Team Health & Safety - First Time Builder

[Zenith]

It's about time I gave you an update on proceedings... just to proof I haven't been slacking.

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With the addition of the lifter motor I thought it was time to get to the innards. Three motors needed to be soldered in, and I reckoned it would be wise to first solder some wires to the motors to simplify future soldering jobs (and god forbid, internal repairs).

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I also fiddled a bit with the rest of the internal circuitry. Place of the power plug, removable link... it was LITERALLY coming down the wire.

Now, you will noticed that the lifter motor assembly is not fixed to the base plate or any other of the chassis members - it simply slots in place between the front and back of the robot.

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The reason behind that is quite simple: accessibility. I'm not going to get my finger stuck in any impossible crevices trying to fish any wires out, so to remedy that, I chose to make the entire lifter assembly removable, and also wired on an XT30 plug to disconnect it from the electronics.

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That makes everything just a whole lot easier, I'd say.

The next hurdle was also a good one. If I wanted to get all the ESCs and whathaveyou in there, I was going to have to do the lights first as the major electronics should go on top. So much for saving the aesthetics for last, huh?

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Wiring the flashing lights proved a bit of a pain, but as soon as I figured out not to put the 4 of them in series with the power LED and its satanic resistor buddy, all was well.

You will notice (yes, a lot of noticing in this entry) that the front member is also not screwed down into any of the chassis. This is to enable me to remove the lifter assembly - the front chassis member is held in place by the top plate, which screws down on top of it. This forced me to leave some excess wiring for the front LEDs.

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Anyways, the new lights look great. I then wired up all the ESCs and went for a test drive.



Bear in mind that this assembly is missing the front wedgelets and lifter assembly, so I don't expect it to do wheelies in the future.

SPEAKING OF THE LIFTER ASSEMBLY,

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I finally got round to bending an actual weapon in there. Looks quite neat, although I still have to test the system properly.

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On schedule when it comes to weight, too. It'll be rather tight though, as it's still missing a Lipo, the front wedgelets and wheeguards in this picture. Tight spaces seem to have become a thing whenever I'm building.

With the drive sorted out though, now comes the task I dread when building.

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And that's trying to fit this spaghetti into the chassis bowl alongside the lifter motor AND battery.

Anyone got a spoon?