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Thread: Build Log - Bread Dead Redemption (FW) - First Build.

  1. #51
    Mr Manuva27
    Guest
    Wheels are now secure!

    I bit the bullet and bought a pillar drill from Screwfix, some 120mm trolley wheels and some 3/8th bolts from a Land Rover Defender. A quick blowtorch and heat press later, the wheels are on!



    It works, but seems to be pulling off to the right at low acceleration. I'm hoping that this is just the wheel catching on something and not something more serious. A thought in my head is that I've managed to lock the gearboxes in different gears, but I'm not sure if that's even possible.

    I've applied for Robodojo now, so pressure is on to get finished!

  2. #52
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    Jibril does pull as well under low acceleration as well. Think Azriel does as well. I would try driving it on a piece of plywood or something to see what happens then. Uneven contact along the leading edge of the robot may also contribute to this.
    Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots

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

  3. #53
    McMullet
    Guest
    If they're normal Argos drill motors the gearboxes are single speed, so no worries there! I've found going in a straight line at low speed a challenge too, I think basically what happens is that the motors are slightly mismatched (not sure if the drill motors have equal timing, if not that would be a guaranteed mismatch) so that when you're just putting a teeny bit of power on one motor starts running and the other doesn't. When you put a bit more power on the effect is much less pronounced.

    Basically, if you're at say 25% throttle or so (let's assume the motors will start turning at abut 3V) they're on the cusp of starting, so a small difference between them is very pronounced if - again pulling numbers out of the air for illustrative purposes - one actually starts at 2.9V and the other at 3.2V. In that case one is turning and other is not moving at all, so you'd just go in circles.

    To cut to the end... Same thing happened to me, I adjusted the trim on the Tx a bit and it seemed to be OK. I recommend tweaking the trim with the wheels off the ground so you can see when they start to move.

  4. #54
    Mr Manuva27
    Guest
    So the robot is pretty much done! I've got a few other minor bits to sort, but there won't be many changes from this between now and Robodojo.

    LiPos, fuse and LEDs are wired in:

    IMG_20191116_185838.jpg

    Dustpans fitted on to the front:

    IMG_20191118_152223.jpg



    I've taken Sam's advice and adjusted the trim on the Tx and it drives much better (Thank you both Lucy and Sam for your comments on this, really put my mind at ease).




    A few little bits still to do:


    • Fit polycarb panels to front, back and sides of the toaster. This may change to mild steel, depending on how I get on. I quite a bit of weight still to use (currently 7.5kg).




    • Add extra bike tyre to the new, larger wheels. Whether I have the space within the wheel guards to do so is a different matter.




    • The dustpans have a fair bit of ground clearance due to being mounted straight on to the chassis, which kind of works against their purpose. I may get some hinges and attach them through those to scrape the ground more.




    • Figure out armouring the top panel. I want to keep the slots because it needs to look like a toaster, but I'm also very wary of axes. I either put a polycarb panel across the top (which means no toast making in the arena ), or have the same size panel just above the mounts and have the top half of the toaster as "sacrificial space". Either way, this is the main route of doing maintenance on the robot, so needs to be kept easily accessible.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  5. #55
    McMullet
    Guest
    Looks marvellous! Looks... toasty in fact. Great job getting it up and running.

    Could you fit a polycarb panel to the top with some (decorative) slices of "toast" sticking out? Just cut from foam or polystyrene would do it, or even something more solid since you've got weight to spare. That way you could have a bit more protection AND maintain your delicious toasty aesthetic.

    (By the way, is anyone else expecting this to have the personality of Talkie Toaster from Red Dwarf?)

  6. #56
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    Looks very good, well done!

    (By the way, is anyone else expecting this to have the personality of Talkie Toaster from Red Dwarf?)
    Ah, but which version of Talkie are we talking about? Definitely looks like the Series 2 version, just needs a light on it :P
    Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots

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

  7. #57
    Given that the universe is infinite, and God is also infinite... Would you like a toasted teacake?

    Talkie would be a brilliant personality for this machine, red paint and an led panel would make a passable “mk2” talkie like series VI.

    Edit: Huge Red Dwarf fan, sorry
    Last edited by Retroman; 18th November 2019 at 23:40.

  8. #58
    Great design-very much in the style of the early Robot Wars series where wedge shaped Robots

    were frowned upon, well done, your Robot has personality, more like this please.

  9. #59
    Mr Manuva27
    Guest
    Event Report - Robodojo December 2019

    The moment I had been waiting for had arrived. The debut of Bread Dead Redemption.

    Saturday

    In the days building up to Robodojo, I had been frantically cutting and bolting polycarbonate on to any exposed parts of the toaster that I could. I elected to put polycarbonate under the toast slices on the top at the expense of decorative toast, which with Midas and Pressure Point attending, I figured my decision was justified. Work continued well in to Saturday afternoon, until the point came to pile everything in to the car and set off for our hotel.

    On arriving at the hotel, a few beers watching I'm a Celebrity, then Match of the Day, then bed.

