Update & Event Report

So I managed to get Onyx finished up a few days before the Robots Live Edinburgh event, with some last minute spare modified drill shafts made for the axe as I expected a few failures. This is how it looked prior to the event:



The curved scoop is all 5mm steel; took a bit of work and not quite as neat as it could be but it's solid so I'm pretty happy with it. Also shortened the axe arm and curved the head a little as it looked a bit bland beforehand.
All was working well in the run-up to Edinburgh but when moving the arm after arming-up in the first fight (and even before the fight started) the axe jammed. As I suspected, the pins had failed again so I just ran it without the axe in the first fight.

The drive is incredibly fast but I struggled with controlling it a little (too used to the precise nature of the XL) and ended up smoking a motor by the end. Swapped that out during the break but ran out of time to repair the axe, so went into the second fight, again weaponless, and got flipped pretty early on. Had more drive issues but it was just with reverse-threaded screws coming loose so I sorted that out with a bit of Loctite. Finally got to repair the axe but turned out that the grub screws were looser than I though so, although the axe could fire, the torque limiter was kicking in when the robot was upside down so it still couldn't self-right. Eventually sorted it and got it all working well for the fourth and final fight and got a few full-strength hits in before the axe mysteriously started getting really slow. A quick look inside revealed that the screws holding the motor and its mounting plate on had come loose, so the gears weren't meshed properly and had been slipping.

It's an easy fix which will get done, but I'll be looking at fitting the 300W scooter motor in somehow now. The drill motor just isn't designed for the punishment of an axe weapon and will just be a long-term hassle if I persist with it. Weight will be tight using the scooter motor but it's currently at 12.9kg without any form of weight-saving having taken place, so I'm hopeful that I can manage it somehow. The increased reliability will certainly be worth it.

For once, Carcinus was pretty low-maintenance and only had to have a little one-minute repair made to the actuator between shows. Still ended up in the pit a couple of times but I think that wasn't directly connected to my dad's driving this time!

Once I give both machines the necessary TLC, I'll work out plans for heading forward. Not got any more events down as definites this year, but got a couple I'd like to get to, circumstances permitting. Got a lot of work to do on Scar, want to get a couple of beetles up and running and Drumroll - which has been in pieces since the champs - needs rebuilt once it's had a bit of a redesign. Also got that grabber/lifter waiting to be done on top of any Scot-Bots stuff that'll need doing over the year. Eeeny-meeny-miney-mo!