Thanks Lian. There hasn't been any progress with the mini Cassius beetleweight. Mainly because I don't have any beetleweight parts yet, the plastic I've used is actually Perspex rather than polycarb, and I'm not 100% sure I want to build a Cassius replica first. I've got various designs still spinning about my head so I probably won't settle on one and get it built until I've got the parts needed.

Update

I have been doing a bit of work on Drumroll II the past couple of days though. It was in a bit of a sorry state after the champs so it's been good to get it looking a bit better.

I decided, after finding maintenance at the champs to be hassle, that version II needed to go the same way as the original Drumroll. By that I mean having everything needed for the robot to run fitted to the baseplate inside the bulkheads so that the outer frame can just be unbolted and lifted off in order to access the components. The aim is to have everything contained within this removable section so it can be driven separately from the main body. With Drumroll, I never planned for that to happen - it just ended up being like that - but boy does it make maintaining the machine so much easier.

So the bulkhead that the weapon motor attaches to needed to be fitted mainly to the baseplate rather than the sides, and the drill motors needed to be separated from the bulkheads they were mounted in yet still remain in the same place. A quick blast with the jigsaw was the simplest, albeit a little crude, method and they got bolted down:



Then the Victor 885 got fitted for when I get another Speed 900, and the batteries were held in place with a polycarb restraint that bolted to the base panel. Previously I had a spar going across the robot from bulkhead to bulkhead that held the batteries in place, but that meant that when the outer shell was removed, the batteries would be loose. The new restraint also served as a handy mounting point for the Scorpion XL, moved from the front in a box with a fan to the back minus the box and (now broken) fan:



One benefit of being skint means that I'm more likely to try and make something from scratch rather than paying for a pre-made one. And while Sam Smith's Deans mounting blocks are very nice, I thought I'd try my hand at making my own, which actually turned out much better than expected:



And with the connector in place:



While it's a snug fit, it does pull through a little bit when I'm removing the link so I might have to spoil it by putting some hot glue on the underside to hold it in place. That aside, I'm pretty chuffed with it and am now wondering why I didn't bother trying to make one before. Oh well

And finally, with the power distribution bolts relocated:



I might trim that bit of HDPE, as it's a little wider that needs be, and space is a premium in this robot!
All I need to do is fit the LED, get and install a Speed 900 and refit the teeth to the drum with bigger, stronger bolts (finally managed to get the broken ones out) and it will be ready to roll again. Oh, and will probably need to change to blue wheels as well, my home-made jobbies just aren't as great