Team Rocket, Updates and Reports

[Kyro]

so... other than putting names on them, i think im about done...
i sure hope my scales are correct... five quid jobbie off feebay...

dusty has a grabber and flipper that i managed to make weigh exactly the same, so i can swap between matches depending on what i require...

2.5mm aluminium front armour and dustpan support with some really thin aluminium below... self rights no trouble with both weapons and from every feasible angle...
187 no longer looks shiny and pretty but i quite like the battered look... wont make it seem so bad coming out the arena with more added to it...

heres some pics...









as a final note, my lipo bag arrived today... antfreeze gets more and more real for me as the days pass... i shall enjoy putting faces to the names that have helped me out with all my questions... thanks alot guys, it is much appreciated

[Kyro]

so i actually made this a few days ago but forgot to post it...

this is my bodge job bot that i have decided to name useless... its made from bits of crap i had laying around... the reason for the name... its a 3 wheel drive push bot with next to no power... actually, the motor for the steering has some power, but the wheel has next to no grip. it handles like a bag of wet rats to the point that it barely steers without giving it some throttle, and reverse is practically non existent... i built this with losing in mind as its really just there as a joke... although i spent more time than I probably should have making the funky wheel to allow rolling in 2 directions... basically a load of tiny bearings with heat shrink around each to provide some "grip"

its mainly held together with electrical tape and superglue, so it should explode into tiny pieces if it meets a spinner...

it does however have a 400mah lipo so i shouldnt need to charge it for a while (probably the only positive for it)

it is invertible, but when flipped, it has to drive backwards because as I mentioned reverse has no guts whatsoever... but then, forward is not much better... it struggles to push 187 along when 187 is not even pushing back... and even then i have to wiggle from left to right to get it moving even a little...

weighs in at around 145g... and is my third and final bot for ant freeze (i have more parts on order for the AWS at the end of feb and should have a couple of less useless bots built in time for it)

and now for some pics

[MarkR]

I think you missed a trick, with a simile like that you should have called the robot "bag of wet rats"

Drives like a bag of wet rats

[Kyro]

ok, so the night before antfreeze and both 187 and dusty have been rebuilt...

well both look nothing like they did the last time i posted...

dusty is no longer a dustpan or grabber and 187 is no longer a pusher...

i have handed the reigns of dusty to my son for the event while i will be driving 187 and useless...

he has had maybe 10 mins of practise driving dusty so im hoping he will learn more as he goes... also hoping we dont meet spinners on the first fight...

i guess we can only wait and see...

good luck to all going tomorrow, and i look forward to meeting you

Luke

[Kyro]

the journey has begun... I'll see you all in a few hours

[Kyro]

so... antfreeze happened...

learned a lot from it... 187 needs a lot of work... i was outwedged by a decent wedge then out pushed by a tracked pusher... well, out gripped really...

useless did about as well as i thought it would...
i actually lasted a decent bit longer in the first fight than i thought i would, but the wall and my lack of power in reverse killed any chances of a simmilar performance in the second fight...

dusty however did pretty well... piloted by my son Kearan.

first fight was a loss... which was put down to nerves and still recovering from a bout of travel sickness... the second though... the second fight he went up against a cluster... after pinning then flipping one into the pit the other unfortunately drove its self into the pit... a win, and another chance to fight... fight 3 was against a flipper, the name evades my memory but i know it was one from team panoramic who i know is an expereinced roboteer.

after a bit of back and forth the opponent got himself high sided on the pit edge then fell in... another win, another fight...

then the final fight... up against Valkyrie from GeorgeR... he did well keeping the front scoop between the drum and the rest of dusty... Valkyrie took plenty of nibbles from the scoop, bending up the corners and shattering the acetate... a decent hit flipped dusty over but Kearan got her self righted before Valkyrie could deal any extra damage... unfortunately, he ended up driving into the pit...
but after his performance, big proud dad moment...

overall, i had a great time and got to meet a few of you... i will be back better than ever for aws...

the thing that surprised me the most... my mrs... after showing next to no interest in what we were going to go see now wants me to build her her very own spinner so she can take part... she really loved it... from me talking about what i was building and how it would work and just getting "mhmm's" to now her actually wanting to talk about it and finding robots she likes the look of for me to take inspiration from...

so although I didn't win a single one of my fights, i feel like the champion given the great results i had...

a big thanks to limpet for organising the event, and a big thanks to everyone that attended to make it a great day...

i look forward to aws, but i have plenty of redesigning and improvements to make before i can become competitive...

Luke

[Kyro]

so... how do i go about hooking 2 esc's to one receiver and 1 battery? i can figure out the battery part but i power my receiver from my esc... but 2 would mean 2 lots of power feeding to the rx... would disconnecting the positive from 1 esc work or would that make the second esc useless?

also, both esc's are 10amp... i fear my 180mah micro tech wouldn't handle 10amps x2 as i think they can handle 4.5amps... so i think 2 in parallel might be the answer unless someone can guide me down another route... either that or i have a 400mah 25c 2s which can handle 10amps but weighs a bit more than 2 micro techs... ahhh what to do... the 10 amps for the esc would be split between 2 motors if that makes a difference

Luke

[Kyro]

ignore the last part, my motors draw 1.7amps at stall so well within the limits they will be drawing... just the 2 esc question im curious about now

[GeorgeR]

You got it right with disconnecting the positive wire from one of the escs, if you leave them both connected the two power supplies "fight" each other and you'll burn one of them out. The second esc will still receive the signal from receiver and run fine.

[Kyro]

thanks, that confirmation helps a lot.

i figured it may work but i didn't want to test it and burn something out...