for what boner puts it through (vertical shocks)

I came to the same conclusion with the GR01s I used in Drumroll last year. Even though the GR01 assemblies are Nylon, everything was so rigid when mounted that there was no 'give' in the setup and, although it doesn't hit as hard as Boner, the shocks going through Drumroll were not being absorbed in any way by the drives. Since going back to standard drills and mounting methods the problem hasn't resurfaced (just a different drive problem now).

All in all though, it's pretty good going. Coming out of the event with just the drive motors being the issue isn't the worst result possible.

[blazerbotics]

Beauty had the same issue with the Gimson, the gearbox seem fine but the motor failed (and took out 2 speedos along the way).

[Mouldy]

Being metal isn't the problem, 720 had some massive hits and the gearboxes are fine... You get what you pay for though... Banebots are better.

[typhoon_driver]

The gearboxes are fine. It's the motors that haven't lasted and that's what I was getting at, it appears as though the 24v gimson motors aren't great at take the shocks

[typhoon_driver]

Although saying that, I'm not using them again