Well, AntFreeze didn't go to plan at all! Where to start with the problems?
I'll gloss over the excuses, and just say that neither bot was ready on Saturday morning. They both drove (as far as I knew), but they had no weapons. I had the bits - I just had to put them together. Cue arriving at 10:30 and frantically trying to put together an axe and an extra layer of armour on Fermented Melon, and making a wedge for Sprouting Potato. Thank goodness sign-ins were allowed until 12, coz I needed all that time.
So, where did it go wrong after that?
Sprouting Potato
After my 3D printer jammed and started printing really badly, I had to resort to Potato's old shell from BotFest. Upgrades were some cheap 20:1 motors and a wedge instead of screws. The wedge plates are steel wallpaper scraper blades, which are a great fit, but maybe a little heavy. Mounting it on polycarb didn't quite work, as the polycarb decided it wanted to be straight again, and I noticed when I got home that the wedge was 10mm off the ground.
I'd given the bot a quick test on Thursday night, and it was fine apart from front/back being the wrong way around. Easily solved in the tx!
But on the day it just didn't respond. The RX was powered up and seemed to think it was bound to my TX, but the motors did nothing. I still haven't taken it apart to find out why (need to appease the wife, so no bot stuff for a bit).
edit: gah! it was a tiny bit of frayed wire shorting the RX outputs. oh well - at least it works now!
edit 2: I had another look this morning, and my wiring was truly abysmal! The perils of rushing soldering at 2am. Don't do it, kids!
Fermented Melon
The melonbot finally makes an appearance!
After doing the shell, I spent most of the time trying to get everything to fit inside it. I always worry about DasMikros losing pads, so I don't like resoldering them, hence there was much silliness with veroboard. I need to rethink it, tho - veroboard is not the answer! It barely fitted, but I think I can do it better if I reduce the wiring. There's surely no need for so much of the stuff!
The bot was driving well enough on Thursday.. all the controls were mixed up, but I knew I could fix that in the TX. It still needed an axe, tho. I'd wanted to use a nail, with the thinking that it might concentrate the energy on a point, but I hadn't thought of a way of actually attaching a nail to an arm. Then, by chance, I noticed that my Stanley blades had holes in them. 2mm holes! That'll do nicely, fanx!
It weighed summat like 114g with the axe bits, so I decided to add an extra layer of polycarb on the top. I already had it cut out, and it allowed an easy way of attaching the melon decoration, so it seemed like a good idea. I made the axe and attached the polycarb (my son did the pips of the watermelon), and it was ready!
Except it wasn't - the wheels no longer touched the ground!
Attaching the extra polycarb had flattened the top, which wasn't flat initially. That had made the bottom bow out instead, and the bot was now resting on bowed-out polycarb instead of wheels.
![Embarrassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
So, I took off two of the screws and it was a bit better. The tyres touched the ground, but I don't think they were in full contact. I had no time left, so it'd have to do. oh, and removing the screws meant the extra polycarb layer was up in the air. omnomnom!
I had a bit of time to try and fix Fermented Melon's controls, but not quite enough. Fortunately, I'd found that if I turned the controller on its side, everything was in the right direction. Except the axe.
First battle, versus.. um.. I'm sorry, but I've totally forgotten the name of the bot!
![Embarrassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
It was a nice looking one, tho. Sleek-looking! I had no plan other than aim at him and get stabby with the axe! Naturally, he got under me and rammed me into the wall, and I fumbled the axe to try and lever myself out. Unfortunately, the axe doesn't go backwards thanks to some battery-protecting armour, and I also got my directions mixed up.
Then, someone started counting us out! I wasn't certain who was being counted out, as I'd been stuck longer than he'd been still (he might've been making sure I didn't escape), so I didn't stop trying to lever myself out. In the end, it seemed that my opponent had gotten stuck, or stopped working. Victory!
Now that I knew I had some time, I fiddled with the TX settings, and got everything moving the way they're supposed to. My next battle was against Vanguard, which is one of my favourite bots (such a cool design!), and I knew I was gonna lose. I don't think I even managed to put up much of a fight before I ended up in the pit.
My third battle was against.. er.. that long-named bot that looks like a D2. I don't think anyone was in doubt about who would win. To the pit with me!
And that was that! I managed to stay to the end, despite my son going into orbiting mode (apologies to anyone who he bumped into), so I actually got to see most of the fights. It was nice sort-of meeting everyone (I'm not great at socialising, so hardly spoke to anyone) The obvious favourite bot was Lasagne, just for it's ludicrousness. GeorgeR's gyrobot comes a close second - I hope someone makes that at a larger scale!
I hope my zip ties helped those who borrowed them achieve great victory. I'll be back with revised bots for the next AWS. 3 weeks to go, and my wife's put her foot down on bot tinkering time. It's not looking good!
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)