Barróg - Featherweight Lifter Build Diary

[Shooty]

​DAY 2:


in awe at the size of this bot. absolute unit

Getting the two wheels replaced as well as sorting out some last minute technical issues ended up taking up longer than I thought, from getting the gearbox shafts clean of plastic to taking the thing apart to put the wheels on in the first place. Fortunately, and after a scare with time management, Barróg was ready for fight three. This time, Drumroll also made an appearance at the event, bringing the total of spinners up to five, making for a rumble that I'm fairly certain is imprinted in the minds of many on the forum already.

FIGHT 3:



Some observations from this fight:

• Barróg was finally reaching a point where I can call it decently controlled. It still overshoots a bit, but for the most part, I was going after people who I wanted to go after, and seemed to win most pushing contests it got involved in.
• Personal highlight of the event was getting under Blinky's wedge, having one of my claws taken off by the disc, before driving full speed across the arena and into a wall. Unfortunately it seems the linac connector was undone with this hit, and so I couldn't get that all important good lift afterwards.
• Around the midway point of the fight I start focusing on Get Shrekt, and make it my mission to pit them, coming close several times but falling just shy each time. Got a nice hit in on the microwave in the confusion though (let it be known that a microwave nearly made it to the end of the fight even after getting smashed several times by everyone).
• Shortly after, I manage to get under Drumroll, proceed to ram him into the wall, and lose the battery connector again, falling dead in the water, though at least spared further punishment (despite several verts coming a little too close for comfort).

POST-FIGHT:

Needless to say, this was by far the most damage Barróg had taken yet. The wheels mercifully were still OK, just needed to be tightened a bit. The sides had gotten slightly chewed up and the wedge up front was mangled, both no doubt due to Drumroll. Blinky had taken out the right claw, and the left had great chunks taken out of it. Inside both the linac ESC to linac wire, and the battery to safety circuit wires had become disconnected. The damage was repairable though, and I wasn't deterred in the slightest, though admittedly most of that came from working next to The Honey Badger, which was, well, y'know.


A shot with a good overview of all the damage Barróg took, though the left side had far more bites taken out of it, not shown in this photo


A better shot of how the left claw looked after taking a few Blinky shots. Pleasantly surprised it held

At this point two problems presented themselves to me. the first was remounting the right claw, fixed together with a simple piece of plastic and a few screws. What was weird at this time though was my transmitter seemed to stop working, and the machine wouldn't move when turned on. Fortunately, Greg from Quantax Dynamics gave me a spare transmitter he had to test out as a thanks for me giving him two reverse threaded screws on day one for his gearboxes, and after a few tweaks, the machine was moving again. The front wedge was replaced with my spare, and Barróg was ready for its final fight of the event.


Barróg in the loading area before the final fight, next to fellow lifter/clamper Aegis

FIGHT 4:



Some observations from this fight:

• While driving into the arena, I noticed the new transmitter wasn't identical to my old one. In fact, the mixing was reversed on it, so while forward was still forward and vice versa for reverse, holding left made the machine turn right, and vice-versa. It was still fully driveable, but definitely tougher to do so.
• As the fight starts, I notice that Barróg also starts spinning at random intervals, which was a sign that something was definitely wrong.
• After a minute of doing sod all, I end up in the center of the arena, where something explodes within Barróg, a puff of smoke comes out, and it is dead, full stop. Luckily, I get shoved into the corner before too much damage is caused to the machine.

POST-FIGHT:

A disappointing final fight certainly, but at least no external damage was caused this time. After a later diagnosis, it seems that something went wrong with the linac ESC that caused it to draw ludicrous amounts of energy, possibly due to me not cutting the red wire on all but one BEC wire, where the left drive ESC then took in excessive energy through the BEC wires, and toasted the wire along with the fuse connecting it. I've reached this conclusion as when I inputted in the link again later with the left ESC disconnected, the linac ESC became hot and the battery fuse blew.


A shot of the toasted ESC. unknown if it would still work should I replace the BEC wire (I hope so)

POST-EVENT THOUGHTS:

• Fairly happy with how Barróg performed! Barring the final fight, I managed to survive one to the end, and put on a good show with the other two.
• Spinners were scary, but I found myself getting more aggressive towards them as the fights went on, and feel like I would be far more ready to face one in the near future, even 1-on-1. The body of the machine is certainly a little more worn, but functionally as good as the day it was built, am very impressed with how well 10mm HDPE has held up.
• The wedge needed to be fixed after every fight, and one of them had to be written off entirely, but they were bloody effective, and most of the damage to them seemed to be self-inflicted from bashing feathers against the walls. I reckon a more obtuse angle on the front should solve this problem somewhat, reducing effective wedge-y area but keeping it in peak performance for longer. Key point for me was getting underneath Blinky's front, a result I hope to replicate against future verts.
• The claws did well, proving useful even when the lifter wasn't working by catching other machines upon a successful charge. Nothing broke internally when one was snapped off, and I am now considering reducing them from 20mm to 15mm for weight reasons. Should still be tough enough for grabbing, will net me some nice weight, and will redesign them to alter the breaking off-point, possibly higher up, so that I can bring spares and simply re-attach broken off pieces more efficiently.
• The green front is a write off, but is at least handy for salvaging 12mm plastic off of now. The entire spine-support system needs to be redone to prevent breaks from happening again. The linac will probably go forward, reducing the speed and reach of the lifter but allows me more freedom with the supports and even increases that ever desireable crushability factor. the new support will probably be made using welds and 2mm steel angles.
• BEC's will be altered so that only one powers the receiver, possibly one of the drive ESC's. I'm going to give the linac ESC makers one more chance, and place the fuse before the ESC instead of after from now on. Botbitz ESC's are high on my shopping list now.
• While in Dublin gearboxes were the ones giving me trouble, it seems like the wheels gave me more to keep an eye on in Manchester. They hold for most of the fight, but start to come loose in the later half. I've gotten a few hex nuts now along with a wheel they slide into, but still need a way to secure the nut to the wheel. 50/50 on whether to stick with tapped plastic wheels or to transfer to nut-mounted wheels.
• All other improvements are still on the cards, notably the horizontal spinner configuration and the self-righters. I'll try to emulate Pressure Point's system, as it seems to be working well for Alan (EDIT: put down Dave first, leaving evidence of this as removing it is the cowards way out), I simply need to figure out how to secure the steel cabling to the top of the robot.

It was great to be at a UK event for the first time, and I had a blast. Next on the line is the FW champs in August, which should give me plenty of time to get the improvements up to scratch. I'm also going to be posting plans for a beetle in the near future, as soon as I get my copy of Solidworks usable again. Special thanks to Greg from Quantax Dynamics and Michael from Team Kaizen for sharing the pit with us. I hope Barróg can be the bot to represent Ireland for the first time in Birmingham later on this year!


Barróg ready for the journey back home across the Irish sea