It turns out that yesterday was precisely a year since I finished my first 'combat ready' machine (HardWired I, the huge aluminium box thing) and just look how far it's come in a year!

Would just like to say a huge thanks to absolutely everyone who's helped out, I really appreciate it all and it's allowed me to finally take part in combat robotics, which is something I've been wanting to do since I was 2 which is awesome, frankly! Aside from that, it's actually tempted me to switch into doing engineering at university. Not entirely sure yet, going to see how I do with my media course first (and when I inevitably fail) but that's something!


Onto the updates (or lack of, as is always the case) I've been looking at some ideas as to what I can do with HardWired III, I'm still looking at a spinning disc, but I'm not sure how to design it - I'd like something small-ish in diameter with high KE, so definitely single tooth. Part of me wants to have it some crazy thickness so it'll be quite heavy, but I'm not entirely sure.
Basic plan is to essentially have it the same design as HardWired II with some dimension changes, so it handles a disc better and works around a bulkhead construction. Unlike HardWired II though, I'm going to make this machine (as far as I can) on my own, purely as a technical exercise to try and boost my own skills - not that I don't want to work with anyone on robots, just if I can drop myself in at the deep end, I'll be able to fix my machines instead of looking at it with a cup of tea in my hand saying "it's broke tha' 'as". I know the basics already, but it can't harm!

Not sure what to go for yet though, I want to have it built for next year's champs (probably be a whiteboard machine, depending on how things go) but the materials I'd need would be quite expensive I'm led to believe, and if they're not then the cutting for them will be - primarily, the bulkheads I'm on about. Kinda want to use Alumec or something for it, but I think that's quite expensive. Same could be said of the original plan, which was to use 15mm-ish Hardox. Hardox solves all the problems.

Definitely going to use some kind of non-magnetic steel for the base though, since I'm going to be using magnets to compliment the brushless drive I'm planning to use. Take Rango and 540, mix it with a little bit of Inertia XL and that's kind of the idea I'm going for. I do have some sketches on my old laptop, but that's dead.

Problem I'm going to have is it self-righting and also fitting everything in the machine, so again there will be some Cad-ing to be done if I can learn how to CAD properly! I'll probably keep HardWired III at 6-7mm ish Hardox but only in key places (around the motors etc) so that they don't get damaged, other than that it'll be 3mm and HDPE. Basically building on HardWired II's strengths, in other words. H2 will remain just a pushy box of death though, and I intend to make it super reliable, or at least as much as I can!