Thread: Team Death - New Heavyweight

Another week into 2018, another weekend of building!

Before today however, Colin had spent some time with an angle grinder, retreading the tyres. They almost look like they could have always had that tread!

We started today by weighing everything, as for the past few Sundays both myself & Colin have starting voicing concerns over the overall weight of everything, so we brought out the scales, piled everything onto it, and we are up to within 5kg of the weight limit at this point.

Next, we discussed our options for the concerns raised during the motor testing last weekend, which were somewhat disappointing. Two options were discussed, we can either get some extra sprockets in the mix, and increase the ratio from 4:1 to 8:1. There is a potential issue here though, as there isn't enough space at both sides needed for this, the right hand side would fit correctly, but the left would go over to where the jaw control sprocket, chain/belt and motor is. Whilst there is space in other places to do the same but in a different place, so it might end up a bit of a jigsaw puzzle inside. Another option, is using friction drive. There is just enough room on both side to do this, without having to jiggle things about or place things in mismatched locations at each side, we reckon. Later this week, Colin is expecting a large box of sprockets, bushes and other similar items. So next Sunday we'll take a look in there and see if there is anything in there to sway our decision.

A large portion of the day was also spent drilling out holes in the scoop and jaws, after realising we may need to add extra weight as part of the drive changes, even if we don't end up going that way, the less weight will perhaps afford us more armour in areas where needed. The holes have been drilled strategically, in places where it won't cause weaknesses, such as in the jaws themselves, which will usually be within the scoop anyway.

We ended the day by testing out the motors, but removing the ESC from the equation. The roughly 50% charge LiPos were quick to spin up the wheels, although they still skidded on their new treads. The first thing we'll do next week is probably repeat the test with the ESC, and slowly increase the speed to see if we get any better control, and if with a controlled acceleration the new treads will prevent major slips. What we find in Colins box of stuff and how that test goes will take us in the future direction for the bots drive.

Some images from today;
1) The new tread on the tyres
2 & 3) The cut holes in the jaws
4) The holes on the outside of the jaw
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