DAY 3:

This day was a total rush, and 80% of this was all centered around getting working wheels, including such things as dismantling half the robot to get to the rear wheels (a real design fault). It's at this point that I need to explain how the wheels were mounted. They were hard plastic, tapped onto the shaft of the gearbox, and held on tight with the reverse-threaded screw and a washer. I thought that these would be the point of failure before anything else; in reality they worked too well. I was unable to screw the wheels off, as I had nowhere to grip onto the gearbox that would stop it spinning. This meant that the front motor brackets were stuck in between both the wheel and the broken gearboxes, and if I couldn't get those off, then I wouldn't be able to mount the new motors.


A shot of a wheel held in place by a reverse-threaded screw and a washer. Notice the crack as well.

In the end, I ended up having to cut open both gearboxes, and use a vice grips on the inside of them to finally, slowly, remove the wheels. After dismantling both drills, the soldering of new connectors, and the dismantlement of the entire machine, followed by reattaching the wheels and rebuilding the machine again, I didn't even have enough time to hammer the steel front strip back in place, and so opted to use the replacement one instead. I also used zip ties across the metal pins so that they wouldn't fall out this time. I tested everything and was back to being fully operational in the nick of time.


Node, in the best condition it had ever been.

The final fight would be a 6-bot rumble, including Node, whose machine was finally working (sort of). I brought Barróg to the arena, armed up, and was ready to fight.


A shot of the six, ready for battle.

FIGHT 3:



Some observations from the fight:

  • The opening was a total disaster. Cicatrix and Carcinus each ended up stuck at certain points, Node didn't move at all, and machines were being misnamed left and right.
  • Almost immediately, I noticed I had lost a rear wheel, and as a result I couldn't drive straight for the entire match. Grr!
  • I started to shuffle towards Node in the hopes of parading them around the arena, but couldn't get a grip on them due to my missing wheel.
  • Speaking of Node, they died immediately, and everyone ended up laying on them at some point in the fight, which leads to my favourite shot of the whole event at around the 3:40 mark: Node is flipped by a charge by Beauty, Tilly Pecker starts going mental on them, I try to drive in and save them but can't keep the machine straight, and then one more charge from Beauty straight up kills the LED's.
  • At around 4:45 I try to go after Tilly Pecker, as we had both won our rumbles and were competing for the grand title (or whatever could be considered a grand title for whiteboard rumbles). This leads to 5:20, when I start getting whacked relentlessly, and I even try raising the lifter just to take a few less hits to important areas.
  • At around 5:45, just as cease is called, Barróg gets flipped over for the first time, and in a position I cannot recover from as well. Fortunately, all the weight below meant that a light nudge was all that was needed to right myself again, so this is a good sign for future friendly matches!


POST-FIGHT:

The main thing I was interested in was to find out how I had lost a wheel early on. As it turned out, I had simply forgotten to re-insert the reverse-threaded screw which held the wheel in place, and as a result the wheel came loose. It still supported the machine from dragging on its corner, but the threads were completely shattered as a result. I also took far more damage this time as well thanks to Tilly Pecker, which left marks mostly in between the two front grabbers and at the back-right corner of the main face.


A shot of the front of Barróg after the fight.

Fortunately, outside of the cosmetic damage, everything still worked fine. The electronics hadn't failed at all during the event, and despite running on three wheels for the entire fight, the gearboxes and other wheels came out without a scratch, so I've finally gotten a reliable drive.


A shot of the underside of the lifter where Tilly Pecker kept hitting me. Look at that crack!

POST-EVENT THOUGHTS:


  • Upon returning from the event, I discovered that low batteries were the reason my transmitter wouldn't turn off. I was confused by this, and still am to an extent (I've never heard of something refusing to turn off on low power, usually it's the other way around). I'm going to give the transmitter one more chance at Manchester on a new set of batteries (beats spending triple figures on a new transmitter!).
  • I was pondering for a while how to get wheels off of the gearbox shafts, even thinking of cutting a slit down the center of them to allow for a flathead screwdriver to grip. It was only after the event that I realised I could just run the motors while holding the wheels, and they'd just screw off that way. Oops, knowing that could have saved me some money in broken gearboxes! I now have a setup for doing just that using a scrap piece of HDPE.
  • I need to come up with a better way to prevent Barróg from getting beached, while still meeting the weight limit. Possible areas for losing weight include more holes on the front green piece, and more holes at the back, covered with a strip of polycarb to protect the internals (though polycarb has a higher density than HDPE, so I wouldn't be saving much unless I was using very thin polycarb).
  • I'm planning to have an alternate configuration for Barróg, where the front wheels and the two front grabbers are replaced with just the front and a nice thick piece of Hardox along the edge. Mostly for spinners, I just need a low-weight way for mounting some free-wheeling wheels along the front.
  • I'm also planning to drive some screws through the front grabbers for better purchase when grappling something, I noticed machines would slip out very easily.



A shot of the dismantled Barróg, before cleaning the pieces of the dust accumulated.

Before ending this post I'd like to thank many of the people at the event who helped me along. I'd like to thank Peter Redmond, Dr. Zulu, and all the event organisers for organising everything and helping the show run along smoothly. I'd like to thank Simon Harrison and Natsuko Hori, who were both so lovely and friendly, Jamie and Tony for helping out with any of the technical problems I faced and providing certain tools, Shane for also being very helpful with knowledge and just beign friendly, and the Prophet family (Team Ironclads) for recording the entire event. I'm hoping to bring Barróg to Manchester later this year with whatever improvements I've made to it. I'm also trying to design my first beetle, which should hopefully make it to the Euro champs later in the year. It was a great event, and I'm hoping to return again next year!

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