Richie: The £50, 3 week Featherweight

[Rapidrory]

In an unprecedented turn of events, I'm almost ready for an event more than a few hours in advance!

The chassis has been completely rebuilt to make it 2 inches wider and 1 inch longer... sounds like a lot of effort for very little, but the extra width stops the motors catching in the lifter, and the extra length gives it some more stability lifting

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(Richie During rebuild)

The motors have also been rebuilt with new aluminium plates between the motors and gearboxes; should stop them bending in half so easily:

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The motor mounts are the same, but they're mounting onto a much stronger frame. The motor mount for the lifter has also been improved.

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New ESCs have been fitted for all motors due to my homemade one randomly dying during testing... The drive ESCs are not homemade, but they're really cheap chinese ones that I've heavily modified to actually work. Feel slightly bad for using bought ESCs, but they don't lock up with sudden stick movements at least.

The armour's the same old, just stretched out a little to fit the bigger chassis.

Just need to tidy up the electronics, refit the armour, and maybe add some weights at the back and I'm pretty much done
Here's a vid of some rather mediocre testing:

[shakesc]

Looking good
I'm almost ready, usually more prepared than this!

[shakesc]

New ESCs have been fitted for all motors due to my homemade one randomly dying during testing... The drive ESCs are not homemade, but they're really cheap chinese ones that I've heavily modified to actually work.

-- So what sort of mods?

[Rapidrory]

Bigger cables, noise suppression, new firmware etc...
I go into detail on it in this thread: http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...heap-drive-esc

[RogueTwoRobots]

Nice test video. The robot looks great and definitely got that old-school feel to it, almost makes me want to go out and pick up a pair of wiper motors

[Rapidrory]

Damn it house robots!

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[Niels - Team K.a.L.M.]

That is one video to watch out for

what happened?

[Rapidrory]

Featherweight house robot (Battle Axe?) hammered it after it blew it's fuse... some how tore the armour up pretty bad. Also hit the roof at some point courtesy of the floor flipper... Mechanically it's all still fine at least, which is the important part :L

[Rapidrory]

Looking at upgrading the lifter motor to something with a little more poke but without spending any real amounts of money.

Came across a pair of Johnson 600's on eBay (here) for £8.50 (or 3 for £10). Looking at the spec sheet with them, they seem quite a lot better than the 550 I'm currently running.

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Does anyone know anything about these motors; are they actually any good? If so, I'm considering buying the 3 for £10 and upgrading my drive as well (though slightly cautious about trashing the drill gearboxes...)

[Revsmin]

I'd assume they are considering the Johnson 885s Ellis got for Rango were total powerhouses for near enough £5, and they only blew because the gear ratio was wrong (through no fault of his I might add). I'd say try them and see, especially for that price!