Team Dudge build diaries.

[Derek Dudge]

Hey folks! Am still alive Had a few months of life doing it's thing and keeping me away from the fun stuff but seeing as I can finally get to another event with Ant Freeze at the start of Feb, thought I oughta get the bots out and see what I can enter.

Not attempting anything totally new because I'd be pressed for time/parts by 2nd Feb but both robots from last time were in mostly one piece.

Manticore just needs a bit of a dust off. I still want to re-use the bits from him at some point to make something a bit less totally rubbish but it won't be this time round. This time he'll get to come along again mainly so I get a couple more matches in the day. If he has to fight a spinner I imagine he'll be retired afterwards.

Third Law is where I'm spending my time. After back to back fights against spinners last time he really needed a rebuild and I had enough plastic to make a new body and once a new battery was added it seems all the insides work fine so time for Mk3.

Mk2 did loads better than the very first version so the plan is to try to refine further and make sure that I don't lose the same way again etc.

One big problem with both other versions was that I was always fighting against weight and *everything* ended up drilled and trimmed and drilled some more to shave weight and in places it weakened things structurally. It cost me in the end as my flimsy lid fixings and poor battery fastening fell foul of shock from impacts and I went out with a intact wedge taking hits but guts flopping around behind it.

This time I have shrunk things down. I bought smaller wheels from Nuts and Bolts a while ago and this time I went with those. The whole profile of the robot is 5mm shorter than before. Which is obviously quite a bit of plastic around the whole bot. Plus lighter wheels and lighter motor mounts and I did buy one more thing, some slightly lighter bolts.

So this time no holes! And a wider lid that can be better fastened. And enough weight to secure the battery with more than the smallest scrap of Velcro.

Pics soon!

Looking forward to the event now. Getting back into the mood for it

[Derek Dudge]

Finally got Third Law's rebuild finished. I think he's quite a big improvement over the last version. At very least he should not be losing the same way again. Hopefully I can drive well and do him justice!

Looking forward to Saturday

[Kyro]

nice... simmilar to 187 in design... im currently waiting on some polycarb to arrive for my rebuild... not happy with the carbon fibre although itll do if i dont get my parts in by saturday... how much does your chassis alone weigh? and is that 1mm?1.5mm?

[Derek Dudge]

I don't have an exact number on the plastic but it's roughly a half and half split on weight between chassis/armour/wedge and then internals. Slightly more weight in the externals maybe.

Thickness it's a mix. Baseplate/chassis is 1mm folded up to make a tray. The side panels and front panel that mounts the wedge are 1.5mm. The back panel and lid are 1mm and then the wedge itself is 1.5mm with an extra layer behind part of it (To weigh it down more than to thicken it)

The way the pieces overlap there's nowhere around the side that isn't at least 1.5mm and in many places it's double layers.

Hopefully this time now I got the size right at last (Third time lucky) and haven't had to use any extreme weight saving methods, it should be pretty tough.

[Derek Dudge]

Totally unexpected results for Ant Freeze 6! Colour me surprised. Third Law who I had decent hopes for had a good start in the Nuts game, winning it's heat and getting into the semis. Alas it was a rapid downhill from there. In the tournament it failed to win a fight, getting pitted by team Oink's walker that has an uncanny amount of pushing power and then by team OwO's Really Lengthy Name in a very even driving match that I was outdriven in. Ooof. So much for the bot I spent all my time on he was then adopted by young Owen who was there with his mum Sarah from Bugglebots who gave him a makeover and looked to be having fun so I'll call it a win overall.

And then there was Manticore who I had no hopes for at all. Big surprise as he made quite a bit of progress, winning three fights along the way. He got the better of a driving dual with a flipper robot called Elevator, before dropping into the losers bracket after getting pitted by Plan B. Then he got to fight Pete Waller's Defiant and managed to get a few good (well, at least they hit the opponent) swings of his little hammer in.

Then I finally got my antweight rite of passage of fighting one of Shakey’s feared spinners, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. He caused some pretty awesome damage and confirmed that I have a rebuild job on my hands I survived long enough for him to go in the pit though and so I got one final match vs team Limpet’s drum spinner which finished what Shakey started and split my front armour plate and left Manticore pleased with himself but very much grievously wounded.

All in all a really good day. Highlights include team Zero's crazy gyro walker, team Nut's fork wielding bean tin robot that seemed to be powered by violent seizure, Manticore’s surprising tournament progress and the general great atmosphere. Shame it got rushed at the end but bad weather is not easy to plan for and it didn't spoil the fun at all. Big thanks to Limpet and family for organising.

Special thanks to Mark for the drink waiting for the delayed train home and for baffling me with how much tech he squeezes into Betsie (she's really ramped up the competitiveness now compared to last time I saw her fight, nice work!)

Sadly I can't make the imminently upcoming AWS, but I will definitely be looking to get to another event before too long and look forward to seeing you lot again!


Before


And after


It actually still works. Doesn't drive straight now though

[Derek Dudge]

So the plan before Ant Freeze was I would recycle Manticore after and make something else but his spirited effort won me round on him a bit and with me still having one more 50:1 motor I bought as a spare for the hammer - he lives on yet to fight again at another event.

The full list of repairs required after fighting Don't Hug Me and team Limpet's drum was a fully snapped in half front armour plate, cracked side armour, destroyed top supports, broken hammer arm, some wiring damaged, and a dead hammer motor. Ooof. Them bots hit hard.

The main chassis, some of the armour (the bits at the back ) and all other internals were ok though. And I had enough plastic to rebuild the rest.

So I swapped out some smaller bolts and trimmed a few wires and things and saved a little weight to hopefully made the front a bit more spinner proof than before.

Now I really wish I could go to AWS in a couple weeks alas work won't match up. Gonna look into whether or not I can do botfest in March.

Obligatory pics.