Robo Challenge Tag Team Champs & Power Tool Drag racing!

[big_nipper]

Was hoping you would know the type of trip used. I expect a 13A fuse but 13A trips are very uncommon. Our problem is in-rush current so a type A and B trip 16A don't work for us. Would be a shame to arrive only to find every time we turn it on it cuts the power at the venue.

[blazerbotics]

serves you right for a powerfull machine! Mines only 15 watts

[cliveb]

sounds like somebody is trying to get the first excuse in, we would have won but the mcb was the wrong type.

[big_nipper]

Yeh, always need excuses. Tried it at the weekend at my sisters house. No power problems there just broke the drive pins and hit a concreate block at the end that knocked off the 2 front wheels. Needs a little modification now.

[beast]

LOL

[Baz]

Hi all
Thought I would register and say hi - I'm taking part in this event, but the powertool drag race side of things. Having been for the last two years and frankly been a little underwhelmed with the track / timing system, I'm hoping this year will be a nice change.

Couple of questions that I don't seem to be able to find answers for though; is the track the same size as previous years (a foot wide with 4x2 each side)? Is the power going to be applied to each side at the same time, or are we having that 'interesting' Christmas tree setup? I'm not a fan of the 'real' solution, it seemed to fail an awful lot last year.

I'm in the process of putting together our two ride-on entries, the one from last year has been fettled and overhauled. Dubbed the 'Widowmaker' by one of my colleagues in light of my recent marriage and the fact that I would have a 2 stroke 64cc petrol engine strapped to my behind, it performed flawlessly on the day. If you look on the Silverline website I'm the gimp in the yellow shirt on the two-wheeled scooter effort... I was a little disappointed by it's lack of top end speed, I'd made a small error in the design stage relating to the gearing - I was working under the impression we weren't actually racing them, just showing off. Now, obviously, I know better and have adjusted it to suit.
The second entry I'm not going to give too much away about, but I'll whet the appetites by saying it's got more than one spark plug and more than two wheels! Current progress looks good, the main thing I'm worried about it pilot weight at the moment! And we've not Christened it yet either. I suspect after a test run in a couple weeks we'll have lost a particular part of our anatomy and the name will become more apparent.

Cheers for now - Baz

[grant_ploughbot]

Hi Baz, not sure if you remember us? We did the timing for the first years, but last year they bought that other system which was full of faults.

Thats been ditched now, and we've been hired in by Silverline to create an entire new indoor system including new tracks with steel frames and wooden surfaces, and fully adjustable it will be perfectly flat and straight! It is still 1ft wide and should be a few metres or more longer this year depending on what we can fit into the hall. There is a proper stopping system now aswell, no more worrying about hitting tyres and bails of hay!

We have developed new software and timing systems aswell, which so far have been 100% reliable in thousands of test runs so far. It will display run times, Reaction times and also top speed at the end of the run.
We have some proper traffic lights built in too, when they turn green you will need to press the button on the control box for you dragster to start. Your reaction time will be from when the green light comes on, to when you press the button.

There are some videos of parts of the system floating around somewhere, i'll try and find them!

Sounds like your pulling your finger out on the ride-on I believe the Gadget show will be back again with a really good one so someone to try and beat!

[ady]

i had a answerphone message today, from some woman regarding this event, on a firefighting course so couldn't call her back.

something about how was i getting on with my project or something

[grant_ploughbot]

I believe Silverline have been contacting some people about how far they have got in their builds for possible photo's to use as part of their advertising. not 100% sure but i believe thats what its about.

[xtreme]

Yea, I got a call today, asking if my dragsters were built and if not how they were coming along. then they asked if i could get some pictures together for them.
It was nice getting a call from an unknown number without sombody trying to sell me something.