HardWired II

[Flag Captured]

I'll have a look in Halfords next time I'm there with regards tires, probably going to try and make something from the bike tread I have already, but it's not too different from the stuff I already have that has shredded on the wheels. If worst comes to absolute worst, there's always Banebots - they're expensive but the amount of people that use them has got to speak volumes for their effectiveness. I'm sure I could adapt those into my existing setup!

I won't bin the drivetrain either, I'll still have it but there are potential huge benefits to brushless if I can work it right. They have more power, are smaller and are lighter than the equivalent brushed motors, only downside being that there's the delay and torque curves... I could try and use some sensored motors, but I don't think there's anything like the NTMs with a Trackstar ESC for sensorless technology, and if there is it's beyond my price range. If the brushless drive works nicely too, I'm definitely using it in HardWired III. If not, there's always brushed alternatives. The basic idea of HardWired III will be similar to Rango - rambot with a disc- so high powered drive will be pretty much a must.

In other news, after a bit of a chat with a friend, I'm going to try and prep HardWired I for a championship too, since that's surprisingly still somewhat intact. Would just want a new chassis made (out of those leftover bits of HDPE I have) along with some new batteries/ESCs and we'll be sorted. It's already got it's lifter actuators in there, but I'm tempted to convert it to an LP flipper if I can make a dirt cheap setup using fire extinguishers and servos/valves... Again, I'm going to try and add armour to make it completely OTT as I think is becoming pretty standard for the HardWired machines (the old version of HardWired II ended up with like 60mm HDPE or something crazy) but the only difference is that it'll have 4 wheels... it's actually being adapted for a friend of mine who's getting into combat robotics and wants to go to a few events, so I'm going to try and make it a reliable brick that's pretty easy to drive. It's just a drill box at the very heart of it, really, which is ideal. I'm not going to be doing all of this on my own, but I'll be doing a sizeable chunk of it most likely, inbetween upgrades to HWII and building HWIII. Shouldn't be too difficult though, I already have most of the dimensions ready made, just needs everything cutting out from the existing templates and bolting together, should take a week or two if I can get a good run at it.

So, plenty to do this coming year!

EDIT: I've just realised it's like update central round here at the minute haha, this'll be the last of the proposed updates posts for a while, had no idea I'd done this many of them...