Team Dudge build diaries.

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Derek Dudge
Posts: 135
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:32 pm

Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by Derek Dudge »

Haven't wired him back up yet so no video of him driving around yet but I did just about finish building the body of the bot :-) It's a close fit both for weight and for the 4" cube. He'll squeeze in though. Should get time over the weekend to get the wires in and then it's both bots ready for battle.

Image
Image
My robots:

Third Law (antweight) - push/ram bot
Manticore (antweight) - hammer bot
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DieGracefullyRobotics
Posts: 152
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Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by DieGracefullyRobotics »

Looking forward to seeing them do their thing. They look great.
Dave
Die Gracefully Robotics - Barely Even a Proper Team.
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voorsk
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Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by voorsk »

ooh - looking pretty swish in it's new coat! i hope you're keeping the cycloptic led - i loved that
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
Derek Dudge
Posts: 135
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:32 pm

Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by Derek Dudge »

@voorsk ahhh I liked it too but alas no LED this time. I don't want to drill through the wedge and also even though they didn't weigh much, he's so tight on weight I can't spare any for the wires and the led.
My robots:

Third Law (antweight) - push/ram bot
Manticore (antweight) - hammer bot
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EddieJ
Posts: 126
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Location: Dorset

Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by EddieJ »

Looking awesome, they painted up well! :)
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DisinfectANT (Antweight), Cilit BANG (WIP Antweight), Kinetic Disassembly (WIP Antweight)
Derek Dudge
Posts: 135
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Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by Derek Dudge »

Post AWS report! Much more post event analysis than after Ant freeze as I got into more matches this time.

I'll start with the bad - Manticore is a sucky robot. I always knew the hammer was more for fun than competition haha but nevertheless I am disappointed in his matches. Two clear losses where I drove badly, had almost zero head to head pushing power, and yeah. I just don't like driving the 2wd set up. Upside I guess is he came out without any damage.

I am unsure yet whether he gets another chance. He is in full working order so maybe he'll get to another event. Or maybe I recycle ESC and motors from him into something else. We shall see.

On to the good though - Third Law had a much better time. His first match was vs Hestaephus in a driving/pushing match and he came out on top. So much easier to drive this guy compared to Manticore. A good start!

Second match was against one of my favourite teams and George's scary overhead bar spinner Vampire. I was curious and a little nervous to test against a spinner and here was a very fierce one. This match was my personal highlight for the day. I've watched enough antweight fights now to know I had to take the beating and hopefully the horizontal spinner would eventually find itself bouncing out the arena. Which was basically what happened. Not before he got some really good hits on me though, including one that hit that got above/around my wedge and which was half a centimetre from ruining one of my wheels. Luck might have been on my side a little here but I'll take it haha.

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Then it was back in the draw and here things went a bit south for dear Third Law as next he drew another scary horizontal spinner in Nom Nom Nom by Andy who prior to this I just knew as the Formula/Rapid dude. Ok, I thought, freshly full of vigour at having beaten one spinner, same tactics again, right? May be a third win here and a bit of an upset?

Nope. 😂 turns out back to back sessions of getting punched in the face was a bit too much. It started out to plan. First couple of hits went ok. The wedge on my bot worked pretty much great against the spinners. However the rest of the bot was NOT up to the beating and after a few hits from Nom Nom Nom one of the pins holding the lid in place came out. Another hit and guts are out, namely the eviscerated Lipo hanging where it shouldn't be 🙈 yet another hit and I have lost some drive ability and the exposed battery also took a nick so it was time to tap out.

The battery was very quickly ejected from the building and closer inspection revealed he had hit me hard enough to unsolder a drive motor. Ouch.

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Then I got my first proper experience of some panicked repairs before my next fight. (yay for hot glue) It was briefly a bit nerve wracking but I got him ready to fight Die Gracefully Dave's Insject in what I thought might be a good match up for me but he's a damn good driver and maybe I was feeling the stress of repairs more than I realised and either way he had me out the arena pretty quick and with that I was out the main competition.

Wasn't quite the end for Third Law though as he got to play in both the annihilator rumbles at the end when folks in the final couple of rounds were making repairs. I did quite well in these, managed to push a few out and in the second rumble I was the final bot to be eliminated (Well done, Slipper on taking the win!)

And then that was that.

Unlike Manticore, Third Law is definitely continuing forward. I plan on another rebuild to improve him. The wedge worked really well and I think overall he is a competitive robot. But i need to make another body that is a tiny bit lighter so I can focus on securing internals better. Obviously next time I would rather my bot's insides spent the whole event inside the bot and not flopping around like some Game of Thrones extra that got stabbed up. I'm thinking maybe a foam insert or something that means I can still easily get the battery out for charging but will reduce the chance of what happened vs Nom Nom Nom from happening again.

All in all a really fun day. Thanks to everyone involved in running it and many kudos to all the roboteers. Especially Shakey on his tournament win.

Good times!
My robots:

Third Law (antweight) - push/ram bot
Manticore (antweight) - hammer bot
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voorsk
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Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by voorsk »

you certainly had some memorable battles! the win against Valkyrie was epic, and who doesn't love a lipo scare? (well.. probably you..) :D

edit: vampire, not Valkyrie. should've remembered that!
Last edited by voorsk on Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Team BLEEP Suspicious Houmous / Sprouting Potato / Fermented Melon / Black Carrot
Derek Dudge
Posts: 135
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:32 pm

Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by Derek Dudge »

Well in a weird way I oughta be glad it was the battery as it's about the only part I had spares of lol. There was an ohh sugar moment though when he hit me and the Lipo just flopped out from where he'd opened the top up! Not supposed to happen! Funny really because right before that happened I heard someone close by me say ohh well it's taking the hits well. Cursed it haha.

I tried to fight on a bit, but the Lipo was sorting hanging over the front, trying to turn round and go backwards wasn't really working and that was only a matter of time until fire so had I not tapped out I wouldn't have complained at it getting stopped or anything. I had quite clearly lost 😂🤣

Oooh, and Vampire was the one of George's I fought. Valkyrie is his drum that got pretty far in the rounds (and also probably my favourite 150g robot). I haven't fought that one yet although I'd be interested to at some point to see how it compared to the horizontal yesterday.
My robots:

Third Law (antweight) - push/ram bot
Manticore (antweight) - hammer bot
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TeamScrewUp
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Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by TeamScrewUp »

Derek Dudge wrote: Sun Jul 01, 2018 11:00 am
I'll start with the bad - Manticore is a sucky robot. I always knew the hammer was more for fun than competition haha but nevertheless I am disappointed in his matches. Two clear losses where I drove badly, had almost zero head to head pushing power, and yeah. I just don't like driving the 2wd set up. Upside I guess is he came out without any damage.
Manticore was a PAIN to get rid of. It kept climbing over me and off the wedge. The only problem it has is ground clearance. I was lucky and didn't get hit too much. It could've done a bit to my top cover. For reasons....
Daaa
Manta ray (2WD wedge bot)
Nom (Grabber)
Arena Sweeper (Undercutter)
FORCE WALL (Front-hinged Flipper)
Matt
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Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2018 6:18 am

Re: Team Dudge build diaries.

Post by Matt »

At least it was only the lid. My whole bulkheads seperated from the base when I was out of the annihilator, and was draped over the side by my servo wire. Hot glue was my repair method too.
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