Building middleweights

**ewan** · 24th May 2004, 17:18

as far as I know (the first version of) Ripper came before RIP...

**leorcc** · 24th May 2004, 17:41

Mario, the heavyweight boys must be lining the base of their robots with house bricks to make up the weight!

I wish. My team build 3 heavys till now, and only third time round we managed to keep a decent way below the weight limit. The other two we were drilling holes and losing plates and shortening bolts all over the place.

--
Leo

**maddox** · 24th May 2004, 19:31

Project II was only 84 kg at the first full assembly weighing. So we put 4mm polycarb all over extra on top of the 16 mm HDPE, rasing the weight to 90 kg, combat ready.

And no, it isnt easy to build inside the weighlimits, but it all depends on construction and basic idea.Time and money. With lots of time you can even drill 4mm holes trough M10 bolts to get 15 grams all over the robot.

On the other side, with the tricks Ive learned over the time, it isnt that difficult anymore.

**julian** · 9th June 2004, 22:31

After discussing weight problems, what about physical size? I got hold of these stainless steel boxes and they seemed huge at the time. I decided to put the wheels on the inside (rather big at 12 as they are from a wheelchair) and its going to be a real squeeze. I may find myself stuck at 24v with the old speedos so a little more space is created by losing a battery but ram, gas bottle, associated plumbing plus the electrics will mean hardly any spare space. Goodness me, Marios buffertankless regulator will be a very welcome addition.

Steel Sandwich and Phoenix remain wonders of miniaturisation.

My steel boxes are 67cm x 51cm and I want to keep the height to 20 cm or so at the very top of the wedge which is also the top of the wheels.

Reading this, the boxes would seem huge but being cut down to a wedge means that much of the area at the front is unusable.

How big are the rest of you building to? I would be especially interested in Blazer as our specifications are so similar even if the implementation is not. The wheels are on the outside are they not? After meeting the middleweight Typhoon before at Extreme 2, Id rather have mine on the inside. (Anyone have any idea as to the military secret upgrades the Typhoons have had?)

Part of my problem is that I have given the wheels extra space so that I can change from pneumatics to a different style of spiked wheels, should they prove themselves in testing, without needing a rebuild.

**blazerbotics** · 9th June 2004, 22:53

i dont know blazers dimensions (never measured it

).I would guess its about 70cm long, 40cm high and about 50cm wide, but because of the wedge shape and funny angels over half the space is lost. I have had huge problems fitting eveything in, in it is;

1 litre buffertank
Regulator
5/3 3/8th vlave
80x210mm ram
2x Wheelchair motors
40cm wheels
2x Curtis speedos and interface
1.1kg co2 bottle
2x 7Ah Batts
Rx and weapon switch
Plus other bits

Blazers wheels are both inside and out! Most of the wheel is cover but the top 4inch or so stick out.

If your worried about the size of wheels, why not use smaller wheels and run a chain/gear drive to them. For example; You could use a pair of go-kart wheels (250mm) and have a 1:2 gear up.

**julian** · 10th June 2004, 07:13

Simplicity is the key. I think that everything will fit (eventually!) Blazer is that bit bigger alll round and the internal volume is increased so that it all goes in even the buffertank. I think that its quite interesting how very different our machines are although they have such similar specs. Lets hope that another difference wont be that yours works and mine doesnt.

I really ought to think up a name soon, I suppose.