HardWired - Upgrades and general build diary

[Eventorizon]

Some of the best wheels are Banebots wheels. They come in a massive range of sizes and widths with a choice of 3 durometers [Hardness to me and you] The 30 shore are to soft for combat really unless you want to change each fight, 40 shore is used my mots people. 50 Shore is hard and reliable but on the metal floor of the arena it tends to slide a little.

Unfortunately they are a little pricey but you get what you pay for and the are Imperial so at some point you will have to go from inches to mm.

[plargen]

you must admit mine did well shoving conker against the wall in the whiteboard lol have you fixed your armour mounts on the motors yet

these are the blue wheels
http://www.bearingboys.co.uk/BZMM100...r_Wheel-8698-p

[Eventorizon]

you must admit mine did well shoving conker against the wall in the whiteboard lol have you fixed your armour mounts on the motors yet[/URL]

No, not had time but that machine is going to be broken up anyway I think. Need the money for C3 and some of the parts are good to keep better, old machines running on the GR01's and S900's

[RogueTwoRobots]

While the blue BaneBots wheels are the hardest of the three, they still have a high wear-rate and you'll have to replace them more frequently than, say, Robo Challenge blue wheels. I don't think there are many robots running blue Banebots but I'd be surprised if they slide on the floor; they're softer to the touch than Robo Challenge blue wheels and those are some of the best FW wheels available with respect to grip and push.

[PJ-27]

@ Plargen, what did you do about getting a 3/8th UNF thread in those wheels?

[plargen]

i drill the bor to 13.5mm and hammered these in

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-He...item336eb5ab67

i then used a soldering iron and a 3/8 bolt to adjust the angle if they weren't straight

[Flag Captured]

Ah, fantastic - thanks for the help, everyone!
I still need to figure out what I'm getting on the electronics side of things, then I'll have a look at the budget (about £100) and see what I've got to work with for wheels - ideally, cheapest is best, but I do like the look of those banebots ones, especially if they're that grippy. I'm wanting something that has a lot of power motor wise, and then can actually lay that power down so obviously wheels are something I really want to get right! Also, in terms of the robot itself, I'm going to leave HardWired I be, and make a completely new HardWired II, similar design but I need better armour and just a general improvement over the old design to incorporate this lifter, so I might as well with how much I'm planning to change.

And finally, I'm looking at getting a fast brushless motor/esc setup on the cheap just for a slight experiment with the old HardWired, and potential weapon system on the new one, so that should be fun.

[Flag Captured]

You know when you think of something slightly too optimistic for your design?

Well, I'm thinking of having both a spinner and a lifter on HardWired II as interchangeable weaponry, along with a set of interchangeable wheels (and side panels) so that the spinner can be invertible, and the lifter can have smaller, grippier wheels or something. Still designing the thing, but it's a thought that just randomly popped into my head, and I'd like to try something a little bit different like that.

I know the current designs are how they are for a reason (i.e. they work) but I'd like to see what I could get away with doing with this one. I'm going to focus mainly on the spinner at first, and then the lifter as a side thing, mainly because I love spinners and now that I have a (admittedly vague) knowledge of brushless motors and a basic setup lined up, it's too good an opportunity to pass up. Sad thing is that it takes up nearly £70 of my £100 budget, so I'm going to have to get really creative from now on. May just re-use some of the motors from HardWired I for now, but those speed controllers will be a pain to get with that price remaining, and I think I'll have to manufacture a couple of wheels myself now for what it's worth!

EDIT: That was a bad idea. Going for the spinner only, because it's far too much messing about to get a lifter in there too. Nice idea, but very impractical I would guess. Something for the future though.

[Flag Captured]

Right, I think I've finally got things sorted out there abouts parts wise, I'm going entirely brushless (drive and weaponry) as it ended up costing less (and taking less effort) to go brushless than use drill motors and some hacked brushed ESCs, so that's a thing now.

What I am still planning though is armour thickness - does anyone have any experience with using sheet steel in robots, and if so how thick would I need it to be for it to be viable for use? I'm looking at around 5mm, but I don't know if that's overkill or not enough... I'm still very much a newbie to not only robotics, but any form of engineering as a whole! D:

[Liftoff]

Depends on the dimensions of your robot, 5mm steel all round will be quite heavy, maybe you could get your hands on some stronger material and reduce the thickness of the armour.