The Norman Sheppard Tribute Tournament

[knightrous]

My absense has been caused by the constructon of my new super computer and an extended 4 day lan party. You would have noticed I dissappeared from the whole internet for aroud 8 days.

My apologies for not being here to reply to your queries, causing you to shift heats around. Now to your Qs

1 - What is its ground clearance?
A moderate and realistic 10mm around the sides and back, 0mm at the front due to the active wedge.

2 - Can you explain how you can get a 96% flywheel to hammer rate, when you have the friction caused by stopping the flywheel dead, the heat from the clutch and the gearboxes and the sound energy being wasted? Explain in fundumental terms if you would.

Okay, trying to not get technical The flywheel doesnt actually stop. What happens is that the clutch is engaged for a variable time, only long enough to make the hammer to complete its travel and then the clutch disengages allowing the flywheel to pick up the lost RPM and build up energy again. Its not perfectly effecient, but nothing is. The whole disadvantage is that it cannot keep delivering killer blows repeatedly as the flywheel will not have a chance to get up to full speed inbetween reloads.

3 - If you get flipped and lands with the hammer in, would the hammer just rip though the floor with 43 Kj of energy instead of self-righting Generator?

Not to sure what you mean here, but the hammer would produce much lower forces here because the hammer is not actually moving its mass to create extra kenetic energy. The robots body will be moving in the selfrighting process.

If your still querying the mechanism. Im prepared to change the mechanism to a slightly lighter, less powerful and less complicated design I came up with tonight, which is designed for a flipper but will work in Generator as well. I may even finish the Generator render tommorow with the new hammer mech if you want.

[mrdaves]

Oh, a new computer, 64-bit?

I still dont get the hammer design. Surely the flywheel would have to stop to transfer the energy across to the hammer in the amount its currently in. I know about conservation of energy, but apart from the smallish potential energy lost, there is still a black hole, but I do see how it works in its simple terms.

[pcbore]

Actually i have a query about that. Beta leaps around a bit even with 400 KGs of downforce with a hammer that produces 3 KJs of energy, so whats Generator going to do?

[knightrous]

Yep, 64bit AMD3200+ Processor(Venice Core), 2GB Corsair RAM, dual 160gb HDD in a Raid 1 config, X600Pro PCI-E Graphics Card, Gigabyte K8NXP SLI Motherboard, 450w Raid Max power supply, a 17inch LCD CMV monitor and some other funky ness. Built it myself for less then $1650 AUD. Woah, back on topic time

Generator will do it share of leaping, no doubt with that. But Im hoping it will be minimised by putting all the force onto a fine point(The hammer tip), which should put a hole in something, rather then just bludgeon it(Beta has the big rounded hammer). Another factor that should lower the jumping around of Generator is that the hammer doesnt rotate a full 180`. The hammer only travels 120`. Im not sure if Im explain it right here, maybe a diagram later

The flywheel generates around 45Kjs by itself, Im assuming around a 25-35% energy loss during the electronic clutch activation. this will bring it back to around 30kjs. With 30Kjs making its way into the hammer, the speed the hammer starts accelerating is enough to produce another 3-5kjs from the accelerating mass of the hammer and arm. I could probably get even more if I uses a fusee drive like Beta, but meh.

The flywheel shouldnt stall because the clutch wouldnt be able to transfer all the torque at once, so it will slip a bit. Think of it as revving the guts out of your car and dropping the clutch, your clutch will slip a bit before you smoke the tires.

[pcbore]

The problem is, if Generator leaps during the firing sequence, it probably wont hit with its full potential, especially if the target is low down. Its the difference between hitting it with the swing, and just landing on it with the point down, if you follow me. All depends on how much leaping Generator does I guess.

[knightrous]

Well Beta does 90% of its jumping on impact, not during the swing. So Im guessing Generator being 4wd and slightly longer, will be more stable during the hammer swing.

[mrdaves]

Generator I think would hop a bit on impact due to the recoil, but it wouldnt be much.

[knightrous]

Ive already started planning the second version of Generator. Planning on putting in a counter weight on the axe. This is old school tech from Killerhurts....

[mrdaves]

quote:

Say Hello to the Angels, sung live, in front of 40000 people, brilliant

Who wants some fighting?

My exams are finally over for another year, Morning Runner, Interpol, and Coldplay were excellent last night, and so it is time for some fighting.

Heat L, Round 2, Fight 1

Generator vs. Take Me Out

Random Chit Chat costs lives, so it€™s fighting time, as the feather dusters are brought out to dust the robots

Active

The instant acceleration from the storm 2 style drive on Take Me Out, takes it to it€™s top speed before it has exited the red square. Generator is waiting, the weapon getting up to speed to enable pure power, as Tom drives Generator forward. Take Me Out, swings around, depressing the pit release button, to open the pit.

