Battlerats flipper

[daveimi]

I've heard they run on a spring instead of gas, can any one explain how it works and retracts? Pictures would be good if poss lol.

[typhoon_driver]

Just drop Jonno a message directly and he'll explain all.

[Inky]

First of all apologies for the size of my image.

Picture One: A Battlerat is made of lots of different pieces but it is easier to imagine them as two parts, the collective chassis and the collective flipper, separated by the red and blue on the CAD model.

Picture Two:At the back of the collective flipper there are two springs under tension which are connected at one end where the arrows point.

Picture Three: The other ends of the spring - green bar - is connected to the chassis at roughly the area where the black circle - representing a screw - is. The flipper can rotate around the bar at the top and will want to do so, due to the tense springs wanting to compress.

Picture Four: The spring has compressed, bringing the screws closer together, the only way to do this is to swing the flipper round the axle, this creates the flipping motion.

Pictures Five and Six: These two components are what pull the flipper back and release it again. After the flipper has activated the hook dangles down while the motor spins slowly until the modified axle catches on the hook and pulls it down. This means that the flipper has to rotate back around the axle, which puts the spring under tension so it wants to flip again. Once the flipper is activated again the process repeats.

Helpful?


Battlerat Flipper.jpg

[daveimi]

That's ace thanku!! How does the flipper arm go back to the start position? I understand the cam latch for holding it down. I imagine it as a winch of some sort? Or is it momentum?

It made me wonder about building a 13kg version.

[Inky]

It's similar to a winch. There are microswitches in there that stop the motor from turning too far and flipping again.

[daveimi]

That's great thanks, cool explanation! B-)