Magnets, how do they work?

[Flag Captured]

How much downforce does 540 end up with in those videos? To barely move after a hit from NST is pretty incredible! It definitely looks like there's a lot of performance gain on that side of things, looking into some solutions for higher powered drive, since I think drills might be usable but end up causing a few problems...

Would there be much of a performance drop by having two smaller magnets instead of one larger one? HardWired has a removable weapon bay with a linear actuator in at the minute, and will eventually have other things like a small drum on there or what have you, so I can't really have a huge magnet on the underside of that since it'll probably wreck havoc with the weapon drives - the idea would be that I'd have a smaller magnet on each side in between the two wheels either side of the machine to keep it away from everything it'd affect as much as I could. Those wheels would most likely also have some kind of thick silver steel axle as well as bearings to help ease the load, but I'm still not sure yet.

Realistically, it's not probably going to be as solid a pusher as 540 or Stag, but it'd more be as a support to the lifting capabilities - pushing stuff around is the main aim, but if I can have significantly improved grip and stability, then that'd improve performance tenfold.

Oh, and Mouldy - that sounds like a bit of a challenge there

[Mouldy]

found this calculator very useful, you can work it all out yourself;

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/calculato...calcType=block

my magnet was N45grade 50X50X20mm- 5mm ground clearance, then mounted on 2mm ti base, giving a distance of 7mm from the steel plate (arena floor) its being attracted to.

I wouldnt suggest you bother getting magnets if you have a standard drill drive, your wasting your time and asking for trouble.
The location of magnet relative to the wheels is very important... for example if you had a wedge shape robot with wheels at the back, magnet by the flipper tip... it would take the traction away from your wheels and you'd probably just sit wheel spinning.

Ideally you want a magnet next to each wheel... or if this isnt possibly, bang on in the centre of the wheel base, making sure your base is rigid enough not to flex, but obviously none magnetic so the attraction isnt effected. Have fun!

[Revsmin]

...but pushers are lame and still get owned by 720

[Flag Captured]

That calculator is exactly what I needed, thanks!

Definitely not either, I'd like to move away from drill drives - as nice as it is to have a cheap, ready made drive, they're pretty problematic even in the capacity I've used them, and I've never even fought before...
I'm thinking things through with a baseplate too, not sure which'd be the most suitable material for the job within my budget - thinking of having a rather thick 6082 T6 (I think?) aluminium baseplate if weight allows, so hopefully that'll be suitable to mount a magnet to the underside of, or something along those lines - I've seen a few magnets designed with holes pre-drilled, so that might be a way to go. Not worked out specifics yet with the drive, but I'm going to try and have a magnet near each wheel individually if I can since that'll probably give the best results - might have a play around with some designs and see what works best on paper, based on that - thanks!

[overkill]

Thanks for the link Dave! K&J have exactly what I need and their shipping is less than half of the shop I usually use.

[Mouldy]

Microgravity... After you became immobile I decided to slam drum first into the walls to try break it prior to the champs... Glad I did as it highlighted a few issues I managed to iron out before the uk's... Our fight also showed how pants the engagement used to be lol

And as for the calculator I found it pretty accurate within a few kg's of force

[Revsmin]

Yeah, your engagement in that fight was terrible. That fight helped me find major issues with my robot too, mostly the ground clearance, but also the scoop that might as well have been cardboard :P