    Sunday

    Early start on a freezing morning in Sherburn in Elmet. Roger and I gave a hand in setting up the arena, which certainly helped warm us up. I brought Bread Dead in and found a spot on the end of a bench including Mecha Sombra 2, BOB 3, Lunatic, Ensign Wedgeley Crusher, Blue Moon, Vettel's Vengeance, Crota and Toothless.

    Attachment 9329

    Tech check passed, that called for a sausage barm and a cup of tea.

    Round 1 - Graffiti

    First round of the event saw Bread Dead Redemption drawn against Graffiti, a robot usually in the full combat division. I wasn't too familiar with it going in to the event, but I was assured by other roboteers that it was going to be a baptism of fire. Having not driven the robot more than a few feet in the garage previously, I was so excited and nervous to get going.

    IMG_20191201_105905.jpg




    While arming up, the robot decided to go in to reverse on it's own accord. Not a great start, but it seemed to even out when I got to the corner. I got in to some good positions against Graffiti, but unfortunately didn't have the power to make any meaningful push. After the fight, the robot was still functional, just a bent dustpan.


    Round 2 - Ensign Wedgeley Crusher

    Round 2 matched Bread Dead against Ensign Wedgeley Crusher.
    IMG_20191201_114032.jpg

    This was a fight I was hoping for, as Sam has been incredibly helpful in this thread during the construction of the robot and it was great to finally meet the team in person. There was a bit of sizing up each other's robots down the bench before the fight, with the Wedgeley team unsure they could fit the toaster in their jaws. I was hoping to use that to my advantage.



    That was a win! A great contest too. The lack of pushing power became apparent again, but I tried my best to keep the dustpans pointed at EWC and got a few pins against the wall. Absolutely buzzing.

    Round 3 - Boring Wedge Bot


    Round 3 against Boring Wedge Bot. I was informed that this was originally part of a cluster, so was only 5.5kg, a great fit for my dustpans and had one wheel covered in a shedload of duct tape to try and get some grip. Given the previous two rounds, I definitely wasn't confident of a victory, but surely I could push this one about a bit?



    The fight began and I could push! Unfortunately, another problem soon became apparent. Despite the dustpans being low enough to get underneath BWB, the middle ridge where the two pans were joined was too high, meaning that BWB could easily get underneath if I attacked head on. I altered my strategy, trying to attack from a slight angle to get a good scoop, but a wheel fell off in the final few seconds and BWB got the win via judges decision.

    Round 4 - Lunatic

    As soon as I saw the matchup for Round 4, I knew it was a near-impossible task to get a victory. Lunatic finished 2nd overall in the yearly sportsman rankings, so I was just hoping to survive for as long as I could.

    IMG_20191201_144246.jpg



    I survived for longer than I expected. Bread Dead took some really heavy hits in this fight, but stood up to them well. I'm really pleased with how resilient it has turned out. Despite getting battered, I had so much fun.

    Round 5 - Danger UXB

    Surprise announcement, there was to be another round! Danger UXB was running on one motor due to breakages, so I was hopeful. I also heard enthusiasm from some roboteers watching the fights who were keen to see how the two unusual designs fought. We had been shocked after Round 4 about how well the robot had stood up to damage, with nothing requiring major repairs except screwing a wheel back on. Famous last words......

    All I had to do was get to the arena.



    Disaster. Driving to the corner, I hit a seam in the floor panels that dislodged a small servo cable from the receiver out of the speed controller. The lights were on, but nobody was home, and I was DQ'ed.

    Gutted to finish a fantastic day that way, but it is what it is. After fixing the problem, I offered a whiteboard fight to Colin who was driving Danger UXB, which he accepted, but there sadly wasn't enough time in the schedule. I'll get you next time, Colin!


    Conclusions

    What a fantastic weekend! I loved every single second of it and had a big, stupid grin on my face pretty much all day. Actual dream come true. Thank you to Ian, Alex and Keith for organising the event. Also thank you to everyone who gave compliments and feedback about the toaster and made us feel so welcome. I'll see you all at the next one.

    Improvements

    With regards to improvements, it is obvious that the following issues need improving:


    • Lack of power




    • Lack of traction




    • Difficult to control




    • Better dustpans


    I'm quite time restricted between now and Jan 26th for the next Robodojo, so I will have to prioritise. These are the solutions in my head so far:


    • Upgrade from a 3s lipo to a 4s, overvolting the motors. More power.




    • Ditch the plan of adding an axe and put the spare weight allowance to making the robot 4WD. I'm not sure how to do this with the Dual Sabertooth ESC. Would it be possible to wire two motors together on each side and wire them in to the ESC that way, or would that blow the board? Either that or rig up some drive pods with gears so one motor drives two wheels. I'm not sure yet.




    • I would like tank-style steering. It's what I'm used to and just using one stick was proving difficult at times. Again, whether this is possible with a dual ESC, I don't know.




    • Custom made dustpan (will have to happen eventually), or reinforce the current ones. I'm contemplating a Sawblaze style 3-prong pan, but I'm not sure that is needed for now. I'll have a think. The pans held up reasonably, but they may need replacing and modifying if I keep them as is.

  10. #60

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