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  1. #1
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    Hey Everyone,

    New year, new starts and all that. 2018 was a busy old year for me for a whole host of reasons. Finally went into not one but two FRA championships and learned a heck of a lot in terms of mechanical and electrical elements (I can solder properly now! :P) in competing over 4 weight classes. For 2019, going to combine all the build diaries into one thread as so to not clog up the forum any more than needed.

    Links to previous build diaries:




    With that in mind, let's move on. I've been umming and ahhing about changing the line up but since Shu! got obliterated at the 2018 BW Euros, I've needed the time off from intense robot building to reconsider the way forwards for Team Kaizen but first, a run down of the current robots:

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    Antweights
    I've not explicitly written any build logs for the Antweights here. I've currently got three, those being Osu, which was made as a technical exercise originally to see if I could build one at all. Turns out I could so ended up making it a proper Ant. Made from a recycled Skittles tub.

    Ikari is my bar spinner which is currently undergoing a rebuild. 1400kv brushless outrunner motor driving the bar, 30:1 N20 motors driving it. My intention is to rebuild it out of 1mm polycarbonate this time around rather than a 3mm PVC base plate and 0.25mm HDPE. Ironically, despite the bar blade flying off, this has been the most successful AW I've built. It's won a heat match and a side event at the BotFest pilot.

    Ramu is a Shakey build 2WD rambot that was formerly under Greg's ownership (http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/thre...eight-for-sale). I've been wanting to get this back into the competition circuit but I need a DSM2 transmitter for the older NanoTwo receiver in there.

    There is a fourth one I am working on for the upcoming Ant Freeze event if I can get it done in time, Amai (Japanese for sweet) which uses 50:1 motors and I've yet to decide on the weapon for that one. Will be using a Cadbury's Heroes sweet tub as the armour (see a theme? :P)

    Shu!
    Shu! has been dismantled and after examination, needs a whole host of new parts for the drive motors to repair from the damage it took during it's two outings in 2018. I've already got a few panels of 6mm polycarbonate to build a new body with (definitely not PVC again!) but it won't be going to the UWE event in February unless I can find the time to sit down and get the bodywork built.

    The Honey Badger
    If you were at EXR Manchester 2018, I don't think I need to say very much apart from BIG HITS forced the retirement of the 2.x version. For those that were at RL Grantham 2018 or at EXR Guildford 2018, you might have spotted the lesser well known 3.0 variant of The Honey Badger which was a nice idea implemented terribly as it kept on chewing up its motor bolts and just didn't work.

    I know why I built it that way but I ended up hating it and eventually put the 3.0 version out to pasture along with myself from the FW scene for the rest of the year. Since then, I mooted making The Honey Badger a Beetlweight but I've decided to keep it in the FW class and make 4.0 similar in design to the 2.x version. In theory, barring a receiver, I have all the bits to make it out of 10mm Polycarbonate, Nylon 6 HS and HDPE, including motors to come from...

    Kaizen
    Kaizen, for those that don't know, came 6th in the FRA Middleweight championships I think. However, if you were at EXR Chatham 2018 or EXR Cheltenham 2018, you might have noticed that above it all, the axe sucked and at the end of the Saturday at Cheltenham, it wasn't moving properly. Turns out it blown up 2 of its drive motors. I did moot changing them to brushless drive but in the end, I've decided to stick with brushed drive for the time being and change the motors to CIM motors.

    However, this warrants a full rebuild, the parts for which are slowly coming together. It'll end up being slightly shorter than it is now but more solidly built.
    ----

    So, 2019 will have a few changes. Since Osu, I've been sticking with Japanese names for the robots, largely because of the team name but for a little while, I've been looking at different names as it can be tricky to find a Japanese description that works as a robot name in English and I've been wanting to try something else.

    In line with this, I've been building a new Beetleweight for the UWE event which is going to be called Azriel, which has been build largely with offcuts of material from the BotFest arena and the original build of the Middleweight. I've not finished it but will probably furnish this one with a spinning bar blade.

    DSCF6709.JPG

    Finally, Kaizen is no longer going to be called Kaizen. In keeping with the angelic theme for my "serious" robots, Kaizen is now going to be Jibril. That robot will be receiving a raft of upgrades, including a new axe (the one on there now is from The Honey Badger 2.x!) and axe motor, re-securing the side armour so it doesn't bend anymore and replacement wheels so hopefully it won't burn itself out turning anymore. As noted, it'll eventually be replaced by a new build but I hope to have Jibril ready for RL Burgess Hill.

    So just to summarise, the current roster looks like this:

    AW: Amai, Ikari, Osu, Ramu,
    BW: Azriel, Shu!
    FW: The Honey Badger
    MW: Jibril
    Last edited by Ocracoke; 8th January 2019 at 15:47.
    Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots

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

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