Team Health & Safety - First Time Builder

[Zenith]

Today was the first day of actual testing, and there immediately was a problem.

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Testing alongside Bob Saget (another of our Dutch Euro entries) the two 1000rpm motors seemed badly underpowered, with This Is Not A Drill only really able to move about slowly. With a little help though, I came to realize that yes, ofcourse 12V motors are going to have lackluster performance if you use a 2S LiPo. Borrowing the 3S LiPo from Bob Saget seemed to bring it to life, so hopefully this is the biggest hurdle to overcome in the final few weeks until the Euros.

I aim to redo some of the internals (some connections seem to have loosened up more than I like) as well as getting the lifter finally on there. I don't need to do much for that, but all in all it is also a job that can end up taking more time than anticipated.

In the mean time, I also set to work with external properties of my monstrosity.

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Gotta love matte finish on metal - it almost looks like the wedge is also made of plastic.

As it is though, my goal here is simply to get it functional and entertain. I've already learned so much through building this thing that I can't wait to put my newly found knowledge to work in a possible next installment.

But first you will have to suffer through a bit more of my mediocrity ofcourse. Muaahahaha!

[Zenith]

Oooooh good evening ladies and germs, have we got a show for you tonight!

I must admit that after testing yesterday, I felt rather dejected. The bot never seemed to struggle at all driving around at home, but once I tested it in the arena with the wedges on, it had quite a rough going. Ofcourse, the arena in question had a rough plywood floor scarred by feather, raptor and heavyweight fights, but compared to how other beetles drove around I felt it needed to fare much better than it did.

Lending a 3S battery seemed to solve much of the niggles, but still I felt uncomfortable. Part of me was already looking where it had gone wrong (as it turns out, I didn't go for the 25mm 1000rpm motors but for a smaller variety) and even contemplated a rebuild.

but today, I chose to grit my teeth and soldier on, determined to find out whether I could find out what was the matter.

The first issue was mixing. I want to drive with 1 stick, but presently, forward is North West and backwards is South East. As it is, the Spektrum DXe can only be programmed with a special cable which sets you back over 20 pounds. Ouch, but alright, that should be no biggy.

Second issue was the drive. When going forward the left seemed to lag behind, so I ran through the internals. As it turned out, one of the motor connections was loose, so I resoldered it and that was that.

Aside from the switch to MOAR POWAH I also learned another simply trick from other teams. You see, my link is rather far into the bot, which makes prying it out quite fiddly.

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Easy enough - just attach a tie rip at the end. Job done. Check out my color coding too - a mindnumbing nerdgasm.

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Much better.

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Now, when it comes to the insides I'm pretty much done at this point. Ofcourse, there's going to be a bigger battery in there (which I already fitted and well... it fits) and the servo prong will be longer and made from aluminium.

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This did mean though that after a year of tinkering and save for a few minor alterations (and a BANGING PAINTJOB OFCOURSE), This Is Not A Drill was done.

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The inside of the lifter, and everything seems to fit just so. Let's have a hurray for Cardboard Assisted Design! I'm still contemplating on running an extra arm between the servo and lifter arm for more power, but this really hinges on how the aluminium prongs will do. I'd rather not physically attach the lifter to the servo if I can help it, simply to avoid shock damage finding its way inside.

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There's weight enough for it though - it's 1200g in its lightest setup (with a few bolts missing, so 1250g to be safe).

However, there was still one thing eating away at my brain. How would it drive with all the titanium in place, as heavy as it will probably have to be in September? I chose a smooth floor, and hoped for the best.

You be the judge. Bear in mind that this still is with 2S.



I need to still do some work on the other anti-spinner setup (that requires a shorter lifter blade) and I'm probably going to engineer some kind of a belly-pan to make sure all of you drum spinners don't eat the screws that are protruding underneath.

And I can go crazy with the paint too! Wheeeeeee!