FHQWHGADS

The robot that laughs in the face of the pit. After a pair of rushed Fhqwhgadses I actually started this one early (though still did the bulk of the work the night before because procrastination) and opted for a more competitive 4wd setup, with wide wheels and 4s for punchy, fast drive. The idea was purely to have a competitive pushbot core with the wide catcher style design of Fhqwhgads 1 and 2, and it worked actually surprisingly well. Far better than I thought it would! Once again, thanks to Rory for un-nuking this thing and to Ceri for the controllers that made it work. Unfortunately BB10s don't like 4s...

Fight 1: Vs Fat Lip/Mr Snappy 2/Newton



Having encountered weight issues earlier I was left unable to actually fit a lid to Fhqwhgads and instead ended up taping the electronics in. Bad move. Early signs were rather promising - it was fast and able to push things which made it automatically 50 times better than the old ones. Unfortunately, despite me sticking a Ranglebox sticker on the back of the machine Newton carved into my electronics and rendered me out. Granted I did charge into the disc but oh well. It turned out that large pieces of ESC were no longer actually on the esc, something that Rory managed to use legit robot necromancy to cure and get the thing actually running again, which I was rather amazed at given the state it was in post Newton. Also managed to take some of the weight out of it to fit a .5mm polycarbonate lid - not enough to save getting axed but enough to prevent death by spinner again! Point of note too, I felt extremely bad for this fight as I found out during the fight there's no unstick rule in the 4-way matches, hence Newton was stuck on the guts of Fhqwhgads with no way out...

Fight 2: Loser's Melee Vs Lynx/Spin Cycle



Two very dangerous spinners here - had to play this one very cautiously indeed. The speed of the machine definitely helped here - managed to get at Spin Cycle before it got up to top speed, though it did land one good hit on the catcher which I think bent it down onto the floor, but otherwise did something to slow the machine down a tad (never really figured it out but it was never the same the rest of the event, slight drag on that side). Lynx got pushed about a bit, landed on top of the robot (and scarily close to the link) before being thrown off and Spin Cycle ended up in a corner. At that point I decided to go for Spin Cycle to get back at Jamie for breaking all our things at the Scotland KE event back in the Summer, but also because out of the two it's probably the one I'd least have liked to fight again since I've seen what it did to the 20mm block of HDPE on Fhqwhgads 2... As it happened, it appeared to lose the drive to the disc, followed by a whole entire wheel. In the pit, job's a goodun!

Fight 3: Vs Fat Lip/ Surprize



This one was a pushing match - I think Surprize had some kind of drive issue and was pitted quite early on by Fat Lip (note opportunistic nudge attempt lol) after which it was a very close fight between Fhqwhgads and Fat Lip. No idea what it uses for wheels but I honestly couldn't push that thing at all! In the end, it was a lucky bit of miscalculated driving from Fat Lip that put it on the edge of the pit, otherwise I'm not sure which way it would have gone on a judge's decision...

Fight 4: vs Limpet XS (Quarter Finals)



Into the knockout stages! Limpet has a pretty faultless record at these events, so this was definitely a fight I was dreading. By happy coincidence however, the wedge on Limpet is higher off the ground than I thought and Fhqwhgads got straight underneath - I knew all I needed after that initial shove was to keep that front facing it, and the catchers definitely helped block Limpet getting round the sides. One lucky push across the arena saw Limpet in the pit, and Fhqwhgads through to the Semi Finals!

Fight 5: Vs Spinza (Semi Final)



Spinza is a pretty fearsome robot when it gets spinning, so the main tactic here was to just not let it spin. Unfortunately, it looked like it had a few problems on startup which was a real shame but meant I could get in to push it about a whole lot more. Despite being predominantly a spinner, Spinza has quite a nice drive behind it, meaning it was a lot more awkward to get anywhere but in the end the catchers did a nice job and helped me keep a hold of Spinza just enough to send it into the pit. Had Spinza's bar gotten up to full speed, I have no doubt this would have ended VERY differently...

Fight 6: Vs Flatulence (Grand Final)



This was the point at which the nerves came back - this was the first event where I'd actually achieved some success but I never thought it'd be this much success! Flatulence is a VERY good robot, simple but reliable and exceedingly efficient if the Scotland KE event was anything to go by. There'd be no shame being second here...

Pre-fight I opted for some Anti-Flatulence duct tape (well that sounds weird out of context) cross the bumpers, but this ended up putting me overweight. I tried without the lid but still just slightly over, so the bumpers got cut off to prevent flatulence having any points to hook Fhqwhgads on like it did to #2, and as Jamie demonstrated pre-fight (cheers! )

Despite the main worry being dealt with, Flatulence's scoop was actually able to get under Fhqwhgads's paint scraper, and I also had electrical problems during the fight meaning the machine was a bit twitchier and sometimes unresponsive, something I still haven't quite figured out... The fight progressed as you'd expect, both robots circling each other trying to get into a position to push the other into the pit, thankfully the catchers helped keep Flatulence on the scoop whenever I got the opportunity. With around a minute left of the fight, I thought I was losing on points so needed to finish it with a knockout. One bold move and that was that, 2015 Champion!

Like I said earlier, there'd have been absolutely no shame whatsoever in losing to Flatulence, Jamie's a very good driver and it definitely could have gone either way by the end!


Post champs, I've since taken Fhqwhgads apart to take a look at it and it is in dire need of a few things - namely, new speed controllers (the 30a monsters in there are needlessly huge) as well as replacement motors as one of them seems to only work sporadically, and I also need a new sheet of 2mm HDPE for some replacement bumpers. It'll be back for more when Kinematic do more events, but until then it's sat on my shelf looking a tad sorry for itself. Next plan is to work on the 4th incarnation, that I'm hoping will incorporate a sawblade arm with some luck - will need a rebuild from this chassis because of weight reasons but the basic idea will stay the same!

Once again, thanks to the KE crew and all the teams who took part, extremely fun event and it's great to see how the beetleweight class has progressed in such a short space of time!