Cant please everyone , but Ill to try and answer some questions raised.

In the UK Champs, best fight for me has got to be the Final with THz. We never know what will happen but it always makes for an entertaining fight, mind you THz always seems too no matter who its fighting. Cannot really pick out a least favorite as there are too many . Guessing at what the weight in armour is but Id have to say its around 30kg, not really weight just the armour bits on there own. The arm itself weights in at around 30kG too. The thinkness depends where, as it varies all over the robot. The top main plates are just under 8mm, bottom are 6mm down to 4mm where in contact with the chasis, sides are 5mm for the most part with 10mm ribbs. Front and back are also 6mm. Cannot remember the thickness on the Arm think its 4mm. As for the chasis, its Aliminium and most is 30mm think, which is milled down in pockets & holes all over to reduce the weight.

As for how it works, thats a long one, Real Robots Magazine did a 3 issue article on it but in a nutshell it only has 3 motors inside, 2 for the drive, 1 for the weapon. The Weapon motor is right at the back and has a electronic clutch attached to either side, on for the lifter and one for the crusher. The Crusher is chain driven to a 20:1 worm gear inside the arm with the worm wheel attached to a ball screw, the nut has 2 levers attached to it which then attach to the jaws, this arrangement gives approx 1:1.5 leaverage (15mm of movement on the ball screw gives 10mm on the tips of the jaws). The lifter is a little more complex but basically has a 400:1 gearbox connected to a 20mm shaft that then has 2 sets of chains (a further 2:1) that lift the arm from both sides.

The electronics to control it now have 2 sperate DX6 2.4GHz receviers (one for the weapon and one for the drive), the drive one connects to an interface/mixer board that can be reprogrammed to how my brother preferrs to drive it, It also controls the acceleration & deceleration of both the stright and steering controls at different rates. The weapon has the same interface/mixer board but with adtional functions enabled for the 4 limit switchs and 2 clutches to overide the controls if it will damage the robot (when it works) and to engage the clutches at the correct times depending on the transmitter stick postions and limit switchs.

Have looked at doing a Little Nipper, with the increase to 13.6kg I think its more realistic to build a competative one, weve talked about it a few times and who knows oneday we might just have a go but no certain plans yet.

Craig, you should know me better that that, I would never knowingly attack another robot after cease, but sometimes its hard to here it so apologise if I did. I would like to know how we managed to damage Tanto as I didnt think it was possible with all that armour you have. As for the weight, well we are always going to use the full weight allowed at events, and as long as it is allowed we will use it, there are far worse fat robots around. Bet you wouldnt have said that if you had a robot with CO2 in it