Well exams are now done and dusted so I can get back to building bots. The plan to complete Snakebite, as mentioned above, probably won't happen in time for the tag champs, there's too much work required to go into it and I don't have the time or money to do it justice.

Instead I'll be working on a new robot to submit alongside Drumroll for the tags:


Basic spec; 12V drill motors for drive, windscreen wiper motor for the weapon, two 9.6V Nimh packs for 19.2V in series and Electronize speedos. Grabbing claws are driven by the wiper motor through a threaded rod from an old car scissor jack. The jack's arms will be the link to the claws providing the motion. The claws themselves will be slightly different in shape to the 'pencils of doom' They'll most likely be welded box-section steel too.

This'll be under my team-mate's control at the tags but will become my dad's replacement for Bullseye once I get Snakebite built.

Drumroll is up for a rebuild. The current chassis is still run-able but with the added power that'll be going through it from the brushless, I'm not sure if it'll last another competition. I also want to ditch the need for self-righting hoops and am aiming for a nippier drive. The design will be close to this:




A comparison with the old/current design.


And again, from the back.

The chassis is 12mm polypro for the time being. It's been suggested I go for a pocketed aluminium milled chassis (*coughKennycough* ) but for the first build I'm going to use low-cost plastic, just to make sure the design is viable and effective. When I've won the lottery I'll go for milled aluminium, or laser cut-and-welded ti or something sexy
The only part I'm not happy with at the moment is the shape of the parts round the wheels. I'm not going to redesign them in CAD though, I'll just wait until I get round to building it and improvise on the spot.

Components are all the same as the current machine with exception of the brushless motor replacing the Speed 900s. The motor mount will be adjustable however, so that I can swap the brushless out for the Speed 900 if it burns out or I don't feel its performing very well.

Work will hopefully begin on both of these after the weekend