Well the robots had a run around at the weekend over in Edinburgh. Didn't win any fights but neither of them are really melee-winning robots, plus their performance was average-ish. Carcinus only had one fight which it broke down in and as it was the last fight and I've not yet looked at the robots, I don't know what caused that. All other times it ran without any problems; it may have ended up in the pit a few times but not once was it due to my dad's driving. I think he's getting better
Kaizer was a mixed bag of fortunes. It made it in to every fight bar the first one (a problem with the Radio Link tx/rx struggling to find each other among all the other Spektrum sets being activated, much like with Carcinus at Barnsley) but it rarely made it out of the fight still running. Think it got pitted once, stuck on it's back a couple of times and broke down a couple of times due to a connection coming loose. Sustained a few hits from Little Hitter that deformed the top panel several times but nothing a big hammer couldn't fix.


So in terms of upgrades:
Kaizer - the lifter worked but it struggles with traction once it's got a robot hoisted, so it couldn't actually do anything useful with them after that. There was also too much flex in the lifter mechanism/chassis so that needs reinforced/built better. The SLAs did the job okay but when the opportunity arises I will upgrade them to something better. There's a drive relay needing replaced too; it went into its last two fights without reverse on one side but I didn't have a spare with me. Something needs to be done regarding traction with a robot on the lifting arm; one option would be some outriggers to help get some power back through to the wheels, but first I'm going to try the simple method of screwing some bike tyre onto the wheels. It will increase speed and grip, raise the ground clearance a bit (most beneficial for when it's running upside down) and hopefully allow me to lift other robot then push them around. Finally, it will need some sort of armour round the outside. Wasn't a problem during the weekend but come the UK champs I'd prefer to have a steel bumper running round it to try and fend off any spinners.

Carcinus - ran fine in general but it's clear that the claws don't really have any power to them. I've known this for a while but not done much about it because I've just been trying to get it running to a decent degree. Now that it is, I can start to consider other claw drive options. Ideally a Speed 900 through a gearbox onto a lead screw; more realistically, a drill motor direct to a lead screw.
When initially planning to increase the power, I envisaged having to build a new chassis to cope with the forces but to be honest, that's more effort than I can be bothered with at this time. I've now realised that all I need to do is build the claw mechanism into its own self-contained unit (maybe from box-section steel or something) that can be bolted into the robot so that I can avoid having the whole chassis twist and bend from a resulting increase in power. With 4kg currently to spare there should be enough weight to manage this.

And on a side note, I have now decided that I am determined to get a new Drumroll running for the champs. Having driven Little Flipper I've felt how precise a Scorpion XL can be and I've got one waiting to go into Drumroll II. With better control, increased speed and invertibility, it would be a significant increase in my chances of doing well. I can't afford to go full whack with the design yet so some compromises will be made for the champs to cut down on costs but it's mainly little things that shouldn't compromise performance.