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Thread: Go Ugly Early (FW)

  1. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Wkdintent View Post
    Do you mean I let the HDPE base scrape on the floor, or that I could just attach something (like a dome nut) to the underside without a bolt?

    If you mean the latter, I would probably stick with a bolt, as it's one of many attaching the base to the chassis anyway.
    even if you don't counter sink the holes you don't need to use a bolt to act a caster, HDPE is slippy enough plus if you look at all other modern flippers they just run with the wedge planing the the floor. as look if you plenty of ground clearance everywhere else you should be able to drive around fine.

  2. #12
    Ah really, that's interesting. I read lots of comments about the uneven floors, I thought it best to keep the chassis off it.

    In that case it's mighty tempting to put a strip of 10mm hardox along the front. Hmm

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Wkdintent View Post
    Ah really, that's interesting. I read lots of comments about the uneven floors, I thought it best to keep the chassis off it.

    In that case it's mighty tempting to put a strip of 10mm hardox along the front. Hmm
    That is very true the floor is like a mountain range in places vut most people just power straight over, wheelie over, gyro over or find a smoother part

  4. #14
    It’s been quite a while since I wrote one of these, but work has continued over the summer.

    Firstly, I was trying to put the front wedge on a hinge to drag on the floor, but even with fire-door grade hinges, I couldn't see a way to really make it robust. So, this has been replaced by a traditional flat 6mm Hardox plate (2), which was plasma cut by Lakeland steel for £55. (Their site has an automated quote system which I found very useful). This wedge is supported by four angled struts which bolt directly into the front of the chassis, and should take some punishment. I have even designed it so that the wedge can be reversed after a battle to give a fresh sharp edge. It might be 1.3kg, but I reckon it'll be worth it.

    robot.png

    The upper ramp (3) is no longer attached to the top lid, but actuates with two beams that go over the lid allowing the bot too self right.

    On the aluminium strut sides (1) I was hoping to use (extremely cheap) triangular wooden armour, but it turns out the sizes on the website were measured in a strange way. So unless I can find a replacement, I might have to resort to flat HDPE panels, which bolt on the outside of the chassis (not shown).

    Internally I don't seem to have given myself quite enough room for everything. While the main components are ok, it's little things which I'm having the cram into small gaps.
    The servo controlling linear actuator is mounted on a bracket on the side wall of the chassis.

    Using an oversized prototype lid and base I was able to get the thing moving, only to crash it into one of my colleagues steel toe cap boots, but luckily no serious damage. Even the FrSky Rx is now giving me the correct failsafe shutdown.



    Finally, I am hoping to debut the machine at the Cheltenham event in November. Especially as I only live 10 minutes from the venue.

  5. #15
    Two weeks ago, I thought I only had a few minor things left to do, and I'd be good to go.
    Fast forward to the evening of the final Friday, and I'm still not quite there. Even though the self-righting is now working, I still need to attach the HDPE armour, which I can do on Saturday.

    IMG_20181108_220245.jpg



    I arrive early and get set up, lots of people being very friendly and chatty. There's even a lot of interest in my use of aluminium extruded bars to build the chassis.

    I'm all cued up for the FW melee, nervous and excited. I try and drive into the arena and, no movement... Turns out my newly added armour is so close to the floor, that once the bot is on it's wheels, they compress enough to remove all of the clearance. Balls.

    Removing a 4mm spacer between the wheel mounts and the base plate, I'm good to go, again.

    Show 2 and this time, not only do I get into the arena, but survive long enough to notice that I'm a) a rubbish driver, and b) struggling to do anything but a series of pirouettes.

    Afterwards, I find that the reason for the latter was that one of my 4" 'stealth wheels' has cracked around the hub, and the other hanging on by a thread. A trip to Toolstation later and I have a set of trolley wheels which will be replacements.

    Sunday morning arrives and after help from David; Paul of Team Solar Flare, and RoboteerNat, Go Ugly Early is ready to roll again, for about a minute...
    As very shortly after the start of the next battle, I see a little puff of smoke, and the return of the bloody pirouettes.

    A burnt out motor which should have ended my weekend, but a borrowed 550 (again from Nat) allowed me into the last fight of the weekend.

    And it seems I was forth time lucky, as finally nothing went wrong! I still can't drive very well, but at least I knocked a few bots over. I was having a great time, until the house robot decided to carve it's way through the arena, knocking four of us into the pit.

    Overall an awesome weekend with great people; and after I've earnt back some brownie points with the missus, I'll be back with version 1.1.

    IMG_20181111_164354.jpg20181111_174201__01.jpg
    Attached Images Attached Images

  6. #16
    After a few months of doodling and silly ideas, I began work on version 1.1. The plan was to get her ready for RL Grantham, and just in the nick of time, here she is.

    IMG_20190616_141335.jpg

    Most of the hardware has been reused from version 1, because I'm cheap and it worked fairly well. The most obvious change is the removal of the (pretty ineffective) front hinge flipper, and replaced with twin lifting forks.

    IMG_20190607_145420.jpgimage.png

    Each fork is made up of three 4mm hardox, plasma cut pieces, which are bolted together. The outer two are small, reversible pieces that protect the larger central one; which itself is part of the lifting arm. The forks are then joined together by two aluminium covers. This should mean that if one fork takes a horizontal hit, the other can help share the load.

    My company recently bought a laser marking machine, so I thought it would be rude not to decorate the lower of these aluminium covers.

    IMG_20190619_164728.jpg

    A quick test using gym weights suggests that the assembly can lift 16kg, easily covering the FW class limit.

    I've even found time to give her a coat of paint, but it seems I'm better at engineering these things than decorating them.

    Hopefully this weekend will be more successful than last time.

  7. #17
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    Looks neat, looking forwards to fighting it in the arena.

    Most of the hardware has been reused from version 1, because I'm cheap and it worked fairly well.
    I pretty much did this with Azriel. Save for the body, all of the parts pretty much came out my last Middleweight.
    Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots

    AW: Amai, Ikari, Lafiel, Osu, Ramu
    BW: Shu!, The Honey Badger
    FW: Azriel
    MW: Jibril, Kaizen

  8. #18
    McMullet
    Guest
    Looks fab! Really liking the way the forks are assembled. Also I'm a sucker for a red and blue colour scheme so I heartily approve of your aesthetic choices.

  9. #19
    Thanks. My colour choice was driven by the team Polo shirts I hurriedly made for Cheltenham last year.
    The primer underneath is red oxide paint, which now I think about it, will make the bumps and scrapes to the blue surfaces might look like bloody wounds.

  10. #20
    Thats come on nicely from seeing it last year! i love how neat the actuator sits inside the bot at full lift too! nicely thought of.

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