Update

Kaizer is coming along steadily (Ive got pics but not uploaded them yet - soon hopefully though). The chassis is pretty much complete; needs armour coverings to finish it off. The insides still need a lot of work - most of the time so far has been spent on parts for the lifting mechanism. I got it all finished and did a trial run tonight. Without a load on the forks, it lifts smoothly and briskly, got just over 90 of movement.

Under load is a different story however; even though the batteries were a little drained, the linear actuator struggled to lift a 9.5kg Drumroll. The front bulkhead started to bend meaning the lifting force was lost. Part of this is down to the leverage ratio used and the fact that the actuator is rated at only 40kg.
Having a slight rethink, I decided to try and see if an Okin Deltadrive actuator would fit in its place - and its a perfect substitute - all 8000N force of it
Got the spare weight so with a little modification, it should be in place tomorrow. Its considerably slower than the Linac model I was using but hey it works.

Ive also come to realise that great though HDPE is for armour, its not ideal for load-bearing structural components and chassis members. It deforms too easily so when I upgrade Kaizer to a 4-bar-lifter, if I still choose to use plastics I will opt back to Nylon for various parts of the chassis.

On the Drumroll front, its almost all ready to go. Drive is fine, weapon motors are fine, drum is on its way this coming week so it should just be a case of fitting it in place and away we go. Weight will be an issue so Ill need to have a look and see what needs to go and where best to take it from. If the worst comes to the worst, Ill drop a Speed 900, although that would reduce the performance of the drum which wouldnt do the quality of manufacturing of the drum much justice.
Other than that, the robot is looking cool with some body enhancements. Im keeping pics under wraps just now (with exception of a couple of people Ive shown on MSN ) so youll just have to wait until Rebel Robots to see the new look

Toodles for now,
Jamie

http://www.ayrshirerobotics.vze.comwww.ayrshirerobotics.vze.com