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Thread: Léim - Beetleweight Spring Flipper Build Diary

  1. #31
    Fight 4 VS. Saw Loser:

    The second day of filming started with significantly less stress than the first. My heat final matchup put me against Saw Loser (Alex Mordue), a rather poetic final opponent for the heat given that Alex was the one who gave me the brushless ESC’s last time that gave Léim Thart its new effective drive. The press-on wheels that I had been using had started to loosen quite a bit (foreshadowing), so I switched to a spare set, and was able to print a new wagglestick holder to replace the one that broke last fight thanks to Chris Danby actually having a 3D printer with him at filming. All I could hope for was to last until the pit was available, and hope to get Saw Loser in, but it was always gonna be a gamble.


    Fight starts at 48:24

    The fight began, and things looked good; I was able to outdrive Saw Loser due to his gyro, and even managed to get it turned over. It recovered fast however, and one hit from that weapon left me stranded on my back, unable to move. Alex was a good sport and tried to right me again, but the fight was basically over from there, and so the win for Saw Loser was achieved. Aside from some nicks in the armour though, the bot basically suffered no damage, and due to the format I still had a chance to bring it back through the Rumble Bee!

    Fight 5 VS. Rust In Pieces, Phoenix, Claws 2, Jay, Daedalus:


    I was feeling pretty confident in having a good tussle with the other control bots in the match, but having the most destructive vert in Phoenix (Ralf Schneider) and the most destructive horizontal in Daedalus (Cosmin Gorgovan) really offered a challenge in deciding who to go for much like the redemption fight earlier (bonus fact: the Shark Setrakian joke you see in the episode was the second take, the first got a bigger laugh, but required a retake so couldn’t be used).


    Fight starts at 18:56.

    I started immediately trying to stop Daedalus from getting up to speed, though unfortunately one of the hits it managed to get on me managed to get underneath the side armour and clip the left side of the drive, crippling the bot for the rest of the fight. From here I was able to crab-walk, hoping I could outlast the other competitors and stay aggressive enough to win a judges decision if it came to that. All the crab-walking put a lot of pressure on the 3D printed wheels though, and after a while, the hub rounded out, giving me no way to generate motion, and Léim Thart was finally eliminated from the competition after surviving a surprising amount of time in the rumble.


    Léim Thart post-Daedalus.


    Though it doesn’t look like too much happened, quite an amount of damage was done by Daedalus in that last match. Outside of the bite marks in the HDPE, the drive motor mounts on the left side had cracked, the weapon motor mount had bent from the shocks, and the drive bulkhead mounting bolt was actually pulled through the HDPE base. This was all repairable, but it showed that Daedalus was no joke, and that I’d need better armour in the future to stand a chance against machines like it. I actually managed to get the bot back working for a potential fight in the international special, but that opportunity never came to be, which was understandable given the time constraints (AnnieRUOK definitely should have gotten one though imo).


    The cracked custom motor mount.


    the front of the bot where one of the bolts had been pulled through.

    Conclusion:

    Bugglebots 2019 went a lot better for me than last year, and I had an absolute blast over there both in and out of fights. Bristol is a lovely place with lovely people, and the improvements made to the competition and the show were plain to see. While the springs didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped, I at least had a bot with an active weapon in the four-bar, and the drive system outperformed all expectations I had for it. I intend to give springs one more chance one day, but I’m going to try out some different designs for the near future that will hopefully be more effective in future live events. This iteration of Léim doesn’t actually stop with this event though, as there’s one more part of the story left over…


    One last beer I picked up before leaving Bristol. Tasted good, and 10/10 presentation.

  2. #32
    Techno Events/FRA Beetleweight Championship 2019

    During Bugglebots I really enjoyed controlling Léim Thart as a wedge, and seeing that there was one more event in the form of the BW Championships in Marlow I decided to throw my hat into that for once with a build that needed little effort on my end. Being in such an awkward location, and being a little strapped for cash for the event, I had the brilliant idea of avoiding paying for accommodation by flying to Luton late at night, spending the night at the airport, going to the event, competing, and flying out that same night, all while not sleeping (Warning: this is NOT a good idea, do NOT try this, coffee can only get you so far).

    I didn’t want to enter the same bot in however, and so I elected to make a few modifications to the design. First, I ditched the weapon and increased the armour at the front and top of the bot. Secondly, I printed slightly larger rear wheels so that I could actually drive while upside down. Finally, I completely redid the theme of the bot. I had been binging a bass-themed channel on YouTube called Davie504, and his videos often featured funny challenges (eg. playing Red Hot Chili Peppers with a red hot chili pepper, playing Guns N’ Roses with guns and roses). So in keeping with that theme, I put a bluetooth speaker into the robot, and during fights, I would play a bass cover of the RHCP’s song *Go Robot*. One visit to a printing shop later, and the bot had a new identity, Go Robot But Played On An Actual Robot. I arrived, passed tech checks, and was ready to compete with little issue.




    SLAP like now.

    Fight 1 VS. X-301, Puns N’ Roses:

    This first fight was an intimidating one. Puns N’ Roses (Sarah Malyan) was a near-indestructible brick, and X-301 (Cosmin Gorgovan) was the reigning champion, and Cosmin had already been on an incredible streak of event wins, the most recent being the FW champs.


    Fight starts at 11:19

    This ended up being quite a fun fight! The bot managed to stand up quite well to the hits from X-301, and it was a dream to control, allowing me to orbit the drum spinner and keep it under pressure. Unfortunately around 40 seconds in I started to notice I wasn’t getting much traction, and one more hit from X-301 left me unable to move, triggering the count-out and sending me to the losers melee. It seems that the wheels had rounded themselves out, but this happened far faster than it had last event, where I could get two or three fights out of them. Nonetheless, I replaced the rounded out ones, and got ready for the next fight. Worst of all though, the speaker I was using was far too quiet, and you couldn't hear it during the fight at all. Dammit!

    Fight 2 VS. Puns N’ Roses, Suijin, K2:



    Fight starts at 9:56

    Usually you’d expect to fight some weaker machines in the losers melees, but this fight left me competing with two time Bugglebots champion K2 (Mark Leigh), which had fully recovered after a devastating shock loss to Wajoo. I managed to have a small tussle with him while Puns N’ Roses tussled with Suijin (Morgan Ls), and the bigger wheels allowed me to drive upside down for the first time! I kept the pressure up, but after a while I had ended up underneath K2 when the wheels rounded out again, leaving all three of us stuck. After the unstick Go Robot was officially counted out, ending the competition with an 0-2 record.

    It was disappointing to do so badly at this event, but I did learn a lot from it. Most importantly, the increase in wheel diameter put more force on the 3D printed wheels, which resulted in them failing far earlier. This tells me that for future competitions I’d need to think of new and better ways of mounting wheels. Other than that though, that’s it with Léim Thart. I mostly use the chassis now as driving practice for my dad, and while I have CAD’s partway done for a Léim Three, there’s a lot I’d need to source before starting a build. This was a fun build log, and I hope to compete at more beetle events in the future, they’re always a blast! Next time there's a Bristol event or a Battle in the 'Burgh, I'm gonna try to go for sure!


    If I ever make a Go Robot 2, this will be the upgrade done to the speaker system.

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