So Combustion came out of the champs relatively undamaged.

I've uploaded a couple of it's fights here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TeamInvade/videos




A few scratches and nicks out of the hardox but nothing more. Overall I'm really happy with it besides the disc cutting out in each fight. There were a variety of issues that arose and most of them got solved:

First of all the weapons link (anderson) kept on coming out due to the metal contacts inside becoming quite hot and hence too loose. So that has now been made into a "double link" (4x connectors instead of 2), and that seems to have solved the problem.

Then the disc stopped after we had sorted that out due to a dodgy connector on one of the lipos and so that got replaced.

The third issue that arose was due to the lipos themselves (these: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._5S1P_40C.html) which have now been pointed out to us as one of the rubbish brands and best not to use. These worked fine for the drive, but were over-discharged by the weapon motor and caused the weapon to cut out. When we took them out they were very hot and had swollen (though shrunk again when they cooled down), so I think that's probably a good enough indication to change them!

So I need to find some better lipos to use for next year. The obvious place to start is OptiPower based on everyone's recommendations, but having looked, there are none of a suitable size. The smallest 5 cell lipos they sell are 3650mah, which is a big increase from the 2200mah lipos currently in the robot (two packs, one for the drive and one for the weapon), and so will not fit without major modifications.

The next best option I found were these: http://www.giantshark.co.uk/product/...s-lipo-battery

According to the statistics (if they are true) these should be a good upgrade; 55C up from 40C (according to hobbyking) and 110C burst up from 50C. But again I'm not too sure if this is reliable or whether these are yet again another rubbish brand. However I do seem to remember some people using Gens Ace lipos so I'm guessing they may be better than the hobbyking brands? Or if anyone has any other suggestions that would be much appreciated.