Generator is moving towards Take me out to land that axe onto it. Martyn sees the great big Aussie beast coming in it€™s rear view mirror, and spins around to face the Generator. Tom has stopped moving forward, and swings to the side, as he gets ready for the attack from Take me out. Martyn is waiting, a good distance away from Generator, as Aaron is telling Tom to go for the attack, as both robots are in scale-mate.

Tom pushes the controller on Generator forward, as it bursts into life, and Take me out reverses, jamming the left hand side into reverse and doing what the Americans call crabbing, as take me out comes close to Generator, as the axe fires. Take me out slams into reverse as quickly as possible, as the axe goes straight though the floor, as Generator hops like there is no tomorrow. Take Me Out uses this time well, slamming under the side of Generator as the axe is redrew from the floor, leaving a large hole, as Generator is on it€™s back.

Jack flash couldn€™t have done it more quickly; as Generator self-rights before Take me Out can attack once more. The force on the arena floor, as put another large dent in the solid steel, as Generator does some crabbing of it€™s own, to cancel out Take me Out€™s advantage, as Martyn drives towards the arena hammer, in a hope of a hammer face off. The arena hammer fires, narrowly missing the top of Take me out, as it reloads, Generator slams into the hazard zone. Martyn selects reverse, and goes into the wall, as the axe on Generator fires, pinning and slicing though the front wedge with ease. The arena hammer fires, once, twice, and three times onto the top of Generator, the armour is taking the hits well, as the drive system on Take me out is preventing Generator from dragging it€™s prey back home to the bitter layer of doom and destruction.

The arena hammer has managed to put a little dent in the top of Generator, but not a lot to worry about, as the hammer comes up, pulling up a piece of the arena floor with it, leaving Take me Out stuck, in the corner, but Martyn puts on full power, and jumps over Generator by using the pulled up arena surface sheet for it€™s advantage. The battle continues as normal, as Generator is trying to catch up with Take Me Out, who€™s front end is bent so much, that the titanium strip at the front of the wedge is in the air. Martyn circles the arena spikes, as Generator comes close once more.

The axe fires, narrowly avoiding contact with Take me out, but smashing the arena spike hole up, that nitrogen has started to leak from the cylinders, the safety dump value underneath the arena opens dumping all the nitrogen, as the arena surface becomes super-cooled. Take me out, trying to keep moving to stop the wheels from freezing up is on the attack, as Generator is spinning all over the place, as some of the bearings in the wheels have frozen. 20 seconds later, the order has been resumed, as take me Out is heading at full speed towards Generator€™s side. Tom spins on the spot, as Martyn dodges the front end, but can€™t make the corner, and Generator slams side-on into Take Me Out, spinning both robots around. The axe once more fires, in a hope it will hit something and destroy it, as take me out gets underneath Generator when it hopped, and pushes it sideways as fast as it can go.

The two right hand wheels are on the wedge, unable to get traction, as the left hand wheels don€™t have the power to come off from the wedge, as Martyn is looking for a shock here, as he fires the flipper. Generator hits the wall€¦

€¦falling over onto the right side. Game on once more, as take me out slams into the rear end, as Generator self-rights, the power sends Generator onto the wall, and over, crashing down onto the camera tracks. Take me out is spinning, but something is wrong with the drive system now, as the front end is dragging on the arena surface, as a loud boom is heard, as co2 starts to leak from the flipper, which fires to get rid of the extra pressure, doing a back flip in the meanwhile, to show hanging chains, and co2 leaking out of the large slice on the underside, the signs of damage.

Cease

Generator, attacked, attacked, attacked, but the quicker Take me out, manages to avoid the fast attacks from the Aussies, and moves onto the heat final, but with a large repair list, that Martyn will be rushed off his feet to repair in time.

Fight 2
Behemoth (27) vs. Avalanche

I lost my faith in the summer time, because it doesn€™t stop raining.

Active

Both robots take their time to getting up to speed, as both Matt€™s are looking for the win here. Avalanche turns the corner first to put full power on, as Behemoth crashes into Avalanche€™s front. A brief moment, as Matt M lifts the bucket scoop up a bit on Behemoth to loosen the grip of Avalanche€™s torque. Behemoth fires the axe into Avalanche, as Matt R is trying to get away, but the wheels are spinning against the most important item off all time, air.

Matt M is wasting no time, and opens the pit release up with the rear end of Avalanche, as the Behemoth monster is taking Avalanche on a trip it will remember, as Behemoth lifts up Avalanche more, and holds it over the pit in a very Scottish Fictional kind of way, before dropping Avalanche down 6 feet, into a cloud of smoke.

Cease

Avalanche, attacked at the start, and never got away. Pitted within 20 seconds of the fight. Behemoth moves onto the heat final.

Heat L Final Draw
Behemoth (27) vs. Take me Out.

Tactics, Predictions, Thoughts?

[martyn]

Good the heat final i wanted. I have better manouverabilty than behemoth, i can slip under its side and flip at the wall and hopfuly it will either sail over or, the srimech bars will cause it to tip over the wall.