T_Y's Build Log

[LimaHotel]

It's been over a year man, I'm really looking forwards to catching up!
On the subject of robots though - what's your lineup looking like? Hyttioaoa, inabiaf, and WAI?

[T_Y]

Aye, it'll be good to catch up. Maybe we'll draw each other in a fight - Jiggy vs WAI?

My lineup is going to be HYTTIOAOA, WAI and INABIAF. There's still a few weeks to go, so I might be able to put some fast servos into INABIAF and HYTTIOAOA (I ordered those KingMax servos you tested out).

[LimaHotel]

I'm good for a whiteboard if you are
And nice! I'm thinking of buying one to put in Jammin' Good. The pink gives a good flip but it's nothing next to what the KingMax is doing in my brother's bot!

[T_Y]

I've had a productive Saturday!

First thing is I've bought some wood to build a small test arena for non-spinner designs. It's going to be around 60cm square with 15cm square pits in the corners.

The main thing I've done is finished the wiring for Working as Intended! I still need to add forks to the wedge and armour up the exposed wires.





Here it is in action:

https://youtu.be/4tYPHP8v6pQ

As you can see, the jaw can grip, but things can slip out fairly easily. I need a better gripping system - maybe drive some screws through the jaw to act as the teeth instead of a bit of rubber. It's also very slow - version 2 definitely needs a faster worm gear N20. The drive is supposed to be 300RPM but seems a lot slower than HYTTIOAOA. In any case, I want to upgrade the drive on all my bots to 500RPM...

If you're interested in how the weapon works, I've got a quick explanation video here:

https://youtu.be/BjCmo6a6GGA

Just need to finish off the last bits on WAI, then I need to re-wire INABIAF. In the meantime, my 3D printer is going to start pumping out spare parts!

[Kyro]

yes these seem a bit slower than 300 rpm...

i use 600rpm n20's for my bots (1200rpm at 12v) and i have more than enough speed with plenty of torque... i personally wouldnt go much higher than this as i don't think its needed...

i use silicone for the grips on the end of mantis's grabber... the little mg90 1.8kg/cm i use for the grab can hold shut an mg92b with 3.5kg of torque... although im upgrading it to another mg92b before aws as I have the weight spare and why not go all out??

silicone seems to work well... although my grabber has 3 prongs for grip... i dont know if it would be as effective on your jaw design as it is for me... maybe experiment with screws inside silicone so the silicone would squash and allow the screws to bite... im thinking it would be like a double whammie for gripping... one is likely to grip your opponent

[T_Y]

So I've added forks to the leading edge, cut from 0.5mm plasticard.



I've also added a 1.5mm HDPE shield for the exposed wiring inside the jaw. It's not that strong (especially compared to the rest of the armour), but the angle and the fact that it's right at the back of the jaw should hopefully mean that it'll work to at least keep spinners from cutting all the wires.

I had to cut a hole in the jaw to make weight, but the whole thing clocks in at 149.1g.

[T_Y]

So I've fixed the wiring for INABIAF. I found the reason for why it was cutting out in a sharp change in direction - apparently I had the motor driver taking power from the Arduino instead of directly from the battery!

Well, the team is now ready for AWS 58.

[T_Y]

Post-AWS update!

AWS 58 was brilliant - I had so much fun there, despite not doing very well. I brought WAI, INABIAF and HYTTIOAOA, and won 2 of my 8 fights - 2 better than last year at any rate! I'm pleased that INABIAF survived against Chaotica, a large overhead spinner, without taking any damage aside from losing two screws - the armour panels and 3D prints held up nicely. And compared to last year, I feel my driving has improved. Now I just need to build robots that can self-right!

Speaking of the 3D prints, I was talking to others at the event about the material I use, and I think I'm going to try PETG.

AWS 58 basically confirmed what I thought - my bots are too slow. I've got a load of much faster motors on order already so that's sorted. I've also ordered two KingMax servos. One will go into HYTTIOAOA, the other is for the next project... CAD pictures should be up soon

For AWS 59 in September, I'm planning on bringing HYTTIOAOA, WAI and said project - if I need to drop a bot due to numbers, I think HYTTIOAOA will sit it out - at this point I've worked out most of the kinks in it, and I really want to continue to develop WAI further.

[T_Y]

So I finished the CAD work for the next bot...

Presenting Percussive Maintenance 2: Tech Support Boogaloo!









Taking some design cues from Blacksmith, this version is more boxy, which means there should be more space inside to fit the components. I'll use a pinless LemonRX, the AWESCv4 I picked up at AWS58 (thanks Chris!), 12V 1000RPM motors for drive. The spanner will be powered by a KingMax servo, geared with a 1:4 gear ratio to get the required degree of rotation out of the weapon. I've taken the opportunity to lay out everything so I know how much space I've got to play with.



I also plan to have attachment points on the front, to allow me to attach either some Blacksmith-style forks, or aluminium plates for fighting against spinners.

One issue I think I'll have is weight. If my calculations are correct, the electrical components, armour, screws and spanner come to around 112g, leaving 38g for the 3D prints. I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit everything I want into 150g. I could cut off the tail section of the bot, as that is not really needed, but I'd rather not compromise on the shape as I like it so much. I could perforate various armour panels, but that runs the risk of giving lots of little bite points for spinners.

How does 1mm polycarb compare to 1.5mm polycarb in terms of survivability against spinners? If I swap all the armour plates to 1mm polycarb I can save around 12g, which might be the thing that lets me get everything in under weight.

[Kyro]

Dominus was 1mm polycarb... depending how well you think it did against RBMK should give you an answer...

in honesty other than a few gouges, there wasn't much damage to the polycarb... it was mainly the mounts fir flipper and wheels that failed